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Yuja Wang's Carnegie Hall Debut Recital

YUJA WANG, the orange minidress pianist who stirred a turbulence in the conservative classical musicians' world has eventually reached the stage of the Carnegie Hall. My excitement for this recital has made my dreadful weeks passed-by very delightfully.

The tiers and ground hall were very much crowded and the anticipating audiences were very respectful of her appearance. They hold their cough (as well as breath I believe) while she performed and relieved the itches in between the movements, in between pieces- as my students and I did.

Scriabin Preludes in B Major, B Minor, G # Minor, Etude in G# Minor, and Poeme in F # Major

Her Scriabin were all very breathtaking. Scriabin's musical style has so many scattered motifs and lyrical. It is so hard to interpret his music. Yuja performed them with great ease and assurance. I especially like the last one (Poeme in F # Major, op. 32, No. 1). Very natural. Very lyrical. The phrasing was so delicate. She managed to phrase different layers of sounds at different levels that were going on at the same time. What is the word to describe this? Poetic. Em, Natural. Em, lyrical, breathtaking! These pieces by Scriabin exposed the other side of bravura Wang. She could be touchy feel-y dreamy when she needs to.

Prokofiev Sonata No. 6 in A Major, Op 82

Her Prokofiev was very amazing. The phrases, the big sounds, the atmosphere she created with the tone combinations. She did not push the tempo like other crazily speed-obsessed pianists in this one. Instead, she focused on crafting the piece out with a strategic structure and tone colors. I.e, there are build up to climax, climax, contrasting to intensity, etc. And yes, you can do tone colors in Prokofiev's No 6 Sonata. Yuja just showed us. But still tone colors is Yundi Li's Game. Yuja's strengths are big sound, power and speed. Being a very skillful pianist, sometimes I feel that she went to the next thing too soon. She could build the anticipation towards certain surprises in the piece by giving it a couple milliseconds wait, lingering the audiences' ears towards the next musical motif.

Liszt Sonata in B Minor

After the intermission, Yuja returned to stage with a more gothic gown. It is a brilliant choice for Liszt's B Minor Sonata. As we all know Liszt had a thing for composing devilish, dark, scary music. Sonata in B Minor is one of them. And this is my favorite out of the whole program. The recurring, cyclic theme can get stuck in anyone's mind so easily. Of course, as usual, in Liszt's pieces, a pianist would need to exploit all the pianistic techniques that s/he has learnt. But more than usual, Yuja's speedy rotations all over places, making very (really) scary sounds as the piece demands. She managed certain parts with eerie tone combinations that Liszt would want. That reminds me of Halloween approaching. (Of course I knew that.) In my opinion, she has more tone colors in this 30 min long sonata. It is very enjoyable and refreshing to listen to her unique interpretations. However, she seemed to have a little problem making big sounds on higher range of the piano. Maybe she was injured? I read that she had to cancel some performance plans due to injury recently. It must be her right hand. Towards the end, she concluded the excitements and intensities with short peaceful phrases and then -silence.

Her encores.

Due to the enduring applaud, she had to give as many as 4 encores. Of course being her big fan, I had already heard all of her encores from Youtube. So, they were no surprises to me. However, these pieces were very appealing to my students as they are all flashy, exciting, and easier to grasp.

I did realized that she seemed to have just recovered from arm injuries as she couldn't make certain big sounds that she usually did. But the standard of the performances is perfected to highly professional level as Yuja is always very sure of herself. She is very sure of what kind of sound she wanted, where she is going in the music, how she make the sounds, etc. She must have gone through a great discipline to reach these accomplishments at her young age. She has become the inspiration of my students who went to the recital with me tonight. I bet they are so pumped up to practice right when they hit homes.

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The Swan Lake

The most beautiful music in the world. (OMG)Breathtaking...

Love the violin part here..

If you try to tackle a complicated problem without a systematic approach, you are creating a more chaotic situation.

Same as learning a new piece. If you try to tackle the new material without a systematic approach, you are creating a mess for yourself in performance.

Systematic. Boring. But Secure. Of course, got every little details covered.

"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music."

-Sergei Rachmaninoff

"Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art."

Frederic Chopin

Music of the Day- The Tickling Clock

Feel the impulse of the march like tempo. Steady but exciting. Please note, Gould didn't play it fast. He played it steadily, but with very strict tempo. But it sounds so exciting and energizing.

Sometimes, being frantically fast does not bring excitement. :-) It is being grounded and metronome like rhythm that makes Beethoven's sonata rocks. I think this is the most perfect version of the seemingly simple and cyclic movement of Beethoven's sonata No 13 in E Flat Major. Tempo marking is Allegro. To me it is an Allegro Marcato.

Quote of the Day

"There is so much talk about music, and so little is really said. I do not think words are at all adequate for the subject, and if I found they were, I should end by writing no more music."

Felix Mendelssohn

Music of The Day

Glenn Gould - Bach French Suite No. 5 in G Major, BWV 816

Glenn Gould's performance of Bach French Suite No. 5 made me experience something nostalgia while listening to it. Embrace the major mode of the compositions and the seamlessly graceful ornaments that brightens up this rainy Sunday.

Music of the Day - The Winter Breeze

Chopin Etudes op. 25-11 is also nicknamed Winter Breeze.

Perahia is a very mature interpreter of many composers' works. I particularly like his performance of Chopin Etudes. I picked this out of the many etudes he recorded because I know it is hot out there. Let this "winter breeze" performed by Murray Perahia cools off the heat :). Enjoy!

Now you can download his recordings of all Chopin etudes here

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The best way to build stamina is start learning a piece SLOWLY. You learn better when you mind and eyes are faster than your hands.

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Domenico Scarlatti

Embrace the spirit of spanish guitar on the forte piano!



Frédéric Chopin, as a piano teacher, notably wrote:
"Those of my dear colleagues who teach the piano are unhappy that I make my own pupils work on Scarlatti. But I am surprised that they are so blinkered. His music contains finger-exercises aplenty and more than a touch of the most elevated spirituality. Sometimes he is even a match for Mozart. If I were not afraid of incurring the disapprobation of numerous fools, I would play Scarlatti at my concerts. I maintain that the day will come when Scarlatti's music will often be played at concerts and that audiences will appreciate and enjoy it".

Quoted in the liner notes to Domenico Scarlatti, Sonatas, Anne Queffélec (piano). Apex CD 0927 44353 2 (2002).

Scarlatti is contemporary of Bach and Handel. He was born in Naples, Kingdom of Naples in 1685. Although he was born in Italy, he spent most of his lifetime under the service of Portuguese and Spanish royal families.

In his lifetime, he composed 555 keyboard sonatas. They are in single movement and mostly in binary form. Most of the sonatas are written for harpsichords and earliest pianofortes. (4 of them are for organ and some for group ensembles) As he spent most of his life time working for Portugese and Spanish royal families, his compositions display Iberian influence (Spanish and Portugese folk songs). At that time it was considered unconventional to have modulations to "exotic" keys and daring use of discords.

Source: wikipedia

Obviously if you listen to a lot of spanish music you will find that the Iberian flavor in Scarlatti's works comes from the guitar. Just like Chopin, I found that spanish guitar is very uplifting. A "sad" or "depressed" chord sounds so uplifting because of the "flamenco rhythm".

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Music of the Day

The piano part is so sexy with the zest of the cello. Does anyone recognize some of the motifs? Interesting~! :-) I love the decisive strum on the different instruments respectively.

Tango Pathetique, Argerich, Kremer & Maisky

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Quote

“The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.”

B. B. King

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Quote

“Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they're supposed to help you discover who you are.”
Bernice Johnson Reagon

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Music of the Day

Try a piece of graceful music after a sassy Shostakvich Trio piece as a "dessert" :-)

Debussy Piano Trio in G Major Finale: Apassionato.
Performing are members of the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society

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Music of the Day

My favorite piece. So fun to listen to. It sent a chill down my spine.

Shostakovich Trio No.2 Mv.4 performed by my favorite musicians Argerich, Kremer & Maisky

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Music of the Day

Gustav Mahler
Symphony No. 4 in G major

3rd Movement
Ruhevoll, poco adagio

performed by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (Wiener Philharmoniker)

conducted by Leonard Bernstein


1/3


2/3


3/3

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MUsic of the Day

Gustav Mahler - Adagietto from Symphony no. 5

Very relaxing movement. If you listening carefully, you'll hear a beautiful story whispered behind the beautiful melody lines...

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Music of the Day

Franck: Cello Sonata in A Major: IV: Allegretto poco mosso; David Finckel, Wu Han

Engaging and dramatic. A romantic vibe from Franck. Enjoy.

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