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In Reply to: RE: Yuja's latest fashion statement posted by bluemooze on July 24, 2014 at 18:28:25
I assume you're responding (with a bit of sarcasm) to my post below, in which I quote some random critic found after a 2 minute google search of Yuja Wang. If you disagree, his opinion isn't a bit more valid than yours. But after listening to her playing, I knew I could find a critique like his online pretty easily. Others make a similar point, at least obliquely, though all are impressed with her charisma and virtuosity.
No matter. If she inspires you and helps you connect with the music, she's a success. Enjoy.
Follow Ups:
Wonder how many of these babes will be remembered in 20 years time?
or even 10.
Well let's put it this way. About 5 years ago or so when I discovered Yuja Wang I started a thread on the Hoffman forums titled "The next superstar in classical music Yuja Wang." Or something to that effect. A few forum members wrote her off as a flash in the pan and predicted that she would be forgotten in 4 or 5 years.
weeeeeeeell it's been 4 or 5 years. I'm thinking I was pretty much on the money with my prediction back when she was brand new and hardly known at all.
Actually, my sense is that Yuja is more in demand these days than ever. I believe she appeared with the SF Symphony no less than four separate times last year - I can't ever recall that happening with any other artist. I think she appeared multiple separate times in LA (within the same year) too. Maybe she just likes the West Coast! ;-)
Anyway, you have to ask why symphony managements in both locations keep re-engaging her so often. I think one factor is that they know she's a lock to fill all the seats in the hall every time she appears. Of course, if one still doesn't like her playing, one can always retreat to the quote from Beethoven: "They say, vox populi, vox dei - I have never believed in this" [from Ferdinand Hiller's Reminiscences]. But in that case, there could also be some underlying self-flattery at work, viz, "I can discern beyond what the common crowd does"!
Just sayin'. ;-)
She is in more demand than ever before. her management is now in the business of picking between all the offers she has. This is world wide phenomenon not just a west coast one. It doesn't hurt that MTT and Dudamel think she's the best pianist in the world but there are a lot of other music directors around the world who share that opinion so they all want to play concertos with her.
Also, bluemooze is right - the guy needs to define his terms.
But in fairness to the random writer I excerpted here, he was just writing a brief concert review, not a learned book-length treatise on piano music of the romantic era. One can go to Charles Rosen for that.
When I wrote my first post, I had never read a single Yuja Wang review. But having heard her, I knew I could find a few comments like his amongst the predictable torrent of praise.
Hey, if there was only one right way to play Chopin, that wouldn't be saying much for Chopin, right? CASG.
One shouldn't have much trouble finding reviewes that agree with their own biases. Here are e few reviews you did not mention.
"There are recitals, there are great recitals, and then there’s Yuja Wang. In an extraordinary scene Sunday in Herbst Theatre, after hearing her play the audience appeared both exhausted and elated. My hands hurt not merely from applauding, but also from an apparent case of couvade syndrome (men’s sympathy pain at childbirth) on listening to two hours of devilishly difficult Scriabin and Prokofiev played with ease and clarity.
It was a relief to hear emphatic agreement from a fellow admirer of Martha Argerich (who gave Yuja a huge
[Armed for anything]
Armed for anything
boost at the beginning of the Chinese teenager's career) that Yuja's full tone in her right-hand melodic material is now really close to that of the Maestra herself.
Argerich and even Horowitz come to mind witnessing Yuja lighting-fast and yet effortless passage work. Her smooth, almost imperceptible change of dynamics within a measure, and the freedom of the left hand in treating melodies are stupefying
Said the fellow Argerich (and now Yuja) fan: "I normally stay away from piano concerts because the majority play everything as if every note should have the same level of intensity. I don't know why that's trained into so many pianists. Yuja is very different: her shaded dynamic readings are wonderful."
So, what did she do after the ovation following her program? She sat down and gave a couple of encores: Chopin (Waltz in C-sharp Minor) and Scarlatti (Sonata in G Major, K. 455), both played exquisitely. It was truly a concert to treasure."
"The arrival of Chinese-born pianist Yuja Wang on the musical scene is an exhilarating and unnerving development. To listen to her in action is to re-examine whatever assumptions you may have had about how well the piano can actually be played.
There are virtuosos who can get around the keyboard with comparable speed and accuracy, but they don’t achieve the kind of rhythmic ease and communicative grace that Wang does. There are pianists who can probe as deeply, or even more so, into the structural mysteries of the great piano masterpieces, but their fingers don’t relay those findings as reliably as Wang’s can."
And we have things like Gary Graffman calling her an artist that comes around once in a hundred years. And we can look to Michael Tilson Thomas, Charles Dutoit, Zubin Mehta, Gustavo Dudamel, Claudio Abbado and most recently Esa Pekka Salonen as huge fans of Yuja Wang.
But apparently none of those folks seem to know all that much about the "presence of finesse and architecture"....I guess.
Look, preferences in classical music are quite personal and there is nothing wrong with liking what you like and not liking what you don't like. But let's keep it real. She knows what she's doing. She doesn't lack any fundamental understanding of musical structure.
You can always find a wide range of opinions. That's what's great about music, and art in general. And nobody has the right to tell you yours is wrong.
Or mine. ;-)
I found music reviews even more diverse.
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