Chinese pianist prodigy Yuja Wang talks to BBC News 

Unfortunately that is also how she treats profound, deep music. Matter-of-fact-ish. See for exemple her Beethoven Hammerklaviersonate. She plays the piece like a circus act. There is more to Beethoven than glitter and glamour!

@dim Love your reply.

I agree.

@@berndbrackman4443 I doubt you even listened to her recording if you think that. She plays it with far more nuance and understanding than almost anybody.

How can I play as well as her?? I'm starting as an adult though which is depressing and discouraging..

Wtf is up with your comment bro

@@gonzalo4658 what's wrong?

Thank you. What's so humble about giggle after saying something like. What kind of passive aggressive bullshit is he trying to say.

She looks souless😴

Would you prefer that Kissin play with bare shoulders, etc. also? 🤣

Pianists should wear sportswear and Yuja wears beach wear so practical really

@@stepaushi hahaha 😂 I imagined, sweaty Jew with bare shoulders ..

That's exactly why she wears low cut, short dresses.

I’m glad Yuja is able to be herself, however what you must understand is that most pianists favor formality and professionalism over their own comfort. And why wouldn’t they? Why wouldn’t they want to make their performance, something they’ve worked on for who knows how many years, something spectacular. My main point really is, I think most well known pianists are either fine with, or prefer to wear formalwear, as they themselves probably would see anything with too much flair, or too little flair to be taking away from the music itself. And all this is without even mentioning the tradition these attires have in music, especially with playing the piano.

She can back up her confidence with her talent, she has the freedom to be herself. That must feel like freedom.

@@funeralgiggle3771 why not her confidence backing her talent?

Yes I couldn't agree more ,she is not from here. Her attitude reminds me of young Mozart who did not realise his greatness either. How can it be that some kid can not only be pianistically great but has the depth and maturity to perform such profound music such as say the Hammerklavier. She is in short from outer space !

your opinion is shared by many others

Thank you. I was hoping someone else would notice. A great opportunity ruined.

may I correct something? She is unlike a popstar in that she is a genius at the piano and in music, she could look like a post-Chernobyl potato and still be a great pianist... Pop stars are often talented, but their musical limitations are incredible, though writing it inevitably brings out the storm troopers of the culture industry, the twits who keep listening to the same 5 chords over and over again and think its great... Thanks...

There is a big difference between playing and composing.

pix046 right!

+Harry Angus I regared her as profanity in art, not just because how she dresses but according to what she does to art

democolor42 idiot!

That's awesome

+I Hate the Party Did you mean: Yuja Wang is well lubricated (the money, Sex sells) Chinese sewing machine? THE TELEGRAPH As Nicola Benedetti, the violinist, bemoans the idea that sex sells classical music, professor of marketing Gloria Moss explains why both genders cash in on their looks to make their millions By Professor Gloria Moss 1:27PM BST 01 Apr 2014 Like it or not, looks affect our responses. So Nicola Benedetti’s comments that “classical music isn’t supposed to be sexy” and that her success bears no relation to her looks flies in the face of volumes of marketing research. It also flies in the face of history, since you have only to think of the effect of composer and pianist Franz Liszt in the 19th century (a 'looker' in his day) on women to realise this. Women would tear bits of his clothing, fight over broken piano strings and locks of his shoulder-length hair. They would even take his cigar butts and place them in their cleavages. ..... When it comes to classical music, you could argue that people don't buy or listen to it based on what the composer or musician looks like: they listen to their CD or record rather than watch it online through a music video, where female pop stars generally flirt with the camera to generate attention. .... However, people's responses to classical musicians do have a visual element, whether it is through the CD cover, concert hall or visual recording, and this will inevitably influence purchasing reactions. Related Articles Sex isn't what sells classical music, Nicola Benedetti says 01 Apr 2014 'Women who do well out of their looks play the game' 01 Apr 2014 'I can wear long skirts when I am 40' 05 Feb 2014 Besides, how do the successful classical musicians get their big break in the first place? Of course, talent is a huge part of it. So is hard work. But combine that with a beautiful body, flowing locks and an attractive smile, and you're onto a winner. Take extraordinary pianist Yuja Wang, who has made it her signature to perform in short dresses. Take Anne Sophie-Mutter, plucked for stardom by Karajan at the age of 13, and her strapless Galliano dresses. .... Also think of violinist Nigel Kennedy, protégé of Yehudi Menuhin, and the way his punk hairstyle may have helped him reach a large audience. The winning recipe is a superabundance of talent plus looks. Those who know how to use their looks well have an advantage: sex will always sell. .... At the end of the day, Benedetti may well baulk at the impact of looks but there is no denying their impact in her own success. That's just the world we live in; how does that old saying go: if you've got it, flaunt it. Dr Gloria A Moss is professor of marketing and management at Buckinghamshire New University and a visiting professor at ESG, Paris. She is the author of gender, design and marketing and has a new book, 'Why men like straight lines and women like polka dots', appearing in the spring.

Georges Cancan what makes you think anyone would read all that?

@@georgescancan7503 Shh!. You don't know what the hell goes on in her life. You're just surmising.

But she demonstrates for us by her very way of speaking about her involvement with music that it is shallow, in this case the girl does the job for the trolls, Yuja is going to put me out of business if she keeps going on like this.

***** Deep or shallow... profound or profane... for you there are no shades of gray.

"enormous jealousy" is the correct way of describing those, who truly don't have the talent at all. She is the greatest of the greats and if they could do better, then maybe they need to step up and prove what they've got. Otherwise...

Exactly !

I fully agree with you.

She's like Mozart... so much of Amadeus in her. Hope she will compose too.

It's only Lang Lang that they're proud of, for the time being.

Why does it matter to you from where she gets inspired? You wreak of envy. It hurts you that this pretty young woman outshines you in every regard. It hurts but you must find a better way to process your emotions. Therapy may help you. And fyi, she literally says that she tries to put herself in the composers spirit when performing. Please open your ears before typing.

@@jadem694 It's just the pun. Shopping and Chopin.) No envy. Think before you write such rubbish.

Shopping and Chopin are pronounced very differently. I didn’t get the pun until I read your comment :( Also that guy who replied to you really needs therapy lol

MrTimedevil No, these two artists dont have anything related to each other

😢

wow. I'm in love with this poem. I can relate very much

Well said!!

Why are you amazed?

@@fitofito1001 14 is still an age where young people can learn languages and all kinds of things!

You would know...

An 'oriental' is a rug, not a fellow human being.

+Erica Miner : Sex in advertising From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia "Sex in advertising or "sex sells" is the use of sex appeal in advertising to help sell a particular product or service. Sexually appealing imagery may or may not pertain to the product or service in question. Examples of sexually appealing imagery include nudity, pin-up girls, and muscular men. The use of sex in advertising can be highly overt or extremely subtle. It ranges from relatively explicit displays of sexual acts, to the use of basic cosmetics to enhance attractive features." ALEXANDER BOOT Author, critic, polemicist Blogs > Alexander's blog > Sex sells - all of us short Submitted by Alexander on 24 June 2013 - 12:59pm The other day I listened to something or other on RU-vid, and a link to Chopin’s Fourth Ballade performed by the Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili came up. The link was accompanied by a close-up publicity photo of the musician: sloe bedroom eyes, sensual semi-open lips suggesting a delight that’s still illegal in Alabama, naked shoulders hinting at the similarly nude rest of her body regrettably out of shot… Let me see where my wife is… Good, she isn’t looking over my shoulder, so I can admit to you that the picture got me excited in ways one doesn’t normally associate with Chopin’s Fourth Ballade or for that matter any other classical composition this side of Wagner or perhaps Ravel’s Bolero. Searching for a more traditional musical rapture I clicked on the actual clip and alas found it anticlimactic, as it were. Khatia’s playing, though competent, is as undeniably so-what as her voluptuous figure undeniably isn’t. (Yes, I know the photograph I mentioned doesn’t show much of her figure apart from the luscious shoulders but, the prurient side of my nature piqued, I did a bit of a web crawl.) Just for the hell of it I looked at the publicity shots of other currently active female musicians, such as Yuja Wang, Joanna MacGregor, Nicola Bendetti, Alison Balsom (nicknamed ‘crumpet with a trumpet’, her promos more often suggest ‘a strumpet with a trumpet’ instead), Anne-Sophie Mutter and a few others. They didn’t disappoint the Peeping Tom lurking under my aging surface. Just about all the photographs showed the ladies in various stages of undress, in bed, lying in suggestive poses on top of the piano, playing in frocks (if any) open to the coccyx in the back and/or to the navel up front. This is one thing these musicians have in common. The other is that none of them is all that good at her day job and some, such as Wang, are truly awful. Yet this doesn’t really matter either to them or to the public or, most important, to those who form the public tastes by writing about music and musicians. Thus, for example, a tabloid pundit expressing his heartfelt regret that Nicola Benedetti “won’t be posing for the lads’ mags anytime soon. Pity, because she looks fit as a fiddle…” Geddit? She’s a violinist, which is to say fiddler - well, you do get it. “But Nicola doesn’t always take the bonniest photo,” continues the writer, “she’s beaky in pics sometimes, which is weird because in the flesh she’s an absolute knock-out. “The classical musician is wearing skinny jeans which show off her long legs. She’s also busty with a washboard flat tummy, tottering around 5ft 10in in her Dune platform wedges.” How well does she play the violin though? No one cares. Not even critics writing for our broadsheets, who don’t mind talking about musicians in terms normally reserved for pole dancers. Thus for instance runs a review of a piano recital at Queen Elizabeth Hall, one of London’s top concert venues: “She is the most photogenic of players: young, pretty, bare-footed; and, with her long dark hair and exquisite strapless dress of dazzling white, not only seemed to imply that sexuality itself can make you a profound musician, but was a perfect visual complement to the sleek monochrome of a concert grand... [but] there’s more to her than meets the eye.” The male reader is clearly expected to get a stiffie trying to imagine what that might be. To help his imagination along, the piece is accompanied by a photo of the young lady in question reclining on her instrument in a pre-coital position with an unmistakable ‘come and get it’ expression on her face. The ‘monochrome’ piano is actually bright-red, a colour usually found not in concert halls but in dens of iniquity. Nowhere does the review mention the fact obvious to anyone with any taste for musical performance: the girl is so bad that she should indeed be playing in a brothel, rather than on the concert platform. Can you, in the wildest flight of fancy, imagine a reviewer talking in such terms about sublime women artists of the past, such as Myra Hess, Maria Yudina, Maria Grinberg, Clara Haskil, Marcelle Meyer, Marguerite Long, Kathleen Ferrier? Can you see any of them allowing themselves to be photographed in the style of “lads’ mags”? I can’t, which raises the inevitable question: what exactly has changed in the last say 70 years? The short answer is, just about everything. Concert organisers and impresarios, who used to be in the business because they loved music first and wanted to make a living second, now care about nothing but money. Critics, who used to have discernment and taste, now have nothing but greed and lust for popularity. The public… well, don’t get me started on that. The circle is vicious: because tasteless ignoramuses use every available medium to build up musical nonentities, nonentities is all we get. And because the musical nonentities have no artistic qualities to write about, the writing nonentities have to concentrate on the more jutting attractions, using a vocabulary typically found in “lads’ mags”. The adage “sex sells” used to be applied first to B-movies, then to B-novels, and now to real music. From “sex sells” it’s but a short distance to “only sex sells”. This distance has already been travelled - and we are all being sold short.

Georges Cancan Thank You! AMEN!!

Very true. Unfortunately.

I agree with you that Yuja has more than one "home". At the same time I think it does make some sense when the interviewer referred China as "home" for Yuja. Yuja did grow up in China until she was 14 and her parents and other closely related family members are still in China. Also Yuja is still a Chinese citizen, not a US citizen. So to call China "home" is not to far off. Of course the US is also her "home" since she was educated in the US and has since lived in the US for the past 19 years. Perhaps as time passes with her continuing living outside of China and eventually having her own family (husband and kids) China would be less and less a "home" for her. Cheers!

Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 2. In the very beginning and end of this video the 2nd movement of Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 2 is showcased. Also right around 4:00 is the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3.

How can you have personal attack Argerich!

I wonder why the conductor and his crew should wear uniform whereas the female pianist wears so little and sexy in the concert.

Probably because most pianists that play with conductors don't belong to conductors.