World exclusive: China’s foremost pianist takes up the accordion

I’ve been spending time for sinfini with Yundi Li, the most famous and popular pianist in China, outshining Lang Lang and all others on social media. Yundi has never met Lang Lang… I discover that he cannot bring himself to mention his rival by name.

Yundi does things his way. He tours China with a programme of Beethoven sonatas, with a Chinese song, The Clouds Follow the Moon, as encore. Watch him play it here.

He’s an interesting, introspective artist, not excessively preoccupied with publicity and image. ‘The media,’ he says, ‘they work for themselves.’

During our conversation (which we have subtitled in Chinese for his home audience), he was happy to take up the instrument that first got him interested in music. Click here to watch the video.