28 Feb 2014

Yuja Wang at Barbican Hall in London

The concert was held on 16th February in a
London Symphony Orchestra concert hall at Barbican
After years of anticipation I have finally managed to attend a concert of my beloved Chinese pianist Yuja Wang. I've been a fan of her the very first time she appeared on medici.tv. and I was frankly thrilled to eventually see her in live performance. Young, joyful, beautiful and the most vital of all, incredibly talented.

On February, Yuja played not only few concerts in London, but also led free of charge workshops which I, sadly, was not able to be a participant of.



From all the events only one of them was recital and this is what I decided upon. Piano concertos are great, but if I wanted to listen to her play, there is no better way than solo performance.

Yuja was outstanding that night and there is no doubt about it. Obviously, the audience did not want her to leave soon, and therefore, after a massive applause and standing ovations she gave us 5 encores.
Unfortunately, I cannot recall all of them, but she performed the famous Chopin's Valse Op. 64 No. 2 . Her interpretation of that piece is exceptional and I was always wondering whether I'll be given a chance to listen to it.


Prokofiev Sonata No 3 in A minor, Op 28
Chopin Sonata No 3 in B minor, Op 58
Kapustin Variations for Piano, Op 41
Chopin Nocturne No 1 in C minor, Op 48
Chopin Ballade No 3 In A-Flat Major, Op 47
Stravinsky Petrouchka: Three Movements for Piano

I was not really that familiar with the program, although I love Chopin and I know all of his works to some extent. No much to say, she played his and works and others flawless and also, in my opinion, emotionally balanced.
I really liked the music of Ukrainian contemporary composer Kapustin. Yuja loves jazz and I'm happy she can include that style of music in her concerts making them not entirely classical. Seemed and sounded like a great fun for her and for the gathered people.

All I was able to see from my seat was her face though. I'd have given a lot to see the keyboard and hands flowing around back and forth. I would also gladly exchange few words with her, but there has not been any chance to meet her face to face. No meet and greet at all. Maybe next time.
I'd probably ask her for allowance to touch her hands for a while in order to make sure they are a real thing...

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