Yuja Wang’s dark ancestor
NewsThe US-Chinese pianist has been telling the Bielsko-Biała audience of her pedigree.
She was a devoted pupil of Gary Graffman.
Graffman said: ‘ The four biggest influences on me then were Horowitz, Rubinstein, Schnabel and Serkin.
Schnabel was born in Bielsko-Biała, which is nowadays in Poland.
So it goes.
I do not understand the point of this article other than to post a picture of a fetching Asian girl with purpled hair. But maybe I’m just not bright.
a picture of a fetching Asian girl with purpled hair and a picture of Schnabel
Why is Schnabel (or is it everyone from Poland?) “dark”?
All her as the centre of attraction and not the music.
The teachers of both Fleisher (Schnabel) and Graffman (Vengerova), had studied with the legendary Theodor Leschetitzky, who was a pupil of Czerny, who was a pupil of Beethoven. So, musically speaking, Yuja Wang is a descendant of Beethoven and Haydn.
Sounds wonderful, but what does it really mean? Not much! How many Leschetitzky pianistic descendants are there? Possily tens of thousands, myself included.
How many Leschetitzky pianistic descendants can pull off memorable idiomatic and highly virtuosic performances of, say, the Rachminoff concertos? A few, Yuja included.
My late sister, Anne Koscielny, who was one of these descendants, played Rachmaninoff, but she really rocked all 32 Beethoven Sonatas! At the time, one of the few women to do so.
I remember Anne and this fabulous traversal through the 32 sonatas. She was an amazing friend.
You’re right, of course. And I’ve heard some terrible pianists who tout this kind of musical genealogy.
Cheers! Everything is derivative. Wudaboutit. Right?
She may have played in a Fleisher Master class from time to time, but of course that doesn’t make her his pupil. She also studied with Hung Kwan Chen in Canada for 2 years before moving on to Graffman at Curtis.
Musical ancestry is a seed of inspiration. The times of our musical grandparents were challenging in their own way. They struggled through war, breakdowns in society, and the like. Yet, the music and its traditions survived. Our times are challenged by the ease of technology, serving as a source of knowledge beyond human scope. This can be dangerous. Through it all, we strive to maintain and sustain the values and traditions of our musical ancestors. For me, studying with Adele Marcus meant the traditions of her teachers, Josef Lhevinne and Artur Schnabel.
Yuja Wang has every reason to be proud to be a pupil of Gary Graffman and the great legacies he was part of. Not the least of which, his own father, Vladimir, a pupil of Auer who is closely linked of course to Tchaikovsky but also associated with Ferdinand David, Clara Schumann, Brahms and other luminaries.
Musical “family trees” of this sort are interesting, significant to be sure in at least some cases, and at the very least always harmless fun to trace. Isn’t it remarkable for example that we have a few precious recordings made by Joseph Joachim, associated with Mendelssohn, the Schumanns, Liszt, and Brahms, and we have many recordings made by his pupils including Maud Powell, and that Joachim himself studied under (and indeed lived in the household of) the violinist who Beethoven favored for his late quartets, Joseph Böhm.
Böhm also played in the premiere of Beethoven’s 9th. What it at least proves is that music making we can actually listen to is separated from the entire great 19th century of music and the greatest of them all by just one link in the chain.
It is meaningless of course that my own father took lessons with a pupil of Joachim, because his violin studies never went anywhere, but in cases where the pupil actually amounts to something I think the musical ancestries are worth noting and thinking about. And again at the very least they are fun.
Well, there are recordings of her lessons with Fleisher on the internet. And she has publicly admitted that Schnabel was one of her five most favourite pianists of all time. And this is her tweet after Fleisher’s death: “I’m heartbroken to hear of the inimitable Leon Fleisher’s passing. I’m lucky to have glimpsed his genius over the past 20 years, and to have learned from him at a young age. He was a titan of the classical music world and his memory will live on in all of our hearts.”
At the end of the day, Yuja’s phenomenal, inexplicable skill cannot be attributed to any teacher, because that can’t be taught: It’s a God-given gift – period.
Well, I suppose she also practiced quite a bit.
One could practice until the cows come home – but skills like hers can’t be developed to that degree. Either you have it in you, or you don’t.
Yes considerable skills no doubt – but to my ear 90% of those skills are technically based – more persperation than inspiration
Romantic nonsense…..Musically,she had a lot to learn whwn she arrived in the West…She did…In some corners of the rep she still has to learn a lot.
Indeed, Yuja has her weak links. Who doesn’t?
Schnabel’s piano-teaching legacy is very impressive and worth mentioning. Some of the most famous pianists in the world of the last 40-50 years were his “musicial children” or “grandchildren”: Martha Argerich, Maria Curcio, Barry Douglas, Radu Lupu, Dame Mitsuko Uchida, Myung-Whun Chung. A mere coincidence? When you check their CVs you can notice that they are pretty proud of that legacy. There is even a special Wikipedia page called “Pupils of Artur Schnabel”. The interesting fact is that his links to Bielsko-Biala are largely forgotten. Which is a pity, because the city (which used to be the second wealthiest municipality of Austro-Hungarian empire after Vienna) has now a brand new and very impressive concert hall and also a young and vibrant classical music festival “Beskid Classics”.
She has certainly better legs than Schnabel.
“She [certainly has] better legs than Schnabel”—yes, but he has greater Schnab appeal. At least, as a pianistic great-granddaughter of Leschetitzky, Yuja has . . . oh, never mind.
“…a picture of a fetching Asian girl with purpled hair. But maybe I’m just not bright.”
Classical music needs a social-cultural lift in 2023. Although if it becomes too politically woke, it runs the risk of being rendered as cheap and worthless as auto-tuned music, it does need some of the symbolic flash (along with substance, of course) provided by a Wang or Dudamel.
Organizations like an LA Phil (which will droop a bit, post-Dudamel) had better keep that in mind.
I’m fairly convinced of Ms Wang’s skills; the Dude, though…très ordinaire
Of course my comment was censored; it spoke to the issue at hand, which is the curious focus on Yuja Wang that a certain British blogster seems to have.
This is incoherent.
She is crazy talented, but needs fashion advice.
How does Schnabel’s being born in Poland constitute part of a “dark past”… some of the nicest people I know are Polish…
Nothing matters but the fact that Yuja is the foremost classical pianist in the world today! Superstar is an understatement in the world of greatness among the elite.