CLEVELAND , Ohio — Pianist Yuja Wang is a dazzler. She has a way of dressing, of taking the stage, and of bowing that bespeaks confidence and star quality. Add to those a suspenseful entrance (a few minutes overdue), apparent nonchalance at a last-minute conductor change — assistant conductor Daniel Reith in for music director Franz Welser-Möst — and an astonishing keyboard technique, and you get excitement. The audience was buzzing …
The Observer Yuja Wang might be the most famous pianist in the world at the moment; a mixture of pure talent, hard work and a taste for fashion. She has won the most prestigious awards, has played with the best orchestras around the world and has always stunned audiences with her outfit choices. Recently, she capped a three-night-long set of performances in the most typical “Yuja Wang” fashion, with her fashion at …
New York Classical Review Rachmaninoff: Piano Concertos Nos. 1-4 and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Yuja Wang with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin . How long can the Chinese pianist go on topping herself with one-of-a-kind musical events? This year it was performing all of Rachmaninoff’s music for piano and orchestra—four concertos and the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini—in one January afternoon (and evening) at Carnegie Hall. The marvel was not just Wang’s getting through it, but the vitality and insight she brought to every bar of the music. Any of these five …
“Wang debuted like a shot of espresso. She donned a sizzling bedazzled red romper and glittering Louboutin stilettos. Style and spectacle are basically Wang’s calling cards, and her outfit radiated fearlessness and ferocity. Rachmaninoff’s third piano concerto, like all concertos, unfolds in three parts. “Allegro ma non tanto,“ the first section, begins deceptively straightforward as the pianist introduces a simple diatonic melody. As the section and concerto progress, however, the …
