“Yuja Wang’s recital Sunday afternoon in Orchestra Hall… [was] a guided tour through several historical epochs, each benefiting from Wang’s distinct perspective – plus, of course, her wizardly technique. The concert’s high point, not surprisingly, came with Scriabin’s Sonata No. 5 in F-sharp Major, Op. 53, a treacherously difficult work even a pianist of Wang’s keyboard acuity and self-composure was wise to save for the end. Beyond its monstrous technical …
“Chopin’s Introduction et Polonaise Brillante initially found Wang taking an accompanying role, but ended with a dazzling display from her – of course Chopin couldn’t keep the piano in the background for long. Nothing seemed to faze Wang, either here or in Chopin’s later Cello Sonata” The Guardian
Bachtrack Gautier Capuçon and Yuja Wang are two of the busiest performers on the circuit today, according to Bachtrack’s latest annual statistics. And as a pairing, this exhilarating duo was always likely to produce fireworks, although their programme of mature Chopin and Franck also showed much depth and reflection, something Capuçon and Wang were clearly keen to explore. Their flourishing musical collaboration bore considerable fruit in these works, both players mixing …
“Adams wrote the single-movement work for Yuja Wang , who was the dashing soloist here, too, her faultless fingers dealing effortlessly with a solo part that hardly gives her a moment’s rest. As the title suggests, it’s a Totentanz of sorts, though that diabolical element seems to get more diluted as the work goes on. The opening section is driven along effectively enough on an uneasy, asymmetrical division of its 9/8 metre, with the …
“Nothing about Wang’s performance was understated, from the spiky but not overly aggressive sound that seemed to leap out of the piano to her dressed-to-slay getup… She relaxed into the second movement’s plainspoken waltz, adding a Debussy-esque watercolor wash to some passagework. But the big and bold was never far away, and the grandest fireworks show came at the end with Shostakovich at his most prankish; she stormed through the …
