This month, Yuja Wang embarks on an extensive tour with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, stopping in Germany, the Netherlands, France, Luxembourg, Austria, and Switzerland. Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Music Director of the CBSO and a friend of Ms. Wang, will conduct all of the performances. During the tour, Yuja will perform Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 5, his final piano concerto, which is rarely performed, as well as Schumann’s Piano Concerto, a riveting work dripping with Romanticism.
Concert dates include May 19 at the Kölner Philharmonie; May 21 at the Het Concertgebouw; May 22 at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées; May 23 at the Philharmonie Luxembourg; May 25 at the Music in the Giant Festival; May 26 at the Tonhalle Maag; May 27 at Victoria Hall; and concluding on May 28 at the Philharmonie im Gasteig.
Ms. Wang interpreted Schumann’s Piano Concerto earlier this year with the New York Philharmonic, receiving critical praise for her “unique and exciting” rendition:
“Yuja Wang makes bold choices and commits to them. A quirk of this concerto: the soloist spends much of the solo part hovering busily around the middle register of the piano. Ms. Wang applies her skills at creating magical, elusive colors and textures. Her fingers fly around the keyboard with tickling lightness and Olympian aim. Her left hand amazes with rippling arpeggios with no accents, just a perfectly smooth string of beads.” (Cadenza)