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| | Sonatas & Etudes | | | Music Artist : | | Yuja Wang | | Music Style : | | General | | Record Label : | | Deutsche Grammophon | | Release Date : | | 2009-04-07 | | Store Price : | | $14.98 | | Artistopia's Price: $14.98 | | Usually ships in 24 hours | | |
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CD Tracks/Songs
Disc 11. Chopin Sonata no. 2: Grave - Doppio movimento
2. Chopin Sonata no. 2: Scherzo
3. Chopin Sonata no. 2: Marche fun?bre: Lento
4. Chopin Sonata no. 2: Finale: Presto
5. Ligeti : Etude 4: Fanfares
6. Scriabin Sonata no. 2: Andante
7. Scriabin Sonata no. 2: Presto
8. Ligeti : Etude 10: The Sorcerer's Apprentice
9. Liszt Sonata in B minor: Lento assai - Allegro energico - Grandioso - Recitativo
10. Liszt Sonata in B minor: Andante sostenuto
11. Liszt Sonata in B minor: Allegro energico - Andante sostenuto - Lento assai
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Other Artist Albums
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Customer Reviews of This Album/CD |
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 Young pianist with dazzling technique
Submitted on: 2009-11-07 |
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| Wang Yuja is technically brilliant and musically sound. The only complaint I have about this CD is when she played too fast for the first movement of Chopin sonata No. 2 and as a result, less than perfect coordination between the two hands can be heard sometimes. Nevertheless, I think she had done quite well for this recording. |
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 (-) Third Time's the Charm for the Yellow Label's Chinese Ventures?
Submitted on: 2009-10-25 |
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DG has been a pioneer in recruiting and promoting emerging Chinese pianists. It started with Yundi Li in 2001, followed by Lang Lang in 2003. The former presumably was a rather limited success commercially, as he was recently dropped, whereas the latter is continuing to earn good revenues for the Yellow Label. However, both of them have always struggled musically--Li by sounding a bit like a second-rate digital copy machine ('Made in China') and Lang by constantly distorting his interpretations with perverse idiosyncrasies.
Therefore, I approached this debut recital of DG's third Chinese piano star with considerable anticipation--not least after having seen Miss Wang's auspicious account of the inhuman Prokofiev Second Concerto Cadenza on YouTube, which puts that of Yundi Li to shame emphatically. Fortunately, my expectations were largely met this time around.
Wang's Second Chopin Sonata is quite good indeed--especially the two outer movements, where her impressively secure technique is coupled with real impetuous and sufficiently natural-sounding rubato. However, the Scherzo and Funeral March do sound somewhat cheesy to quote fellow reviewer, 'villegem'--the middle 'Trio' sections, respectively, and above all the reprise of the march, where the bass quint-chords are taken an octave lower (à la Horowitz).
The auspiciousness of Wang's playing delivers in spades in the gorgeous Second Scriabin Sonata and even more so in the two Ligeti Etudes. Her Scriabin is flexibly romantic without becoming tawdry; her Ligeti is effortlessly brilliant with a reptilian articulation to make lesser pianists green with envy.
Then we are only left with the immense Liszt Sonata, and this is where Wang's relative immaturity shows. She has no problems with the notes per se, but her ability to hold together the massive 30-minute structure has yet to be perfected. In fact, her account to some extent sounds reminiscent of Li's 2003 debut sequel, if considerably more elastic and musical. In spite of excellent Friedrich-Ebert-Halle sound, it calls for a tiny minus to be added to what is otherwise an outright four-star debut disc.
In order not to emulate the ridiculed Norwegian Nobel Committee by awarding potential future achievements, the ****(-) more than enough does confirm that Yuja Wang has indeed all the necessary characteristics to be 'third time's the charm' for the Yellow Label's Chinese ventures. She just received the Gramophone Young Artist of the Year award the other week.
REFERENCES: Chopin--Argerich; Scriabin--Sudbin; Liszt--Demidenko; Ligeti--Aimard |
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 My breakfast with Yuja
Submitted on: 2009-08-06 |
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Back in 2001 we were invited to a home masterclass given by Anton Kuerti, the Canadian pianist. He was hosted by a couple of pianists, H. K. C. and his wife, piano teacher at Mount Royal College in Calgary. The breakfast was supposed to provide her young students the relaxed experience of a one to one with the great man.
After Kuerti inflicted subtle damage to the home Steinway with his own tuning wrench and having confused a couple of OK students, came the turn of Yuja Wang. She had her fingers protected in cute little mittens and was honing a certain confident attitude, amusing for a 13 y old, but that obviously did not go that well with the old man. She started Chopin Sonata No. 2 first movement and after a while was stopped by Kuerti. He then went on to demonstrate his own inability to pedal and to our astonishment pontificated "that Chopin pedaling should not be trusted". Yuja then tried to follow the precious advice and emulate the fossil for a while until he was satisfied that he had her playing level regressed to his.
Then she asked if she could play a Ginastera piece and blasted away with great playing to the audience delight and to the master bittersweet smile. As we left we told her to trust Chopin 's writing rather than an old envious man...
Well: fastforward, she is now at 22, a star, DG recording artist, the perfect package, Chinese, cute and playing fearlessly the piano. Yet this doesn't guarantee her work is a reference. In the video of her Verbier 2009 recital, her high hand position brings a detached, quite cold sound that connects with the keyboard but fails to bring warmth and colors by connecting deeper to the strings. Therefore the repeats of the Chopin second sonata were quite monodimensional, lacking an array of colors. Her legato suffers from this and she tries to compensate by altering tempi and theses carefully crafted effects fall flat: there is little meaning underlying the effects.
She is very musical and talented, sometimes a bit cheesy but never down to the vulgarity of a Lang Lang; yet not much is truly said. So let's hope she'll acquire more colors and content will match the looks in future endeavors. For the moment, 3 stars is as far as I'll go.
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Not another Argerich; hopefully a female version of S. Richter
Submitted on: 2009-06-22 |
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Apart from some immaturity in interpretation, Wang Yujia (Yuja) possesses almost all the good auspices of a great performance career on the pianoforte.
I am particularly impressed by her Liszt B minor Sonata, recorded by numerous top pianists including Martha Argerich, Maurizio Pollini, Krystian Zimerman, et al, and in particular, by Yuja's own compatriot Yundi Li, also on DG not too long ago.
Yuja's B minor Sonata, if not outright comparable to Argerich, Pollini or Zimerman's, comes really close. Her technical prowess is unquestionable, some thing that even Lang Lang would not surpass. But Yuja is no Lang Lang. She is much better balanced, far more musical in the conventional (and 'normal')sense than her 'illustrious' compatriot. Her playing in the most technically demanding passages, with her balance and control, are in fact reminisicent of Sviatoslav Richter.
With such a sound groundwork in store, the only thing left is for her to nurture her musicality in the proper and industrious manner required of a top-notch concert pianist.
Fingers fully crossed on the future development of this young artist who isn't yet a star. |
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Perahps the marvelous Yuja Wang will become truly great
Submitted on: 2009-06-20 |
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I heard Yuja Wang in Santa Fe three summers ago when she and her teacher at Curtis, Gary Graffman, gave a joint recital. Her technique was astounding, and it immediately became clear that she would be the next Chinese phnom. DG's cover photo makes her look like a minx, but that kind of cheapness is standard nowadays. The real question, as with all the emerging virtuosos from China, is whether she can assimilate the complex performing traditions of Western classical music. already she possesses fire and temperament that grab an audience's attention.
Yundi Li and Lang Lang, two other stars in DG's hugely profitable Chinese stable, struggle with the issue of style, and I admire their integrity in pursuing musical depth when their fans demand only flash. I've heard them in Liszt and Chopin, where both pianists shine, partly because Chopin interpretation has always been highly personal and Liszt is congenial to pure barnstorming. Ms. Wang is as sensitive as her senior compatriots. Her phrasing of lyrical lines is pleasing but sometimes wayward. Rhythms go here and there at whim in the first movement of the Chopin.
Her technique has a lot of the volatility we associate with Martha Argerich -- either one can lapse into banging when they get excited -- and Wang doesn't indulge in vulgarity. (Is she making a statement by recording the same two works by Chopin and Liszt that launched Argerich on DG before she turned twenty?) Another piece of good news is that the Funeral March itself comes across as alive and interesting, no mean feat in music numbed by repetition. The two Ligeti Etudes are pure joy, played cleanly and with utmost musicality. These are major works that more of us should be relishing. Wang's staccato finger work in the Etude no. 10 "Der Zauberlehring" is breathtaking.
I rarely listen to Scriabin and so can make few valid comments. Wang seems perfectly adapted to the composer's shadows and moods, and of course his technical demands are as nothing for her. The Debussian first movement casts a beguiling spell. With the Liszt B minor I was on more solid ground. With Horowitz, Zimerman, and Pollini looming over her -- just to mention three of my favorites -- what does Wang have to add? Happily, she approaches the music seriously, with a grave, lyrical opening, and when the first knuckle-crunching passages appear, she remains poised and assured.
So assured, in fact, that I suddenly found myself raising my estimation another level. Wang has fully conquered this thrice-familiar work. Her phrasing, evenness of tone, natural transitions, and visceral power are comparable to Argerich at this age. I am never completely happy when Argerich becomes reckless and begins to bang. Wang avoids both pitfalls while still keeping dramatic tension alive at every point.
Here are gifts that cannot be taught, only nurtured. I have no doubt, on the strength of the Liszt sonata, that we are witnessing the debut of a pianist who might one day join the great ones. She's astonishing already. |
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