a r t i s t : Chopin-Scriabin-Liszt-Ligeti (Yuja Wang)
t i t l e : Sonatas & Etudes
d a t e : 2009
l a b e l : Deutsche Grammophon
c a t : 4778140
s o u r c e : CDDA
g e n r e : Classical
r l s. d a t e : Nov/2009
t r a c k s : 11
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 85,8 MB
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Twenty-one year old Beijing-born Yuja Wang, who appeared in
recital recently at the Music Academy of the West in Santa
Barbara, California, is almost certain to become one of the
foremost pianists of her generation; in less than a year she
has taken the music world by storm, wowing audiences in major
concerts with conductors of the stature of Charles Dutoit and
Michael Tilson-Thomas . . . the young pianist gave us a
superlative performance of Chopin┐s Piano Sonata No. 2 and an
even better one of Stravinsky┐s Petrushka . . . Wang┐s
playing here was not just powerful and focused -- it was
explosive! She has that rare quality of being able to raise
climaxes to the highest level of excitement in the heat of
the moment -- the mark of a true virtuoso. Yuja Wang┐s
technique is remarkable, but her force of personality is a
wonder too. The first movement of the Chopin was magnificent,
and in the middle section of the scherzo she found repose . .
. In the funeral march she carefully prepared the climaxes
and did not overdo them -- a very good sign for her ongoing
development as an artist.
Technique, Rhythm, Passion, Personality -- the Complete
Package! Without a doubt, the Stravinsky was the highlight of
the concert. This music is one of the most challenging pieces
in the repertoire, even for pianists with excellent
technique. It never lets up, and Stravinsky has inserted in
the score all manner of unusual rhythmic and melodic
figurations. Wang played without any apparent technical
problems whatsoever. Her rhythms were dead-on crisp and
accurate, and she brought out all the color and exuberance
the score demands . . . Her first album on the label (DG
B0012534-02) was released last week, and was on sale at the
concert; those listeners who bought it will not be
disappointed.
Concert Review / Paul E. Robinson, La Scena Musicale
(MontrΘal) / 17. April 2009
. . . Ms Wang pulls them together by providing flawless work
on the keyboard . . . [Chopin]: The piece flies across the
keyboard bringing the piano sonata to a breathless close . .
. [Ligeti]: The rapid figures and flow along the keyboard is
a perfect match and Yuja Wang plays both flawlessly.
[Scriabin]: Ms Wang allowing her emotion to drift over the
keys in a very romantic style . . . Like the Presto of
Chopin┐s piano sonata and Ligeti┐s Etude, the Presto of
Scriabin┐s piano sonata has a rapid series of flowing notes
Ms Wang seems to effortlessly caress the music from the
piano. Each note meticulously performed and yet so fluently
fit into to the flow, the piano seems to float through the
piece . . . Not only can she handle the flow up and down the
keyboard, but her fingers maintain the same authority when
needing to rapidly strike the same note. This track left me
near breathless, unable to exhale until it was finished --
sheer magic . . . in Liszt┐s piano sonata Ms Wang exceeds all
expectations. The shift between the dramatic to the soft and
pensive is handled beautifully. There is no lack of emotion
from either end of the spectrum . . . when you get a chance
to hear the precision performance of someone like Yuja Wang,
her perfection is taken to a new level. She is only
twenty-two years old, making her debut CD all the more
incredible. Helmut Burk did an outstanding job as the
Recording Engineer to allow us a chance to hear every note
from the most subtle, to the demanding aggressive passages
pounded on the keyboard . . . Yuja Wang's debut CD, Sonatas &
Etudes is all that and more, because you can revel in her
ability over and over again. The more you listen to it the
more wonderful pieces become stunning, and amazing pieces
become breath-taking. Yuja Wang is young, and typically we
could expect her to improve in the years to come. I am not
sure how that┐s possible.
Record Review / Chip Michael, Interchanging Idioms (Blog) /
31. March 2009
This may be the most eagerly anticipated debut album by a
classical pianist in a generation. Yuja Wang, a 22-year-old
from China by way of Philadelphia┐s Curtis Institute of
Music, has been stunning audiences and driving critics to
their thesauruses since she was 14 . . . Wang produces a
74-minute detonation of dazzling finger work, brilliant
sprints across the keyboard undergirded by seismic bass
lines. Her energy, power and stamina are awesome; so is her
firm grasp of music that could easily spin out of control,
especially at the speedy tempos she takes.
But this is more than a collection of finger-busters . . .
this music is poetry -- free verse in sound. Wang gets that,
too, phrasing lyrically and airing out phrases with silences
in which the imagination has room to play.
Record Review / Clarke Bustard, Style Weekly (Richmond) / 08.
April 2009
The Scriabin and Ligeti selections stand out. Wang grasps the
full measure of Scriabin's over-the-top rhetoric and lush
textures, and flawlessly aligns Ligeti's chattering
asymmetrical patterns so that each color, each balance, and
each accent occurs precisely as the pianist wishes . . . Wang
obviously is a thinking virtuoso with tremendous potential,
and I look forward to hearing more of her work.
Record Review / Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com / 10. April
2009
Gyorgy Ligeti's fleet study runs continuous melodic
interference on an obsessive scalar pattern, eventually
bringing it to earth. Yuja Wang, a young Calgary pianist,
uses the piece as an interlude between meaty sonatas by
Chopin, Liszt, Scriabin, on her impressive debut for Deutsche
Grammophon.
Record Review / Robert Everett-Green, Globe and Mail / 14.
April 2009
. . . Chinese pianist Yuja Wang should win a prize for an
intelligent and eclectic CD recital program . . . It is a
real accomplishment to interpret the eight and one-half
minute piece for its original beauty rather than parody.
Gyorgy Ligeti's short "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" is a
delightful discovery, as is Ligeti's spritely Etude 4:
Fanfares. But Wang shows her mettle most in three sections of
the notoriously mindbending Franz Liszt Sonata in b minor.
She sounds like she has five hands at times. Wang has all of
the technique in the world and oozes mature and intense
interpretations. She tours often and actually broke into the
concert scene mainly by filling in for ailing pianists,
winning acclaim the originally scheduled pianists would envy.
Wang is big time now. And she's only 22.
Record Review / David Hendricks, San Antonio Express-News /
15. April 2009
Music lovers attuned to the extraordinary rise of the young
Chinese-born pianist Yuja Wang -- which includes many of us
in the Bay Area, where she's made a number of stunning
concert appearances -- have been waiting expectantly for her
debut recording. It arrives this week, and it fully lives up
to her remarkable promise. The repertoire is mostly
conventional, with only a pair of Ligeti etudes to punctuate
sonatas by Chopin, Scriabin and Liszt, yet the execution is
anything but. Wang's playing combines a dazzling level of
technical virtuosity with emotional and melodic grace, so
that Chopin's Sonata No. 2 emerges as both a showpiece and an
utterance of Romantic fervor. The Liszt Sonata is the high
point, in a reading that fuses blistering passagework with an
expressive urgency that is almost embarrassingly heartfelt.
Wang also includes two of the hardest Ligeti Etudes
(including the superhuman "Sorcerer's Apprentice") and knocks
them off with casual precision.
Record Review / Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle / 19.
April 2009
The programming of this disc is inspired, as is . . . the
playing of young Chinese pianist Yuja Wang . . . [Chopin]:
Wang is intensely dramatic, shifting and bending . . . Her
pianism is staggering, and she uses her technique to project
the trajectory of the music inexorably onwards in all four
movements. The Scherzo is relentless, so much so that Wang
does not have to over-relax and distort the Trio to provide
the necessary contrast. And yet she can imbue moments of the
third movement with a tenderness . . . Wang gives one of the
most volatile of readings, the music threatening to explode
at any second . . . [Scriabin]: Wang's reading is perfumed
without losing direction . . .[Ligeti]: Wang uses clearly
distinguishable touches for the two units, laying the piece's
modus operandi bare. The 'Scorcere's Apprentice' Etude is
again technically assured . . . [Liszt]: Wang's way with the
composer's massive edifice confirms the huge scope of her
imagination. Her reading, while not shying away for a moment
from the technical challenges, evokes whole worlds, with the
reflective sections clearly seeming to prefigure Scriabin . .
. Wang's exquisite tone in the quiet, higher-lying passages
is certainly compensatory, and her full-toned way with block
chords is remarkable.
Record Review / Colin Clarke, International Piano (London) /
01. May 2009
. . . a weighty program that showcases both her muscular
technique and her poetic gifts. She brings the requisite
excitement to the opening of Chopin┐s tumultuous Piano Sonata
No. 2 in B flat minor and imbues the ensuing Scherzo with
wistful longing. The chordal progressions unfold with stately
grandeur in the Funeral March . . . Ms. Wang plays the
Scriabin with improvisatory flair and brooding passion. Also
included here is a powerful performance of Liszt┐s mighty B
minor, in which Ms. Wang combines impressive virtuosity with
a singing touch . . . That last performance is especially
dazzling, the multiple voices emerging with crystalline
clarity over shimmering torrents of notes.
Record Review / Vivien Schweitzer, The New York Times / 26.
July 2009
A young Chinese pianist makes Chopin shine . . . The
highlight is a passionate performance of Chopin's Piano
Sonata No.2 . . .
Record Review / Classic FM (London) / 04. August 2009
d is the winner of several important competitions.
This recording is clearly about de la Salle, not the music û
it is more about how she plays the three concertos rather
than the three concertos themselves. And how does she do?
Quite well. She has a formidable technique, a fine sense for
the style of each of the three composers here, and an
artistic maturity that reaches well beyond her twenty years.
The Shostakovich First is not quite in the class of the other
two works here. Not that the Liszt and Prokofieff First
Concertos are among their respective composers greatest
works: it's just that both are well-crafted and pianistically
dynamic, with the Liszt a concert staple and the Prokofieff
hovering at the fringes of the standard repertory. Still, the
Shostakovich has charm, despite the strange bedfellows of
trumpet and piano. De la Salle's reading is sprightly and
nuanced, catching the mixture of humor and half-serious
darkness. Trumpeter Gabor Baldocki plays well throughout and
Maestro Foster draws fine playing from the orchestra.
But it's the other two concertos, of course, that should draw
our interest here: the Liszt gets a light and sometimes
thoughtful treatment, while the Prokofieff is shown for all
its color and wit, all its youthful spirit and bad-boy
manners. It's the latter work, in fact, that seems to
enkindle de la Salle's imagination: she imparts a little more
energy and color to this music, seems more in tune with its
spice and sass, its vernal sense of the epic: the big,
self-repeating theme that brackets this single-movement
concerto rarely sounded so warmly optimistic, and the lyrical
theme in the Andante assai middle section seems to float
arrestingly, almost mesmerizingly in de la Salle's hands
until the stormy and powerful climax. Foster and company also
provide spirited support in the Liszt and Prokofieff. The
sound is vivid.
I can strongly recommend this CD then, but can't close this
review without providing an answer to the question inherently
posed in the opening sentences: will de la Salle have
longevity to her career? On the basis of this recording and
several other performances I've heard on the internet, I
would say we'll be hearing her name for while, perhaps a long
while.s
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01-FrΘdΘric Chopin-Piano sonata no.2 in B flat minor-1. [07:50]
grave, doppio movimento
02-FrΘdΘric Chopin-Piano sonata no.2 in B flat minor-2. [06:49]
scherzo
03-FrΘdΘric Chopin-Piano sonata no.2 in B flat minor-3. [08:25]
marche funΦbre
04-FrΘdΘric Chopin-Piano sonata no.2 in B flat [01:38]
minor-finale presto
05-Gyorgy Ligeti-Piano etudes, book 1- no.4 fanfares [03:43]
06-Alexander Scriabin-Piano sonata no.2-1. andante [08:18]
07-Alexander Scriabin-Piano sonata no.2-2. presto [04:03]
08-Gyorgy Ligeti-Piano etudes, book 2 - no.10 the [02:17]
sorcerer's apprentice
09-Franz Liszt-Piano sonata in b minor, s178-lento assai [12:24]
10-Franz Liszt-Piano sonata in b minor, s178-andante [07:45]
sostenuto
11-Franz Liszt-Piano sonata in b minor, s178-allegro [11:04]
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74:16 min