There are some nonsensical critics below. This association has a unique style of his own, which is rare enough, and the artists are just world class masters.
Leonidas and poor old Brahms are getting some punishment in the comments below. However you will never convince viiolinists that the Brahms sonatas are less than magnificent. The G major is one of the greatest, the D minor is a towering romp and this A major is just pure sunshine. The pairing of Leonidas and Yuja is simply magic. The noise they make and their musical sensibilities are just wonderful.
The violonist has a name. He is Leonidas Kavakos, one of the best violonists of this century and unlike the pianist became famous because of his playing and respect for the music.
Breathing is part of the music. I love hearing the raw human in a recording. It makes it real, also because it's live. No matter where you put the microphone, even the pianist must hear you breathing while playing when necessary.
Yannis G - What you say about Leonidas Kavakos is true. He won the International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition 1985, two years before the birth of Yuja Wang. But what you say about Yuja Wang is misguided. Yuja is a great artist too - and quite purely with musical gains. (In America Yuja is The Artist of the Year 2017.) Do you really think that topmost conductors like Abbado, Rattle, Van Zweden, Pappano, Salonen, Oramo, Gergiev, Mehta, Tilson Thomas, Dutoit, Noseda, Petrenko etc. etc. ask her as a soloist for their orchestras tours or concerts from year to year based on how she is dressed? Yuja was just a soloist for the Berliner Philharmoniker on their Asian tour and next March she is soloist for the New York Philharmonics in Beijing and Tokyo. Prior to that, she will play chamber music with Leonidas Kavakos at the European tour and the European Chamber Orchestra´s European Tour, too. Recently, she was the soloist of The Mahler Chamber Orchestra on their European tour. On 30 October I heard them in Helsinki, where Yuja played Beethoven´s 2nd Piano Concerto in a little provocative dress. Yuja got praiseworthy reviews and dress was ignored in passing. Yuja Wang plays over 120 concerts a year around the world. Is all this possible in your opinion because of the fact that she sometimes is dressed in a way that violates traditional classical dress code? I think that the only reason is Yuja Wang´s musical genius. Unfortunately, this Genius has not yet opened up to those classical music friends whose attention is drawn to the external music aspects. But I think they also have hope, because Yuja is only 30 years old."
Maybe Yuja can take that Charlie Siem model on tour with her. He could make some sounds on the violin and it would be a good accessory to her fashion. They would be cute.
Yuja Wang is an excellent pianist,Leonidas Kavakos plays excellent the Violin ! Usually someone who loves music goes to a concert to hear and enjoy a good performance...... not to see a model playing it solist !!
