Yuja Wang

I've just finished watching a web broadcasted recital of the chinese pianist Yuja Wang from Verbier festival on 29. July.
I'd say the 20 years old girl could replace Volodos sufficiently, because she is never short of the stunning power and technique he has. So far as interpretion goes, I think her interpretations esp. of long pieces fail to show the structure of them and are misleaded by sentimentalism very often. But she is still very young, so I wish her much musical developement.
Btw she played Richardson's arrangement of Vocalise and the second sonata of Scriabin. Therefor I'd like to recommend this recital to Chris and Felipe, who recorded one of these. (www.medici.tv > Verbier > 29. July)

 

Hi Hye-Jin, that arrangement is actually by Zoltan Kocsis, not Richardson (I reported the error to medici.tv website in order to get it corrected). I've listened only to some parts of the recital but I'm not willing to listen more... :wink: Quite disappointing (the same as Neuburger, another pianist at the Verbier Festival, whom I heard sometime ago and liked - and now an utterly boring recital).

By the way, the Mendelssohn/Rachmaninov is one of my favorite transcriptions ever (with or without Cziffra, which really is pleonastic), a big dream of mine is to be able to play it one (distant) day.

 

Thanks for correcting that, Alfonso. Actually I thought it's a little bit different from what Chris played, but also her homepage counts the Richardson's arrangement to her repertoires. Therefore I did believe the info on medici.
Yes, the Neuburger's was really boring. I couldn't stand to watch a piece completely. But her recital was less boring except Liszt, so I finished watching to the end, in order to hear her Scriabin.
Btw the other two recitals I watched there were equally disappointing: recitals of Berezovsky and Lugansky. Berezovsky was not in a good condition (and now I ask myself why he is so often disappointing, while he could play much better) and Lugansky did his best, but after many slips in the 12nd piece of the trancendendal studies his playing started to wobble and he finally messed with all the other from T. S. I dislike his mechanical playing he showed with Liszt and Rachmaninov. And his Prokofiev was tolerable but really incomparable with the fantastic rendition of Lise de la Salle which I watched on German tv.
I was looking forward to watch verbier, but so far disappointing. I'll try as the next things the recital of Rafal Blechaz and the Dvorak's piano concert played by Schiff and Rattle in Aix-en-Provence. Did you hear them, Alfonso?

 

I find Berezovksy, who seems to have limitless power and play even the most demanding music apparently without any effort, for the very same reason often lacking in emotional involvement.

At 19, Lugansky recorded one of the best Etudes Tableaux set I am aware of. Also the Moments Musicaux and the Preludes op.23 ten years later were very good, but not impressive as the ET. Now Lugansky is just one of the many virtuosos around and IMO doesn't have anymore a personal voice in the piano music panorama.

Nope, I discovered them too late and they were put offline at the end of July. Dvorak Concerto is a beast! Richter took years to master it (he said), I would be curious to see how Schiff plays it.