Yuja’s sunning it through Covid
mainA bored Yuja Wang is posting pictures of her daily life in New York.
Lest we forget.
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It’s really odd all this. She is such a major player she doesn’t need to do all the things you’d associate with a desperate wannabe
Let her live her life… If she wants to share some facets of her life with us, why not? Two Instagram posts per month is hardly desperate. And one does wonder why this is considered news on this site.
Because of too much hype, too much publicity, too much embarassment.
What about Nigel kennedys Hobo like clothes.
Does she have any poetry, esthetic refinement?
Obviously you haven’t listened to her Scarlatti, Schumann, Scriabin… amongst many others
It’s interesting to see that “Grittenhouse” says some platitude and expects everyone to agree with him or her … a Karen or a male Karen …
Does anyone else get a shiver down there spine when they see a post about Yuja on this site?
Certainly a tingle somewhere or other…
Yuja Wank…
Having ‘problems’ Gustavo?
Ran out of coconut oil, maybe 🙁
You have a mental problem with sexy female musicians Gustavinho?…
I think the Khatia Buniatishvili post needs a little attention now. And if you don’t take my word for it, search for her name on YouTube (oh to be a fly on the wall in one of Sony Classical’s marketing meetings).
Posing for the yellow label?
Even Paavo has joined the yellow side of the force:
https://www.amazon.de/Paavo-J%C3%A4rvi-Frankfurt-Radio-Symphony/dp/B08BQRJHNC/ref=sr_1_3?__mk_de_DE=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&dchild=1&keywords=Paavo+J%C3%A4rvi&qid=1594803291&sr=8-3
though still without the golden Rolex…
Gustavo: He certainly won’t beat his father in the Schmidt, despite the fancy lable and all the posing (!)
Well hard to compete with dad conducting Detroit and Chicago Symphony Orchestras on Chandos – but let us wait and hear.
Paavo’s Rott with the Frankfurters is one of the best on the market.
Neeme’s Rott with BPO is probably the best recording that is not on the market.
If you’ve got it (which I ain’t) flaunt it. It matters little – she is one of the greatest players of her (or any) generation.
People who have taste do not flaunt it, personally or musically. I don’t know of any musician who has musical taste who doesn’t also have personal taste.
she could do a centrefold, if only she wasn’t so over-dressed…
She’s not that…anything. Blair Tindall has it all over on her.
Nice to see that after Covid-19 also SD tries to go back to normal with a little Yuga Wang promo … I am glad to see SD gives at least these Yuja Wang images regular files names “yuja-wang-summer .. jpg”. I found it quite disturbing to see pics of this woman on this blog named “yuja-wang-shorts-300×200.jpg” [at the piano], “yuja-wang-shortest-271×300.jpg” [walking off stage], “yuja-wang-long-proms-300×200.jpg” [on stage at proms], and so on…
Learn some Alkan, some Sorabji…?
you can learn any composer in your skimpies – have you not tried it?
Oh, given her monstrous technique, Alkan and Sorabji are a walk in the park for her, rest assured!
Seriously, she genuinely could. She’s not given enough credit for the breadth of her repertoire. She does ALL the Prokofiev concertos for example. She plays the more troublesome Ravel Left Hand concerto as well as the popular G major. She even plays Messiaen’s Turangalila – and you don’t tackle that piece unless you are very serious indeed, and prepared to put your virtuosity at the service of a bigger cause. She’d be fantastic in Alkan, whose quirkiness and driving energy are perfect for how she plays. I’d rather hear her do some of the Sorabji Transcendental Studies than a great big piano symphony or Opus Clavicembalisticum. And if she wants to play in a skimpy dress or tight shorts, why not? I don’t mind what she wears. She’s a great ambassador for music generally.
Indeed. She could easily make Alkan and Sorabji into household names.
Having recently heard a live Sorabji Opus, I’m not sure that anyone can really bring it off…
Just out of curiosity, what Sorabji work did you hear live?
Opus usually means Opus Clavicembalisticum.
14/11/2019 from 19:00 until about 1:30.
Any more questions?
Since you mention the Turangalîla-Symphonie, I’m tempted to suggest something like The Garden of Iram from Sorabji’s Symphonic Variations; that work exists in a typeset version and the orchestral parts are quite doable, and the piece lasts some 30 minutes. The piano part is outrageously intricate, though, even compared to Sorabji’s other nocturnal music.
or the Closing Scene from “Salome”, or the Trois Pastiches…
I didn’t know there was a piano version of Messiaen’s Turangalila.
It would be fun to see the whole Turangalîla orchestra dressed the same way… Would that have been Yvonne’s taste?
There’s quality then there’s quantity.
True, those composers ( Alkan and Sorabji) generally fare better as miniaturists.
If only someone would cut the Barraqué piano sonata by 10mins or so and we’d have one of the great post -war piano works. Far stronger than the Boulez 2nd.
It’s not technique. It’s mental control, playing like an automaton. Her hands are a wreck. She’s also lacking in real “power.” Tone quality, volume. I guess studying with Graffman paid off.
“ playing like an automaton”
Wasn’t what I encountered when I heard her play Scriabin’s 10th Sonata at the Barbican a few years ago.
is she getting worried by Lola Russian Piano Porn/No Talent…? Yuja has all the gifts, musical and body beautiful, therefore has no cause for concern.
Not to mention Lola keeps fudging her birth year in wikipedia. (Hint, hint: Lola was born in 1982, not 1985.)
Lola isn’t worthy to wear Yuja’s thong. Lola is low-end costume jewelry.
This thread is the very definition of “catty”
Stop harassing her. Please.
I’am agree with you but it would be nice to talk about the other painists of the same generation Rana Seong and above all Yeol Eum Son
Have performed twice with Yeol Eum (Rachmaninoff and Mozart), and agree that she is outstanding.
You are very lucky I have seen her in concert only once.
She posted the pictures, didn’t she?
Exactly. She’s a big girl. She knows what she’s doing posting these pictures.
She’s just having fun. I think that’s her whole ‘thing’ and why not, she’s a product of the times we live in. Whatever you might think, yes, she’s no Brendel or whoever, but can certainly play.
And I’m having fun checking her out. It’s a win-win!
Absolutely!
You’re right, Mr. Goldberg.
Yuja is a much more interesting musician than old boring Brendel ever was.
Why is a musician’s innocuous instagram post newsworty?
Have you seen how many comments, and up/down votes, this post has gotten? -Which is surely just a small fraction of the number of total clicks. Yuja brings in the revenue.
Sadly (?), the posts with the highest numbers of comments &/or clicks on this site are usually the ones that are not about music (or only tangentially, e.g. Domingo, Dutoit, et al). Sexual harassment, and racial and economic injustice, pay the bills.
But Bruce, though you have a habit of taking the high ground and preaching to the fallen here, you are like a “hog at the trough” reading and posting every day.
True, I come here every day. I do like reading about what’s going on in the world of classical music, and learning to read between the lines of NL’s sensationalistic/ misleading headlines is the price I pay for getting that information for free. I do try to read the relevant articles when they’re not blocked.
My “taking the high ground and preaching to the fallen” is simply me seeing things the way I see them… same as for those who see things differently than I do. I disagree with them, they disagree with me, and the world continues to go round. If you see me as a sanctimonious scold, well, I’m sorry about that. But don’t expect me to change the way I see things, any more than you’d expect Doug or Sue Sonata Form to change their approaches based on my opinion.
In the meantime, my point about sex/ sexual harassment and racism getting more clicks than anything else is neither original nor untrue. Nothing based on actual artistry, even the most partisan pro/anti Netrebko arguments, garner so much attention. That’s how the world works, and Norman has do what pays the bills. (I’m sure that the 19thC newspapers now mostly remembered for running serialized novels by Dickens or Trollope, made most of their money covering crime and tawdry sex scandals. Plus ça change…)
Beautiful musician and beautiful young lady.
Enjoy it while it lasts.
Youth will last forever and sooner or later there will be someone new and the youngsters will ask “who is Yuja Wang?” .
It’s funny how many young fans don’t realize that, before she was a beautiful old lady, Martha Argerich was a beautiful young one:
https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1024w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2016/11/30/Style/Images/argerich3.jpg?uuid=2W_U_LcTEeaVnBcsghI5dg
https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/86ede4d04af648d303c16f9bd23255bb6c260e75/0_668_2986_2186/master/2986.jpg?width=445&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=6594fe3a69a3256cb24650ae81ec99ed
I posted links to a couple of her early album covers awhile back and people were like “OMG I had no idea she was so hot!”
Back when the world and I were young, I would try to interest friends in music school in her playing. They’d take one look at an album cover (for example https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71fqUrvFH8L._AC_UY218_.jpg) and sniff about how they weren’t interested in hearing some cute young competition winner. I practically had to force someone to listen to the Funeral March before he would admit that she had, in his words, “interpretive powers.” (He’d only heard about her looks and her Prokofiev Toccata)
So… IMHO it will be Yuja’s recordings that stand the test of time (or not), not her outfits. She surely realizes that, and probably spends more time on average practicing than posing. Just a guess.
Yuja is no flash in the pan – she’s got what it takes to hang in there for the long term.
…..well it has been 35 celsius pretty much every day here in NYC……………..
Just a bit of post-teen rebellion. Of course, SD has to publish the pictures to show our disapproval!
Why are these pictures such a big deal? Let her be!
she is sexy
My fly on the wall tells me that Ms Wang let herself be inspired by purely musical considerations, projected upon her wardrobe. So, the picture demonstrates her personal interpretation of sonata form: this is the ‘exposition’, which will soon be followed by the ‘development’, after which we can expect the ‘recapitulation’.
Get your fly off the wall, please.
Hahaha
Poor thing ! must be in pain with all that white bandage .What could it be covering up ?The blue shorts are a study in itself. …. ouch !
Not much to write home about.
She is beautiful, and she is proud of it.
A great musician (and she is) can also be a beautiful woman.
Trying hard to be relevant. Good fingers.
Everyone is entitled to their own taste in music and musical performances, but what is unarguable is that Yuja Wang is one of the most accomplished pianists around today. Personally, I’ve found her performances of Ravel and Prokofiev electrifying. What is repugnant is the drooling over her appearance by the middle-aged men here and elsewhere. (Full disclosure: I am a middle-aged man) Most male artists her age or even older do cover art, magazine shoots, post on social media displaying their love of clothes, a come-hither expression, or showing off in some other way, but do not get the kind of lascivious attention that Yuja gets. Get a grip and try at least to pretend that the Me Too movement means something.
On many occasions readers of this blog expressed their concerns about the future of classical music performance/recording and named education systems, politics, distraction through media etc. as the typical reasons why there is no ‘Kleiber’ or ‘Horowitz’ amongst young women and men.
I wonder who will be the first, author or reader of this blog, to make contact with reality: Go and meet with average, educated young people (students in a campus cafeteria or your own kids upstairs) and simply ask them what they hate more: Classical music – or the opinions of classical music lovers on Yuja’s photos? Guess what the answer will be…
Perhaps she thinks she is an attractive woman.
Yuja posts always get a metric ton of views and comments…. I wonder why Norman keeps doing them.
The view from my seat: She’s an excellent pianist who deserves the serious critical praise she’s received. If you agree but her attire bothers/distracts you…. just listen to her recordings/webcasts. If you think she’s a mediocre pianist who needs the social media shenanigans to stay in the public spotlight….. well, why do you keep reading this stuff?
Generation Facebook and Instagram Narcissist.
When is dressing for the weather controversial? Also, for the prudes here. The anger twisted up with sexual arousal almost like shouting to strangers you’re impotent and frustrated IMHO.
She needs to keep toning her ass in the gym.
Finally, something about Wang. I watched her play Flight of the Bumblebee with staggering accuracy, too fast, and with loads of tension in her hands. Then I looked at Vladimir Horowitz’s hands while playing. What a difference, in every sense. Relaxed, poise, moving freely, while she pushes through everything, sheer determination and will power. Is this how all the Chinese students are taught, to stretch their fingers out with a tensed hand, no matter what the cost? I predict she will be unable to play by the age of 40 due to tendonitis, wear and tear and sheer exhaustion. It’s odd, because I’m sure they had Russian teachers in China originally. They must have been bad ones.
Interesting. Don’t know who her teachers were in China, but it wouldn’t be surprising if they were Russian or Russian-schooled, since the Russian influence in piano playing is everywhere. In the US she studied with Gary Graffman, who has his own history of hand problems (and had a famous Russian teacher).
Eh. She’s ok in the image department. Just has a good image consultant/publicist.
I can think of a lot more Asian-american classical musicians I’d rather check out.
name them…
Too bad no male classical musician can fill out a pair of cutoffs like Yuja.
LOL, they would surely fill them out differently :-O
I find it interesting that the above pictures were actually posted on Yuja’s Facebook account on July 12, whereas on July 15 – the date of this column – she posted a picture of herself in sporting attire on a bicycle at West Harlem Piers. I submit that the columnist had the option of what to post, but possibly selected these photos because they suggest a certain narrative, of indolence or ennui.
Personally I find this constant cattiness about this beautiful young woman’s clothing choices, and her social media accounts, is getting rather tiresome. Everytime I see one of these annoying headlines about her appearance, it makes me wonder if this is becoming some sort of Rupert Murdoch tabloid vendetta!?
There are, of course, performers whose bland musicianship has no great appeal, and they’ve used cheap tricks of sexualizing their appearance to garner some attention, for what usually amounts to a brief flirtation with fame.
Yuja Wang is a fantastic musician, who I love listening to. She’s young and will continue to grow as an artist, and whilst she has this amazing body, why not celebrate it too. If she was 500 lbs and came out in pink spangly hot pants and some electrical tape on her nipples, then I would be repulsed and her appearance would probably ruin my evening. This is clearly not the case!
YW likes to show up in generous clothes or just covered with sheet music (from her preparation for the hammer piano sonata?) https://www.gettyimages.de/detail/nachrichtenfoto/yuja-wang-nachrichtenfoto/541093148
d92a39a07bdaf172e446b27354d4355f.jpg (1536×2048) (pinimg.com)
Sunning? Looks more like Stunning!