Fans have been complaining on Chinese social media that Yuja Wang cut short a Berlin Philharmonic signing session on Wednesday in Shanghai, saying ”this is not my CD signing and I’m going to leave.’
She was, as is her habit in China, dressed very sedately.
A social media activist has circulated a video…
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Is any of that newsworthy ?
Perhaps shes quite right, it was a Boston Symphony concert, and they were meant to be the main attraction.
Never heard of BSO Asian tour one week prior to Tanglewood 🙂
I can’t wait to listen to her next month. The rest is noise.
1st, SD please get the facts right
– Yuja Wang was in Shanghai with the Berlin Phil, NOT the Boston Symphony. https://www.shine.cn/feature/art-culture/2406256042/
2nd, SD, fair enough you don’t read Chinese, but please get someone who can interpret the Chinese social media post accurately, although accuracy isn’t this column’s forte.
– The post wasn’t a complaint. The fan was merely describing the chaos during the signing that people were rowdy & out of control. She’s disappointed not to get the autograph but could understand why Yuja left under the circumstance.
There were several such posts
Then why didn’t you post them all?! Show us the evidence!
Correction: This was following a Berlin Philharmonic concert, not Boston Symphony.
If it wasn’t her CD signing, why was she there in the first place?
Because the local promoter might have asked her to join, for obvious reasons, and she only realizing during, that she should let the orchestra have their own session, not trying to steal their spotlight? Which would mean she was trying to be nice and do the right thing twice. And still gets bashed.
Strange report considering the Boston Symphony is not in China, nor has it been in recent weeks. Rehearsals start at Tanglewood in 3 days and many musicians are already in town.
I don’t think it has anything to do with Boston Symphony. Berlin Philharmonic is probably the orchestra
Berlin Philharmonic.
I have heard Yuja enough times in L.A.
Have no desire to see hear her anytime soon…unless she starts playing serious classics.
Central to her artistry is her versatility, she doesn’t just bang out 19th c. concertos as part of the same repertoire as many of her compatriots and contemporaries do. I’d listen to anything she played.
Indeed, her current recital program contains some Shostakovitch preludes and fugues, Samuel Barber’s sonata and Chopin’s four ballades. I can’t wait.
I heard her Chopin Ballades in L.A. – very weird.
The classics are just not her thing.
I tentatively agree. So far the best of her I have heard online is mid-19th century music or later. Her Chopin I have sampled online isn’t anywhere as good as, say, her Rachminov. I was blown away by her interpretations of Rachmaninov 1, 2 and Rhapsody in Philadelphia a year ago. Also, she is young and evolving. I also look foward to an older Yuja Wang. Ditto with Trifonov.
1. she’s not that young.
2. she never entered a competition that’s why her playing is nonconforming and weird.
3. Trifonov, a winner of major piano competitions, is light years ahead in artistry, poetry and interpretive insight.
We all have our own tastes and opinions. But I have to respectfully disagree with your latest arguments:
– Artists keep evolving. This includes such legends as Arrau and Gilels.
– I don’t understand your association with competitions and artistry. Among current stars, Kissin didn’t enter competitions either. Like him or not, he is widely respected and definitely not weird.
I don’t think Gould entered a competition either. Neither did Richter for that matter. Nor Bach or Mozart I think?
Her penchant for complex, haunting, thrilling 20th century repertoire is what won me over to this player. Praying she doesn’t go Schubert-Brahms-Beethoven on us. It’s not like there’s any dearth of specialists concentrating on that material.
Why on earth does it matter how she was dressed?
Normally it should not matter. But this context reveals her as the phony she is.
Because in a country like China where dress at concerts is slightly more conservative than in many other countries, artists are expected to follow suit (sic). Social norms in different countries offen differ. If an artist does not respect them, they do not have to perform there!
Really? Isn’t she a self proclaimed “modern progressive woman” intending on breaking all the taboos, yada, yada, yada? Then why does she care about the antiquated customs of an ancient patriarchy?
That’s why she’s a phony.