Is this the end for Yuja and Klaus?

Is this the end for Yuja and Klaus?

News

norman lebrecht

January 11, 2024

We’re hearing from close associates that the power couple have split up.

Certainly, Yuja Wang and Klaus Mäkelä have unfriended each other on some social media.

Now Chicago and Cleveland are wondering who will turn up at their joint concerts in April.

All seemed to be going so well… they even introduced each other to the respective parents… but the gap in age and experience is considerable and their travel schedules are destructive.

Sorry to be the bearer of break-ups, but that’s what’s going round.

 

photo from June this year

Comments

  • OSF says:

    Maybe better to be friends or not perform with your significant others.

  • Monteverdi says:

    Are Alondra de La Parra and Julian Pregardien still dating?

  • Gio says:

    I guess they decided they got as much social media engagement as they were going to and called it a day.

  • Musician says:

    Nobody gives a flying f%#€!!!!!

  • Richard says:

    I’ve said all along that i was convinced that their pairing was a match of convenience. Whether Yuja is bi or gay I do not know but she has said publicly in a freely-available interview, “I like girls”. As far as I know she never had a boyfriend until Makela came along and we don’t know much about Makela’s consorting with the opposite sex, either.

  • Sue Sonata Form says:

    I predicted this last year, right here. He will want children. End of story.

    • Tamino says:

      How would you know she doesn’t want them (women in their 30s… clock ticking…) and he doesn’t want yet? Curb the fantasy projections.

  • Observing2 says:

    Not to take away from whatever is going on in their personal lives, but as a bystander, I really couldn’t care less about their personal lives.

    • Richard says:

      The degree to which you, personally, could care about their personal lives is probably not of much concern to the rest of us. I could be wrong.

  • waw says:

    Klaja or Yuus just never had a ring to it.

    Wankela or Makewang *definitely* did not work.

  • John Borstlap says:

    Maybe Ms Wang watched Hurwitz’ reviews of Mäkelä’s Stravinsky and Sibelius discs:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RGU5uWRjfg

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEROBu89Csg

    … or Mr Mäkelä discovered Wang’s deviations from Chinese propriety:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vTJGuDzYsc

  • David A. Boxwell says:

    I’m, like, totally in a state of, like, shock and sorrow for them?

  • Guest says:

    Honestly it seems highly unlikely. Mäkelä liked a medici.tv clip of Wang playing the piano and Wang followed a bunch more French learning accounts after they unfollowed each other (within the same hour). They probably just don’t want to live their private lives in public for obsessives like me (and I’m clearly not alone judging by your “sources”).

  • db says:

    wow. Yuja is single?!?!?

    Does anyone know if she’s into losers who post idiotic comments on music message boards?

    Norman, if she is, please give her my contact info. I know there’s a lot of us, but I asked first.

    I’ll take her to a lovely romantic dinner at Pizza Hut. (I know… lavish! But I have a coupon!!!!)

  • caranome says:

    She: Oh honey, it’s not you; it’s me.
    He: No no, it’s not you, it’s me.

  • IP says:

    And Uchida is not a free woman. . .

  • Net Curtains says:

    Capricorn Makalu and Aquarius Wing is not a great match.

    And it was never going to last, especially with those flashy dresses.

  • Edo says:

    Maybe it is just their own business.

  • Dargomyzhsky says:

    Really, who cares?

  • Dougie Undersub says:

    Watching Wang being interviewed by Andreas Ottensamer on the Berlin Phil’s Digital Concert Hall you’d think those two were definitely close.

  • Satoshi N. says:

    She’s really not attractive according to Asian standards. Foreigners simply don’t understand.

    • John Borstlap says:

      Asians and sophisticated Westerners find her vulgar, however good she may be as a musician.

      • Ivann Villeneuve says:

        Everyone considers her beautiful and sexy. Few Old timers refuse to see her as an Artist who freely expresses herself even with trendy fashion.

    • Jean says:

      I’m an Asian. I find her very attractive, especially when she plays piano. Look at yourself in the mirror first before you judge someone else’ appearance.

  • professional musician says:

    The site hits a new low.which actually is a hard thing to achieve.

  • SlippedChat says:

    And here I was, waiting in vain to see how she’d remake his stage wardrobe.

  • James Grim says:

    I hope she finds happiness. It’s really not our business how she seeks or finds it.

  • Corno di Caccia says:

    Who’s really bothered?

  • Puravive says:

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  • Richard says:

    Funny, really, isn’t it? In addition to Yuja, Makela has another hobby: photography… and by all accounts he’s pretty good at it.
    Yet, nobody says, “I don’t want to know about his relationship with the camera. It’s none of our business.”
    But because it’s sex, people get all uppity and enter into high dudgeon and pretend to show outrage.
    It’s all show and comedy, a way for people to vent their jealousies and resentments by seeming to be affronted!
    Pathetic, really.

  • Thomas Roth says:

    Power couple???

  • April May says:

    April May: Yuja is my most beloved pianist! She & Klaus are such a nice couple! They made wonderful music together! Please continue to make music together! I hope they both could talk & solve your differences! I saw from the photos Yuja posted that you both love each other sincerely!

  • Wolken Philips says:

    The music will go on. Why is this even significant?

  • Rosalie says:

    There is something so satisfying to see them together.
    It felt harmonious, .
    Tho giant talents!

  • Sean Li says:

    If it is not him, It’ll be some other white guy.

  • Ivann Villeneuve says:

    Yuja Wang has earned the love and respect of all of us her fans, because of her dedication and passion in her performances.

    My wish is that she finds a partner who loves and values her for what she is, and my own personal impression is that Yuja is too beautiful for Klaus, she could find a better looking partner.

  • Ivann Villeneuve says:

    Actually there was never a spark between them, Santa Klaus was just another musician that Yuji had encountered in her path. She needs a real man in her life, a guy that treats her like what she really is, a beautiful princess , and a Godess of the classical piano .

  • Robert Werblin says:

    She’s now a celebrity; he not quite but since he, questionably, got involved with a celebrity, they both can expect this sort of silly, if not plainly inappropriate, scrutiny. No one’s business, but inappropriate public scrutiny is on of the prices of celebrity, and the positives that come with it. To me she’s an astounding pianist/artist who also happens to appear very attractive; he I haven’t seen enough to comment intelligently. Certainly they deserve happiness in their personal lives as much as anyone else.

  • SWL says:

    Well, as big fans of Yuja Wang and Bartók, we have been looking forward to her performance of Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in CSO next week. It was a great disappointment to learn that she withdrew from the performance. I understand it would be hard for her to perform with a director she’ve just broken up, too hard to maintain some level of professionalism in honoring the promise given out to the audience. Is there such professionalism in this business?

  • Her Royal Snarkiness says:

    Hi from CLE. Nope they didn’t. A person could do worse than Jean-Yves Thibaudet playing Gershwin’s Concerto in F. Sach’s trumpet solos were sublime, too.

    All that said, my reference “Rite” is Boulez/Cleveland; heard it live, have the 1969 recording. Had to return to it after the faster/louder “demonstrative” Mäkëla performance. A young wag near me quipped that he appeared to performing the ballet in that last dance. Lots of thrash. . .

  • Adutstudent12345 says:

    It is sad.

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