Anything Yuja can do, this Russian will outpace her
NewsRemember the fuss when Yuja Wang performed the four Rachmaninov concertos plus the Paganini Variations in a single evening? The presumption of the artist, the stamina….
The self-exiled Russian pianist Mihkail Pletnev has performed the same feat in Rolle, Switzerland, with his own Rachmaninov International Orchestra.
The Rachmaninov competition is hotting up.
UPDATE: We hear that the Putin-friendly Denis Matsuev played the five works for piano and orchestra in Shanghai in a five-hour concert on November 3 and again in Guangzhou two days later.
Having been fortunate enough to see both concerts live, I can confirm:
Yuja 1 – Pletnev 0
Having being present to Mr Pletnëv’s performances, I’d like to say he played magnificently from the breath preceeding the first note to the silence following the last one.
Grandissimo, raro musicista.
Are you related to Federica Bonetti? (and Umberto and Ludovica?) My daughter went to
Lycée w Fed in NYC
No.
Cordiali saluti.
Wang certainly is the winner in the speed department, but Pletnev (complete concert on youtube!) is extraordinarily beautiful. Fine as she is, Pletnev’s range of tone was, for me, always something special. And playing the cycle with such ease all at once in one’s late 60s is scarcely credible.
Of course if we want to compare thoroughbred racehorses, we must also factor in the young Pletnev.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQR_mWx1qwI
I hear nothing special about that performance from the young Pletnev. Bad recording quality doesn’t help. Perhaps you can’t tell or you would have chosen a much better performance for Pletnev, which does exist. Here is Yuja Wang playing Chopin etudes at age 14:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fqc_yDwi3Vs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIFwQmm2StM
Both are masters and perform on highest level, so there is no 1:0 or whatever. If you find an interpretation better than another, is only subjective. There is never and there will never be a best interpretation of Rachmaninov concertos because of every pianist feels the music differently – which is the essence of music and which makes music so fascinating.
So true!
Agreed, although if there are any “reference” recordings, I would nominate the ones from the late 1920’s where Rachmaninov himself is the soloist on his own concerti with Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra!
Such events are akin to hot-dog eating contests in my book.
I laughed for 5 minutes.
Couldn’t agree more!
One wonders: what is the point of these herculean feats?
And it’s not like there is huge audience demand to hear the 1st and 4th concertos.
N°1 is very underrated, I feel. The slow movement in particular is heavenly. Not so keen on N°4.
Rachmaninoff’s 1st Concerto is actually the Grieg Concerto in the wrong key. Phrase after phrase, the similarities are unmistakable. Having said that, Rach #1 is a damn good piece (even if the 3rd movement is a bit cheezy…)
Allow me to disagree with you about fourth concerto: when played by Mr Pletnëv during his concert, it was pure Beauty!
Publicity. It’s the performers life blood.
Exactly. I say poor orchestra!
Valentina Lisitsa did this all before both of them in Madrid several years ago.
Pletnev is an incredible pianist, though I can’t really see the point of it.
I should love to have been at the Pletnev concert, but I was at the Yuja Wang event in Carnegie Hall. I have no means of knowing for sure but, in a seat where I could observe carefully that evening, it was my distinct impression that the moving force behind that perhaps not altogether wise event was not the pianist, but the conductor.
Frankly, it doesn’t matter. Music is not sports. On the other hand, Mr. Pletnev is an immense artist, a musician of such a high caliber that he still remains underrated.
Exactly. His Pictures remains, for me, the gold standard.
Too much Rachmaninov in one go.
Absolutely, and Rachmaninoff himself would have agreed with you.
Yuja had nothing to say in one concerto, she had four times nothing to say in four concerti.
Probably had fifty times more to say than you did in your post above.
If he is going to “outpace” her then he will have to play the “5th” concerto too….
Done already (arrangement of 2th Symphony):
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wRYidi0e-BA&pp=ygUXcmFjaG1hbmlub3YgY29uY2VydG8gNSA%3D
I once heard Lorin Maazel conduct the 9 Beethoven symphonies in one day with 3 London orchestras. Utterly forgettable.
It was horrible…Superficial,glib,totally non musical.
Having played under Maazel twice,i must say it was musically the worst thing i ever played in…He had one rehearsal for the Bartok Concerto for Orchestra.He did the rehearsal with a closed score, stopping the orchestra sometimes, checking the score, and repeating the passage without saying anything.He used the rehearsal only to check his memory( as if we care he does it with or without a score.The musical result is the only important factor). He didn´t say anything tp the orchestra. The performance was a near death experience.
It would be nice to see these potentially great artists direct their energies toward deepening interpretation rather than stunts. The mid-life self-reinventions that for example Rubinstein went through. But that requires digging a lot deeper, and you might come up empty, and the critics rarely hear the difference anyway.
Matsuev did it not only once – he very much likes things like that. And the way he makes difficulties dissapear (although his way of playing augments them) makes him a perfect choice.
It’s interesting to hear “all of” in one setting – if you don’t like it don’t go. Gergiev is the expert for “all of” (a concert under 150 Minutes is not his kind of things) – all 5 Prokofiev piano concertos on one evening (with different pianists) – Prokofiev Symphonies 2 to 7 on one day (number one was positioned elsewhere). Thus seldom heard pieces get a context and a chance to be heard (Piano concerto 4 – Symphonies 2&3&4). Why not on a special motto day or weekend? Or the “Stravinsky endurance test” (with the long version Firebird next to Petrushka and Sacre)?
I find the concept to be beneficial with Etude cycles – Etudes tableaux – Etdues transcendantes – some pieces that are always neglected and not very profound per se (f.e. tableaux 39/7 – transcendantes 6 & 7) come to life (IF the pianist has the quality for that – not everyone is Trifonov) and the whole experience is worth it – especially the Etudes transcendantes (the lyricism of number 9 comes with an additional relief after 1 to 8 – numbers 10&11&12 receive an additional weight – and first and foremost it is really “transcendental” to get along with those last three pieces after having played the other 9). There are indeed very few pianists and orchestras who have the stamina to get this right – so its quite rarely heard.
I didn’t realize these Rachmaninov marathons were music’s answer to the World Wrestling Foundation.
Maybe we need to find someone who will play all of Scarlatti’s 555 sonatas in one sitting.
hahaha
I love Scarlatti
If only Scott Ross was still with us…
We get it you don’t like Yuja You Dont like Yannick. Sad and bitter personal vendettas from Lebrecht seem to be all he has to offer
Hit the nail on its head!
Pletnev a brilliant artist…what he brings in interpretive experience is immense…a pianist who knows how to create an illusion of speed by his rhytmic sense. There are many pianists the world over who could this or more in one night…I really don’t know what the craze is about …do we need piano athletes…so few individual artists today…plenty of counterfeit tho…
Paganini “Rhapsody” not “Variations”
From a musical point of view four concertos plus the Paganini Rhapsody is an indigestible feast. It serves little purpose other than to display a 66 year old’s athleticism. Formidable for sure but…..
I saw Yuja’s Ravel G in Amsterdam, and to be honest, it was pretty mediocre. It so happened that before that week another unknown Romanian pianist also played the Ravel G. I felt that Yuja was not as good as an unknown pianist in interpreting some less technical movements that needed to be polished in terms of tone and phrasing.
Of course I have nothing to comment if your understanding of the music is playing faster, more precise and marathon concerts.
You just made me look up Daniel Ciobanu. Please, don’t be cruel to him and compare him to Yuja Wang. Just shows what a mediocrity he is. Do you want links for comparison?
Sort of like a hotdog eating contest. Ugh.
Pletnev does not look nearly as appealing in a skintight minidress.
Rachmanenough!
New York hadn’t heard Pletnev in years, so when he came back a few years ago, expectations were high. He played the weirdest Rach #2 imaginable – one couldn’t make heads or tails out of it. What a disappointment!
With so many other piano concertos needing to be heard, but the time available to hear them so limited, this kind of stunt cannot be considered musicianly in any sense.
Would we have heard any of the Rachmaninov if previous generations had behaved this way, doing a marathon of Mozart concerti and never making it as far as Rachmaninov?
A mind-boggling comparison for me. Yuja and Pletnev?… “Anything Yuja can do?..” I think it’d be much more fair for Yuja if she were compared to someone in her league. Yes, she is a brilliant pianist, she plays very well and has a huge following. But this is where any basis for comparison ends. Does Yuja conduct? Does she compose? Are her arrangements played all over the world? I would also refrain from comparing the pianistic/musical weight/depth/significance of the two. Maybe 30 years later, when Yuja is as mature as Pletnev is now.
I’m sorry but aren’t you all so sad. Do any of you know what music is really all about? I mean from those that propose such an absurdly banal question to those who take it seriously enough to reply. Please, can we do something to stop this slow but insistent decline towards the death of great music.
But, can he do it in high heels and a slinky short dress??!!
Outpace? Was it a time trial? If so, it sounds as though Wang won. Let’s leave the competition to the competitions.
Another silly headline.