In Tuesday’s (10/18) Wall Street Journal, Barbara Jepson writes, “Ever since pianist Yuja Wang came to international attention, her handlers have rightfully endeavored to show that she’s a serious young artist with more to her formidable talent than jaw-dropping technique. But the antics of the spirited, 24-year-old virtuoso, who makes her Carnegie Hall recital debut on Thursday, keep getting in the way. The thigh-baring orange dress Ms. Wang wore for an August performance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl sparked bicoastal debate. … And the pianist hasn’t yet shed the ‘flying fingers’ image generated by YouTube videos of her performing an arrangement of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’ at warp speed. ‘I’m more into the poetic stuff,’ Ms. Wang insisted in a backstage interview at Davies Hall in June, where she was playing Béla Bartók’s daunting Second Piano Concerto with the San Francisco Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas. … At her best, she combines pinpoint accuracy with lyrical delicacy and emotional nuance. … For her Carnegie recital debut in the 2,800-seat Stern Auditorium, part of the hall’s prestigious annual Keyboard Virtuoso series, Ms. Wang will perform five pieces pieces by Alexander Scriabin and two heavyweights of the solo piano literature: Sergei Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 6 and Liszt’s B-Minor Sonata.”
Posted October 19, 2011
