“Wang’s rendition of Shostakovich’s “Piano Concerto No. 1” was a dazzling and dynamic display. Wang treated the first theme of the opening movement (Allegro moderato) with delicacy and reflection, capturing its pensive, ambivalent mood. She likewise executed the festive second-theme with an obligatory alacrity… Each note’s timing, waxing and waning with masterful rubato, imbued the musical texture with a clear but unobtrusive waltz-like quality.” The Harvard Crimson
Category Archives: Press
The Wall Street Journal If you’re going to write a piano concerto for the audaciously gifted Chinese-born superstar Yuja Wang, then why not make it a humdinger? That’s certainly the approach that the Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg took in composing his Piano Concerto No. 3, a 35-minute work of formidable technical challenges and winning musical ideas written expressly for Ms. Wang and given its premiere by the San Francisco Symphony led by Esa-Pekka Salonen …
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Datebook – San Francisco Chronicle If you’re a composer writing a piano concerto for the extraordinary soloist Yuja Wang, you end up reckoning with the unearthly fact that she can do anything and everything at the keyboard. It doesn’t matter how many notes or chords you throw at her, or how rapidly you string them together — Wang is going to flash her unworried smile, tear through the score with effortless ease, and then sit …
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Shostakovich with Yuja Wang and the BSO
2 years ago |
WCRB Andris Nelsons leads the BSO in Haydn’s 100th Symphony, and electrifying soloist Yuja Wang takes the stage at Symphony Hall for not one, but both of Shostakovich’s piano concertos. Andris Nelsons, conductor Yuja Wang, piano Thomas Rolfs, trumpet Julia ADOLPHE Makeshift Castle…
“Instinktiv überzeugen sie von der Auffassung der Stücke, verbunden durch ein fast telepathisches Band und kommunizieren in solcher Eintracht, als hätten sie die gleichen Wurzeln… Das international-asiatische Trio versäumte keine Gelegenheit alle Merkmale von Brahms’ Identität einzufangen. Es fand zu einem nachdenklich-entrückten Gespräch zueinander. Man sollte es ruhig und gesammelt anhören.” Volksblatt
“The centrepiece of Klaus Mäkelä’s extraordinary Prom with the Oslo Philharmonic was a performance of Liszt’s First Piano Concerto with Yuja Wang as soloist: a breathtaking account of the work, virtuosic on every level, both pianistic and orchestral. Since its first performance in 1855 it has been fashionable to decry the piece as overly flamboyant, though Wang and Mäkelä revealed just how much depth there is to it, and what …
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“Denn sie ist einerseits ein echtes Unterhaltungstalent, reißt das Publikum mit, auch dann, wenn es die Musik oder musikalische Darbietung für sich genommen nicht vermögen. Wenn die “Ungarische Melodie” von Franz Schubert ein wenig im Metrum verrutscht und sehr zaghaft kommt, wenn die Leidenschaft für das sogenannte “Zigeuner-Moll”, einer Variante der Moll-Tonleiter, gänzlich fehlt. Aber, und das zeichnet Wang dann doch als großartige Pianistin aus, sie kann auch mit Stücken …
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“Liszt’s E-flat Major Piano Concerto has been one of Yuja Wang’s warhorses for some time. Liszt linked the three movements essentially into a single large arc, with musical ideas returning at different tempos and levels of complexity. It is a work that constantly moves between thunderous dynamics and gentle lyricism, between rapid flowing fingerwork and percussive chords, between focus on the soloist and colors in the orchestra. It was once …
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SFCM: Yuja Wang on Practicing, Performing, and Sushi
3 years ago |
SFCM Pianist Yuja Wang visited SFCM for a master class in April. Get to know the critically acclaimed musician and her advice for young artists. Known for her charismatic artistry and captivating stage presence, Yuja Wang is one of the…
“Etat de grâce également pour Yuja Wang, chez elle dans les passages les plus virtuoses du Premier Concerto pour piano de Rachmaninov, œuvre de jeunesse que le compositeur révisa des années plus tard, à l’aune des triomphes obtenus par le Deuxième et le Troisième. Aussi flamboyant qu’impeccablement tenu, son jeu, qui n’oublie jamais le phrasé ni la ligne mélodique, trouve un partenaire idéal en Klaus Mäkelä, soucieux d’offrir un accompagnement anguleux …
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