Many comments are asking who the trumpet player is. This is the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yuri Temirkanov. The trumpeter js Clément Saunier. The concert is at the Annecy Classic Festival on August 28, 2014. There is some confusion, it is not Deutsche Sinfonieorchester.
Respectfully, what a few here have missed is..this concerto was written for a reduced orchestra, basically Chamber sized. INO, Ms Wang does an admirable job of playing much like a chamber pianist...as opposed to the banging, coarse style so often heard. I fo to a wonderful old recording on Sheffield Lab LP with Gerard Schwartz and Seattle Symphony. Sadly, I forgot the pianist. A wonderful, atmospheric performance. I believe Ms Wang shows great sensitivity to the composer's melodies, and gives them an emotional lift. Rubato in Shostakovich? Why not?? In defense of the trumpet player, having to dial down the bombast can make things more technically difficult. More rehearsal would have tied the overall performance together. That said, this is a most musical version of a piece that often gets short shrift in that department. I would love to hear Ms Wang with our Nashville Symphony play this. They are especially adept at finding ways to breathe life into unusual music such as this. On the other hand, the 2nd movement of the 2nd concerto brings tears. One of the composer's most emotional moments.
I love this one because of Yuja Wang early genius pianism + Temirkanov/St. Petersburg/Saunier. I think their performance and interpretation is truly amazing Russian style and Shostakovich-level scary.
Hi Otis! You think your prurient fascination in a woman playing a piano qualifies you as a cognoscente of the arts?! this video pleases your ears, eyes and penis ???!!! THE NEW YORKER by Janet Malcolm " What is one to think of the clothes the twenty-nine-year-old pianist Yuja Wang wears when she performs-extremely short and tight dresses that ride up as she plays, so that she has to tug at them when she has a free hand, or clinging backless gowns that give an impression of near-nakedness (accompanied in all cases by four-inch-high stiletto heels)? In 2011, Mark Swed, the music critic of the L.A. Times, referring to the short and tight orange dress Yuja wore when she played Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto at the Hollywood Bowl, wrote that “had there been any less of it, the Bowl might have been forced to restrict admission to any music lover under 18 not accompanied by an adult.” Two years later, the New Criterion critic Jay Nordlinger characterized the “shorter-than-short red dress, barely covering her rear,” that Yuja wore for a Carnegie Hall recital as “stripper-wear.” Never has the relationship between what we see at a concert and what we hear come under such perplexing scrutiny. Is the seeing part a distraction (Glenn Gould thought it was) or is it-can it be-a heightening of the musical experience? During the intermission of a recital at Carnegie Hall in May, Yuja changed from the relatively conventional long gold sequinned gown she had worn for the first half, two Brahms Ballades and Schumann’s “Kreisleriana,” into something more characteristically outré. For the second half, Beethoven’s extremely long and difficult Sonata No. 29 in B-Flat, known as the “Hammerklavier,” she wore a dress that was neither short nor long but both: a dark-blue-green number, also sequinned, with a long train on one side-the side not facing the audience-and nothing on the other, so that her right thigh and leg were completely exposed. As she performed, the thigh, splayed by the weight of the torso and the action of the toe working the pedal, looked startlingly large, almost fat, though Yuja is a very slender woman. Her back was bare, thin straps crossing it. She looked like a dominatrix or a lion tamer’s assistant. She had come to tame the beast of a piece, this half-naked woman in sadistic high heels. Take that, and that, Beethoven! ..."
This past summer, Thursday, July 17, 2014, I went to see Thomas Hooten, who is the principal trumpeter of the LA Phil at the Hollywood Bowl. He played and slayed the trumpet solo of the Shostakovich 1st piano/trumpet concerto. He was just awesome! He reminded me of a soulful and almost bluesy sound of the French Quarter Bars in New Orleans. Oh yeah, not to be out done, there was this piano player, Yuja Wang, who wore a tiny black sequined minidress with 4" black stilettos that you see in some Bourbon Street/Frenchman jazz clubs. Provocative? Only to men older than her father. She matched Hooten's every jazzy virtuosic step with every jazzy virtuosic step. Playing with aide-mémoire, she too slayed Shosty's #1. Then she played Prok's #1 with a long, torquoise gown like the one above that was designed by Atelier Rosemarie Umetsu with cutouts and hip-high slits on the right side. A first, playing both concertos for the first time in a single concert. How'd you like that? Worth every penny! Taken together, it sounded like a 'Joie de Vivre' of the Big Easy. Or, West Coast Jazz revival? Got to confess, Hooten was just an excuse. I went to the concert to see her dress, but stayed for the music! Because, I got to tell you, the music was totally a lot sexier & more seductive than the dress! No offense, Rosemarie.
Ha una tale assoluta padronanza della tastiera e della partitura che al suonare un concerto dannato e elegante come questo si sta divertendo come una matta pur restando l'impegno fisico e la concentrazione assolutamente e maledettamente titanici . Grandissima musicista!
Shostakovich, a composer asked to do something, then threatened with arrest and detainment, but still at the core of classical symphony. He could make fun of some in Russia in a time they needed to be made fun of, but it took some time for them to catch on, that they were being made light of. I like some of the abstract starts in this score, very avant guard. Good fine piece of symphony. Love Yuja's handling of this. Almost seems as if she was predestined to play this. Thank you.
Interprétation jouissive de ce concerto plein d'humour! Interprétation remarquable de Yuja à la technique d'une précision et musicalité hors du commun!
"My second time hearing Ms. Wang preform; firs at the Gulbenkian in Lisbon and her performance Thursday night in Boson. What a study in contrasts. The first was delicious, if incomplete, The second was "burlesque meets BSO". Ms. Wang's playing has such technical potential yet lacks nuance (more like a Ginzu knife advertorial). At the BSO, Ms. Wang failed to impress for her musicality; she somehow believes that faster is better. Her costumes shouldn't distract audiences from what she could teach us about the music, but is what happened Thursday night." 1. Irving-Stackpole 10/02/22 - 12:30 UHR - 2. WilhelmF 10/01/22 - 5:01PM " She is certainly, at least, a large part of the conversation. Whether she plays with the elàn of Horowitz or Earl Wild (or other virtuosi even further removed from us) is another matter. Why Ms. Wang and/or her "management" evidently still think it's a good career move for her to perform "in costume" remains mind-boggling. The enormity of her talent is the difference-maker!" Kommentar in BOSTON GLOBE
This seems an amazing performance of an amazing concerto. The trumpet is a key part of the whole thing and seems just fine. It hurts to read the harsh criticisms. Far happier to read the acclaim for amazing wonderful fabulous dazzling Yuja!
She is wonderful. There is a Dudamel/Wang video of Turangalilla a mammoth Piano Cocerto that is quite good. Still waiting on Schoenberg and the American's; she is still a baby by the metrics of virtuoso dating.
Quel talent ! Quel enthousiasme juvénile ! Dimitri Chostakovitch aurait apprécié d'entendre sa musique jouée avec autant de passion (et de charme...), -- même si la sonorité du Yamaha semble fort métallique à certains moments. (*eagle 3x8* why don't you indicate the other performers' names??)
She did, what Shostakovich intended: a beautiful melody in the trumpet - a symbol for art - interrupted by a bang (a cluster of all black keysm marked fff - as lod a spossible) a symbol for the political suppresson of art, but ater a short hesitstion the melody continues - telling, that real art cannot be suppressed forever. All pianists I know play that cluster just as a melodious chord and Yujy Wang is the only one who really makes it a bang, using her elbow instead of the fingers. Well done :)
HI Josef! You think your prurient fascination in a woman playing a piano qualifies you as a cognoscente of the arts?! this video pleases your ears, eyes and penis ???!!! THE NEW YORKER by Janet Malcolm " What is one to think of the clothes the twenty-nine-year-old pianist Yuja Wang wears when she performs-extremely short and tight dresses that ride up as she plays, so that she has to tug at them when she has a free hand, or clinging backless gowns that give an impression of near-nakedness (accompanied in all cases by four-inch-high stiletto heels)? In 2011, Mark Swed, the music critic of the L.A. Times, referring to the short and tight orange dress Yuja wore when she played Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto at the Hollywood Bowl, wrote that “had there been any less of it, the Bowl might have been forced to restrict admission to any music lover under 18 not accompanied by an adult.” Two years later, the New Criterion critic Jay Nordlinger characterized the “shorter-than-short red dress, barely covering her rear,” that Yuja wore for a Carnegie Hall recital as “stripper-wear.” Never has the relationship between what we see at a concert and what we hear come under such perplexing scrutiny. Is the seeing part a distraction (Glenn Gould thought it was) or is it-can it be-a heightening of the musical experience? During the intermission of a recital at Carnegie Hall in May, Yuja changed from the relatively conventional long gold sequinned gown she had worn for the first half, two Brahms Ballades and Schumann’s “Kreisleriana,” into something more characteristically outré. For the second half, Beethoven’s extremely long and difficult Sonata No. 29 in B-Flat, known as the “Hammerklavier,” she wore a dress that was neither short nor long but both: a dark-blue-green number, also sequinned, with a long train on one side-the side not facing the audience-and nothing on the other, so that her right thigh and leg were completely exposed. As she performed, the thigh, splayed by the weight of the torso and the action of the toe working the pedal, looked startlingly large, almost fat, though Yuja is a very slender woman. Her back was bare, thin straps crossing it. She looked like a dominatrix or a lion tamer’s assistant. She had come to tame the beast of a piece, this half-naked woman in sadistic high heels. Take that, and that, Beethoven! ..."
Nova Blanca Dear Nova Blanca, If you watch the same piece on youtube.com by Yuja Wang and the Concertgabow Orchestra conducted by Jansens, you will see that weird chord played by Yuja. It is not evident in this poorer video of her use of her entire forearm to play the chord. The other video is much more enjoyable too because of the trumpeter and Yuja’s dress.
This is not Yuja’s best, it certainly wasn’t the trumpet player’s best (I hope!), and the ensemble was sloppy overall....however, it’s still a fun performance.
Agreed, and that Yamaha piano didn't add the same superior tonality that a Steinway would have. It only takes a few inferior delivery voices to muck up any concert, and this one had at least two.
@@holywells I do not agree that a Steinway has a "superior" tonality. The CFX is a true masterpiece of a concert grand and it is very much the equal to the Steinway D. Where Steinway has broadness with delicacy and rumble, the CFX has near pinpoint articulation and a clarity and depth of bass that is maybe matched by Fazioli, but not many others I can think of. Maybe Bosendorfer. The CFX is also a much newer design, the D dates back to the early 20th century where the CFX was introduced in 2010. That said, I prefer Yuja on the Steinway overall (though she plays the CFX fine here). She's a Steinway artist and she's suited for the Steinway sound. But others, I prefer on other instruments. I love Schiff on Bosendorfers. Listening to the different pianos in the Chopin competition in Warsaw (and I've heard most of these pianos live, especially the Hamburg Steinway D and Yamaha CFX, multiple times in different halls), I say it depends on the pianists connection with the instrument. FWIW, I think there are too many Steinways and Yamahas dominating venues at least where I am in the USA. We need more brands out there. Different sound perspectives. They all offer something. For instance, Shigeru Kawai makes a world-class great grand in the SK-EX. These are not "ordinary" Yamahas or Kawais either, they're built in a small number with the best combinations of woods and are mostly hand-built, like any other fine grand. Mason and Hamlin is another great grand that should be played more. There are so many others as well.
SHE USED MUSIC IN THE GERSHWIN AND RAVEL LEFT HANDED CONCERTO,,,PERHAPS MUSIC SHE HASNT COMMITTED TO MEMORY YET....THE RAVEL SHE USED A DIGITAL PAD TOO....
This is not the first time she deliberately showed her body's curves, but, I must confess that I was so overwhelmed by her tremendous talent that not even a single thought of perversion has come to my mind in such occasions. She is certainly not a saint, nor an angel, but simply too divine for me.
She plays with the score in the Bartok Concerti too, so please give her some slack, she plays so much and she can only memorise so much. It becomes hard to memorise such repertoire like this, please give her a break!!
It's my first time listening to this work and I'm not familiar with Shostakovich. I thought I'd listen to Yuja first, since she's so famous and highly rated, even though some say her playing is robotic. I thought the overall experience was OK. Then I moved on to Martha Argerich's also live performance. What a difference... I know Martha's playing can be rough and robotic at times, but just listening to the first few bars of this concerto clearly showed the difference between soulless playing (Yuja) and a performance full of colour!!! There's something better out there people, don't be blinded by this young lady's virtuosity and curves.
I don't think she's soulless. For exemple she respects Shostakovitch score better than Argerich by playing black keys chord with her arm and not with fingers. I listened several versions, m'y favorite is the one with Wang and Jansons.
Oh please. This isn't Brahms 2. This concerto is full of difficult quirks and jokes needs to be played accordingly....which Yuja did. At the same time the slow movement demands great beauty of line which she also delivered admirably. I think it's too easy for some not to like Yuja....for whatever reason.
Miss Wang excites the fantasies and dreams of many men by being only lightly dressed, as in this concert. She is only allowed to wear two pieces of clothing. And her stilettos, of course. On this point she competes with the Russian Lola Astanova. What progress in the dissemination of classical music!
Redo please Yuja! Get a better trumpet player first, and I'd like to see a more agressive conductor as well. His cues are way too nice and calm for something so crazy at the end.
Yuja is the best! Is there a piece she can't play? I love her adventurous spirit in attempting everything in the piano literature. Her performances are some of the best! However, it has gotten kind of tiresome to wonder how much of her thigh she is going to show this time. Is it going to be a Beethoven slit or a Prokofiev garter belt? When this kind of thing overtakes the music, then it is wrong!! She needs to hit "middle age" in everything including dress and attitude and leave the sexy girl image to Hollywood and the girls who need to "breast their way" to popularity. You have the goods and just don't need this! Yuja, can you imagine yourself 60 and wearing a long dress and high heels? That time will be coming!
@@danielhoover1080 Number 1: I am not a horny old man. In fact, I am the opposite. I am a classical musician who appreciates a certain decorum in the way musicians present their art. Number 2: My point is that it is a sacred privilege to put the spotlight on the musical composition and the composer being performed, not oneself. In case you didn't notice, I do appreciate her artistry and consider her one of the upcoming artists of our country. No, "stoning" is something that might exist in your particular universe. It is not part of mine.
@@leoinsf I'm a classical musician also so what's that got to do with anything other than that gives you some arrogant right to criticize how someone dresses. I think along the same lines as pianist William Kapell who would listen to moralists like you just so long then ask you if you'd like to go outside and settle it.
But now she is young and a woman, why not show her perfect beauty together with her great pianistic skills. And she likes that. When she is older, she will change her style and clothing, I don't worry about.
Miss Wang's wardrobe tells a lot: The soloist has a lighter stripe on her back - from the bikini? from the swimsuit? She doesn't wear a bust holder, she's probably under the dress, which is kept loose on the back of two chains, naked, possibly wearing a pair of briefs and - of course - high heels. In summary, Miss Wang wears only two fabric garments. We have to admire the robust health of the artist: she plays over 100 concerts a year in the most diverse concert halls around the world, is almost naked, - but she has never caught a cold or has an illness. Respect! Miss Wangs Garderobe erzählt einiges: Die Solistin hat auf dem Rücken einen helleren Streifen - vom Bikini? vom Badeanzug? Sie trägt keinen Büstenhalter, sie ist wahrscheinlich unter dem Kleid, das auf dem Rücken von zwei Ketten locker gehalten wird, nackt, möglicherweise trägt sie einen Slip und - natürlich - High-Heels. Zusammengefasst: Miss Wang trägt nur zwei Kleidungsstücke aus Stoff. Wir müssen die robuste Gesundheit der Künstlerin bewundern: Sie spielt über 100 Konzerten im Jahr in den verschiedenensten Konzertsälen auf der ganzen Welt, ist nahezu nackt, - aber nie ist sie erkältet oder hat eine Krankheit. Respekt!
Argerich version is better for the trumpet, and the orchestra, and the conducteur, but not for the pianist, I think. Try her better version with Jansons.
I "liked" this video only because it was Yuja on the piano. The rest of the video--the ugly orchestra, the depressing conductor, and the pretty awful trumpet player--did their best to ruin the whole piece. Yuja and Shostakovich saved the day however.
not the best performance of this piece. the trumpet soloist is barely adequate, and the piano soloist should not be reading AND turning pages. highly unprofessional. the performance seems like a read-through. though nice outfit.
Another very skinny attire. . A bit better than the one that looked like shorts. Even Classical pianist has to show a lot of skin these days....... and it seems people like it!??
