Yuja Wang, the review

In today’s Orange County Register online, my review of pianist Yuja Wang’s recital last week is available for free.

Click here to read it.

photo: Xavier Antoinet

classical music, reviews

Chopin, piano, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Yuja Wang

October 21, 2013

5 Comments

5 comments

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April LaMon

Do you hear many people play Kapustin? I heard one of his etudes on the radio and ordered the music. Was surprised he’s Russian. Maybe that should be my next goal.

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October 21, 2013 12:20 pm
- tmangan
  
  I don’t think I’ve heard any Kapustin live before. The pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin has taken him up (and has made a recording), and I may have heard him do a Kapustin piece many years ago.
  
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  October 21, 2013 1:40 pm
MarK

That Kapustin disc by Hamelin is a knockout: the music is in a jazzy idiom throughout, but all written out rather than improvised – masterfully composed by Kapustin and brilliantly performed by Hamelin. Somehow, Canada has been doing extremely well in producing top-level pianistic talents – Gould, Hamelin, Peterson, Hewitt, Lisiecki, (Krall?), Lortie, Kimura Parker (in no particular order) – and i am sure i am forgetting a few because these are just the ones that my faulty memory allows me to recall at this moment.
Speaking of pianists, there was embarrassment of pianistic riches in our SoCal neighborhood yesterday: one could actually enjoy Yuja Wang’s versatile long recital in the afternoon in Costa Mesa and then easily make it to Andras Schiff’s mightily impressive Bach-Beethoven marathon in the evening in downtown LA. If there were such devotees who devoured both of these pianistic feasts, i wonder how they survived that high-quality pianistic double onslaught. Since i was otherwise occupied during the day, i had to unfortunately miss Yuja but certainly made sure to hear Andras. His recital was astonishingly nourishing: Goldberg 75′ + Diabelli 51′ + an encore (sounded like something by late Beethoven) of about 18′ = three full hours total including an intermission and several long ovations. Lots of great music making! By the end of the concert i was tired of listening to all that musical magnificence but he looked fresh as a daisy.

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October 21, 2013 3:09 pm
- tmangan
  
  Yuja was actually last Sunday, a week ago, MarK; I just posted my review today because it becomes free for everyone to read after 7 days.
  
  I saw that Schiff program (I didn’t hear it) and thought: “Too much for me.” I have a delicate constitution.
  
  Besides, I’ve been listening to Jeremy Denk’s new recording of the “Goldbergs” (which I think is very good), so I’ve had my fill of that for a while.
  
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  October 21, 2013 3:14 pm
MarK

Sorry, did not realize that YW was in OC a week earlier. I like Jeremy Denk’s playing but i think that Schiff’s Bach resides on a higher plateau.

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October 21, 2013 3:23 pm