Hot video: Possibly the most horrible piano recital of the year
mainThis is Yundi Li on China television playing an acrobatic version of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee. The video was swiftly removed from its original Chinese site but a kindly soul has uploaded it on Youtube where Yundi’s legions of fans will rush it into the millions before the day is out. Unless it gets removed again. Watch, and wonder.
And another version:
Drinking again? Yundi does Tom Waits. đŸ˜‰
Good God. That was just awful. Naturally the audience of future pianists applauded uproariously, because the performance exhibited that characteristic highly valued in that part of the world: lots of notes (in this case, not even accurate ones) with no expression.
I just wonder how well you know “that part of the world” and what they highly value to make this comment…
Felt like a lot longer than 2:02 minutes…
Sounds like he was drunk or stoned!? Those were not mistakes of someone trying to push the limit and play beyond his considerable ability. This was a wandering mind and uncontrolled fingers in even simple sections. With the poor camera angle and poor sound…it occurred to me that this was not Yundi Li…but a poor replacement.
Exactly what I was thinking, maybe not Yundi…
OMG.. twice!
Hence, twice the horror!
Check this out, a second video.http://you.video.sina.com.cn/api/sinawebApi/outplayrefer.php/vid=123212512_1297390292_bEy8T3A5DW7K+l1lHz2stqlF+6xCpv2xhGu2slWnLA5bXA6YJMXNb9wF4yvXAspD83oLHcwydPwl1Rwvbata/s.swf
Stage needs more light effects, way too subtle.
Maybe it was a (n inebriated) bet…?
Utterly hideous.
Truly wonderAWful!!
(No fans defending him here yet?)
he’s been playing like this all around the world for years
refer to http://pianofortephilia.blogspot.com/2009/07/sso-concert-tchaikovsky-piano-concerto_25.html for one example
Yundi Li just had a really bad day. It happens, and in the internet age it will be preserved forever. He may be, based on the Singapore review and some other things, simply a technically erratic pianist. Or maybe he has stopped practicing recently. Given his “rivalry” he better spend some time in the practice room. Lang Lang is musically eccentric and sometimes ridiculous but I have only heard him mess up technically in some silly two-piano Rhapsody in Blue with Herbie Hancock where he was clearly sight-reading.Generally, he seems to keep himself in shape.
I don’t know this pianist, but I too am willing to give him a break. He’s a young guy, and it’s one crazy encore in a situation that doesn’t look conducive to subtlety or concentration. If he does this to Rach 3 then I have a problem.
This performance could have been improved by the presence of Wang LeeHom… http://www.jaynestars.com/news/leehom-wang-and-li-yundi-are-brokeback-friends/
What a horror. I have seen him live in recital and he is plainly dreadful, playing as if by numbers. He thrives in audiences who do not know better.
strictly speaking this isn’t a recital [ “possibly the most horrible piano recital of the year”]
Perhaps this was an encore which mis-fired and the rest of the recital was scintillating.
I think the applause was for the confetti cannons.
Sounds more like the “Attack of the Angry Wasps”.
Where was Brian de Palma’s sniper ?
http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2013/12/phoney-video-a-pianist-in-fear-of-his-life.html
So, mine is not that bad – Without rehearsal , we just agreed with the tonality before playing , after 1:30 recital – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnuiSCNVl7Q
Needs more pedal.
Needs more cowbell!
A very early nominee for the 2014 Slipped Disc “Smacked Arse” Award!
I agree. I wonder why and how a professional pianist could play so poorly.
Quite honestly, I find it amazing that such technically accomplished players can play that badly.
FRIGHT of the Bumblebee.
Doug, your comment made me laugh to tears! Regardless of whether the double pun (with the typical Japanese pronunciation impediment) was intentional or not and regardless of political correctness, this is the best quick joke I’ve heard in ages!
Just a reminder: Yundi Li is Chinese.
Having a mid consonant between r and l is not an impediment that occurs in other East Asian languages, some dialects of Chinese, as far as I know.
I think the bad quality of the record ruined it,what about this,It’s a practice ,Yundi is very relaxing,almost don’t move his body
http://youtu.be/Mu5KRFKg0VI
record does not ruin a pianist, stop practice does. this is just a little bit better than the horror in the circus show above and LOOKS LIKE a pianist performance.
Florence Foster Jenkins has been reincarnated!
…and Jonathan Edwards, too!
Is there a “Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Pianos” in China?
The master of the baritone saxophone, Gerry Mulligan, wrote a piece called “Blight of the Fumble Bee. That title perhaps could have applied in this case(s).
Perhaps he’s been seeking inspiration from this source …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMOrsWxh5mg
when you lost love, you lost soul.
It’s not a recital obviously, just a circus show number. After him they had naked elephants dancing to Grieg’s ‘Cave of the Mountain King’.
Oh dear, the Chinese audience loved it. No “Kenner” among them I guess. Are you sure it’s Lundi?
wow,I found these two today,both practice in his own home,
home style 1-Flight of the Bumblebee
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kukHFuvsYP8
home style 2-Beethoven Sonata No. 23 in F Minor, Op. 57 “Appassionata” – 3. Allegro ma non troppo – Presto
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx_gGXGJ7bk&feature=youtu.be
oh, just save it! If he can’t perform in front of the audience, he may as well retire and stay at home and stop calling himself a pianist. I feel bad for those who paid to suffer this.
why so angry O(∩_∩)O~，it’s just the encore,you don’t know about the whole one.
Is it fair to judge a concert or even a pianist only with an encore?
Absolutely agree with you
Looks like he enjoyed it much, and he was not humiliated by his own performance at all…what a strong mind
Just found yundi‘s Chinese fans so funny. Seems that they don’t care how he played and keep trying sell this guy to everyone else, very similar to Beliebers lol
Loved the stage and lighting. Reminiscent of some of Karajan’s specially-filmed Beethoven performances from the 1980s.
When will all the pushing and promoting of lousy, second-rate, unartistic Chinese musicians end? It is only killing opportunity for real artists. There is only so much room. China produces musicians like they do goods for dollar stores and everywhere else. Shoddy, shoddy, shoddy. It is a fiendish plan by their government to undermine the West in every way.
You must be joking. Chinese musicians are promoted by Western businesses, namely Universal, to make money FOR Western businesses FROM consumers all over the world, namely also FROM the Chinese consumers themselves.
Opportunities for real artists are always there. Just not in the business that is about selling music to the masses… because that business does not care about art in the first place.
A real artist can call himself successful if he finds an audience that enables him to make a decent living above the level of poverty. Anything else and you are selling your soul to Mephistopheles.