Yuja Wang plays Chopin: Nocturne in C minor, Op. 48, No. 1 at Jerwood Hall, LSO, St. Lukes.

Yuja Wang plays Chopin Nocturne in C minor, Op. 48, No. 1 at Jerwood Hall, LSO St. Lukes, London, Friday the 21st of Februari 2014. This was a free concert, a so called "Lunchtime concert". The day before, she played Rach III at the Barbican in London.

[@sheana2005]

I absolutely love listening to everything Yuja plays, and love how she's made it "cool" to be a classical musician! How fortunate we are to be able to hear her!!

[@conannanoc8768]

what do you mean? when was it uncool to be a classical musician?

[@sheana2005]

@@conannanoc8768 I find that many people don't appreciate classical music. It's their loss. But Yuja's personal style and her charisma as a performer have given the genre much wider appeal. You mistook my meaning, as I am myself am a classical pianist.

[@yyyyy4491]

God! this is so Arrau! Wasn't expecting this from Yuja. Master piece!

[@suegha]

I really like her interpretation, she made it her own! It's a pity the sound quality isn't better, but it is still a great performance!

[@user-ip4wc5kw6z]

I like the extreme dispair , fierce sound and mad emotion in her music

[@bosiljkavujovic9376]

​@@tonychen5517 agree

[@lamenamethefirst]

4:43 Yuja Wang is human after all.

[@SKubric]

lamenamethefirst True, very very very rarely heard she slipped finger , she was always technically and musically perfect. Also this song her interpretation is not as deep as her Waltz and Rachmaninov. She surely can do better than this video.

[@gtubetaiwan]

lamenamethefirst Yes, I noticed that too and a bit surprised. She might not be in good condition that day.

[@lamenamethefirst]

And yet it was an amazing performance. I think that's something to take away from this video. No one is perfect. And correctness is overrated. Horowitz made plenty of mistakes but he was undoubtedly one of the most stunning performers.

[@jozehar9985]

You are correct. She plays songs 10x more difficult. But sometimes fingers have a mind of their own.

[@WillonFire87]

This has to be the best rendition of this song.. the emotion.. the timing.. the rhythm it was so perfect! I haven't heard anyone play this so superbly as yuja.. omg..

[@bosiljkavujovic9376]

Dear Willon, also, try to listen this nocturno interpreted by Alexei Sultanov! Thank you!

[@stalkerspredators]

bravissimo!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@slon550]

Because of such performers is the world's beautifully.

[@ziruizhou7558]

the interpretation of her left hand bases were incredible

[@amhaun01]

this is the first time i've heard so clearly in the doppio movimento how the bass line is almost on par with the melody at the opposite end of the piano. she's so good

[@MataMoscaDufaol]

Imprecionante.

[@professordodo1]

Whether the doppio is fast or loud is immaterial to me personally. The beauty of this particular performance is our ability to hear every note, especially in the first section, articulated so clearly where so many greater named pianists muffle the sound.

[@joanduderow2361]

professordodo1 Beautiful interpretation in slow and fast sections. A difficult piece played by the best female pianist of our time. Joan Duderow.

[@WillonFire87]

Absolutely agree. Exactly what stands out to me is the clarity of those notes, of the melody, yet played so fast while keeping important heart wrenching swanky rhythm. One of the greatest. Rubinstein also nails it. It's a similar approach.

[@s.c.1494]

Absolutely agree. Imho Yuja's trademark is the shiny clarity of her notes and I have been so much awestruck of that wonders listening to her playing. Just a side note that I recently came across Yundi Li's performance of this same piece and it was really fantastic as well. I was pleasantly surprised of the absolute clarity and his interpretation.

[@jimsanford9215]

So Gorgeous Yuja!

[@sue-inglin9671]

What a talented artist.

[@radiodoc999]

very close to ideal conception, my favorite so far

[@pauliberg3492]

the best I have ever heard--

[@bosiljkavujovic9376]

I respect Wang's playing. also, try to listen this nocturno interpreted by Alexei Sultanov. Thank you!

[@icemonitorlizard]

Not a music expert but I prefer her pacing over most of the rest. Some are too slow or too fast and some just play over themselves like the notes are fighting for my attention. But when I listen to this one, I just here the music.

[@icemonitorlizard]

Hear*

[@petetotaro9510]

As a professional judge of classical piano performing, Yuji Wang is by far, the most top notch piano keyboard artist one will ever find in today's world, without question!

[@bloodgrss]

***** Why not troll?

[@chrisvonhoerschelmann7366]

+Pete Totaro I fully agree. yujia wang undestands the soul of music she plays and understands to bring it to you.

[@DavidButterworth202]

I agree. A flawless performance, which will set a benchmark for other players

[@leighclark5257]

Absolutely! She is the greatest living classical pianist and, arguably, the greatest since Liszt. No one else comes close.

[@mariodisarli1022]

THE NEW YORKER by Janet Malcolm " What is one to think of the clothes the twenty-nine-year-old pianist Yuja Wang wears when she performs-extremely short and tight dresses that ride up as she plays, so that she has to tug at them when she has a free hand, or clinging backless gowns that give an impression of near-nakedness (accompanied in all cases by four-inch-high stiletto heels)? In 2011, Mark Swed, the music critic of the L.A. Times, referring to the short and tight orange dress Yuja wore when she played Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto at the Hollywood Bowl, wrote that “had there been any less of it, the Bowl might have been forced to restrict admission to any music lover under 18 not accompanied by an adult.” Two years later, the New Criterion critic Jay Nordlinger characterized the “shorter-than-short red dress, barely covering her rear,” that Yuja wore for a Carnegie Hall recital as “stripper-wear.” Never has the relationship between what we see at a concert and what we hear come under such perplexing scrutiny. Is the seeing part a distraction (Glenn Gould thought it was) or is it-can it be-a heightening of the musical experience? During the intermission of a recital at Carnegie Hall in May, Yuja changed from the relatively conventional long gold sequinned gown she had worn for the first half, two Brahms Ballades and Schumann’s “Kreisleriana,” into something more characteristically outré. For the second half, Beethoven’s extremely long and difficult Sonata No. 29 in B-Flat, known as the “Hammerklavier,” she wore a dress that was neither short nor long but both: a dark-blue-green number, also sequinned, with a long train on one side-the side not facing the audience-and nothing on the other, so that her right thigh and leg were completely exposed. As she performed, the thigh, splayed by the weight of the torso and the action of the toe working the pedal, looked startlingly large, almost fat, though Yuja is a very slender woman. Her back was bare, thin straps crossing it. She looked like a dominatrix or a lion tamer’s assistant. She had come to tame the beast of a piece, this half-naked woman in sadistic high heels. Take that, and that, Beethoven! ..."

[@TJFNYC212]

Listen to the Chopin of Giomar Novaes

[@christophetanquerey2054]

quelle merveille que ce choral de la 2ieme page qui vient illuminer l'oeuvre avant les octaves ala Liszt ( tres rare chez Chopin!) et cet inattendu doppio movimento !!!!

[@MichaelLennon-ez8mx]

Go Yujamama!

[@maddisonelizabethtellooroz837]

Hermosa interpretación... BRAVO MAESTRA!!!👏👏👏

[@Madara-tj5kv]

es mi idea o yuja wang es ultra bonita?

[@mickizurcher]

Is Rubenstein ultra pretty??

[@pauliberg3492]

WISH I COULD BE SO LUCKY --- OH MY , JUST TO HEAR HER LIVE ONCE...

[@retrogamerdave362]

I still regret not going to see her play when she came to where I was going to school

[@nevilledarman8n21]

👌😍😍😍🇦🇺

[@etiennedelaunois1737]

I like the expression. the doppio is a big loud. Chopin ask for a pp there but its really really hard to manage because all the big chords. the thing I dont like in the doppio is the speed. A lot of pianist believe that is mean to be fast but movimento is a feeling of anxiety more than speed. that feeling is given by the triplets with the semi quavers. 4/3. My personal taste is not to play loud the octave on the left hand on the doppio and she really accentuate all the bass octaves and that give a feeling of banging the keyboard... but for the rest is impressive. For me the better interpretation of that nocturne is still Rubinstein... so passionate and fiery bit slower than Yuja and a mot of pianist. His doppio is a lot quiter on the start... he really controle his sound there.

[@musoryaninfan4759]

Etienne Delaunois problem is voicing. bang bass, miss middle voices, is unbalanced, phrase not felt, no understanding of chopins music.

[@danielgronowski5748]

+Musoryanin Fan This was obviously far from perfect acoustics. Performers try to compensate for that. But hard to judge from a mobile video quality recording...

[@etiennedelaunois1737]

Daniel Gronowski Not so far from perfection, but perfection doesn't exist otherwise it could be boring ;) Here, even with a bad sound, you can can hear the octaves in the doppio too loud. That's her way of seeing the piece, and for me the doppio is too fast. Even with her technic she can't control the sound at that speed. So, I really don't think its my favorite interpretation. But I have to say that she is not my favorite woth Chopin. I prefer her with other composer. But don't get me wrong she is incredible and a true musician, with passion and devotion.

[@etiennedelaunois1737]

Daniel Gronowski and her legs... :))))

[@IrakliKandelaki]

+Etienne Delaunois To be honest I hate Rubinstein's interpretation, it's so banal in some way, he was like, here goes this here goes that and yeah I have a perfection, nothing new, for me Yuja has way more emotion here than Rubinstein, and Chopin's pp isn't meant to be a "real pp", nor other markings goes in the simple way, because Chopin was an extraordinary person, who was free in his music and it was very deviant from others, so it's so hard to describe his feeling with the score marks he made, most of his works gives you right to create your own and such, Chopin loved improvisation, he wouldn't play his music in the same way everytime, nor you do, nor any pianist does, and imagine why would Frederic make a strict template of his music and don't give a right to us to look from the other side?

[@keithwinter7721]

cell phone video ugh

[@philippenobili]

I am afraid that people who comment badly here, call Yuja a "percussionist", or worse, have no idea of what they are listening to. They can listen to Rubinstein's version (1949) of this piece and realize, maybe, that she is in the truth here... That being said, the poor sound quality of this video does not make her justice.

[@camitful]

Sometime the big Yuja Wang forget the voltage of music specially on Chopin.

[@chrisvonhoerschelmann7366]

+Camillo Flaim I disagree

[@WitoldBanasik]

Nocturnes played by Son Yeun Cho, Kate Liu, Zimerman, Avdeeva na Rafal Blechacz are of divine beauty... flawlessly nocturnal emotions recollected in tranquility, dancing palms on the keyboard, nostalgia permeating the world throughout, effortless subtle legato. This masterpiece is extremely demanding. Yuja is melodious and perfect pianist. She can play literally anything. But the greatest Chopenistic pianists of all are listed by me in the first sentence- with all due respect Yuja.

[@InfiniteTriztan1111]

Also Arthur Rubinstein and Claudio Arrau

[@WitoldBanasik]

Triztan 883 Yes, you are right ! Thank you.

[@bexigah]

I like the interpretation of Maria João Pires musician. Sounds extremely delicate and melancholic

[@WitoldBanasik]

Bexigah Music Web You are absolutely right... thank you.

[@Eugen_969b]

А вот послушайте ещё, как исполняет этот ноктюрн А. Гиндин. А ещё в архивных аудиозаписях -- Э. Гилельс.

[@galinaprozorova7903]

А где Шопен?

[@privateprivate22]

Шопен на кладбище

[@galinaprozorova7903]

@@privateprivate22 Это точно. Как говорят,от такого прочтения в гробу перевернулся.

[@privateprivate22]

@@galinaprozorova7903 спасибо за лайк, меня здесь уж точно загрызут. т.к. на сайтах с Южей в основном мужчины, опалённые видами исполнения Хаммерклавира с обнаженной ляжкой до самой подмышки и другими концертными видениями. Слушаю ее много лет в Карнеги Холле, могу сказать, что она очень выросла в последние годы, играет иногда просто замечательно, но этот запись 2014 года, когда большая часть ее успеха держалась на ее феноменальных пианистических возможностях и новаторском отношении к своим туалетам на сцене.

[@ChristineWang]

even if I don't really like her interpretation, it's still interesting to listen to. It's not bad.

[@user-bn7bv2zv2n]

The woman stood up too fast to stop the applause.

[@terrytunes5268]

I'd like to buy her lunch, or supper. Stir fry, egg roll, dinner roll. Just watch her eat!!!twI have a good recipe for "Calico Bean Soup". Limas, pintos, black -eyed peas, great northerns, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, turkey, onion, garlic, celery, can-corn, -green beans, carrots, marjoram, red pepper, black pepper. Cook turkey, carrots, beans-almost there- Into the crock pot, about three hours. Sub-your favorite, off-the-shelf spaghetti sauce, bake a pan of corn-bread, honey, etc. Tastey, good, nutritious!tw

[@jozehar9985]

This is an example of a master performer taking a relatively simple piece (for her, at least) and playing it a level that is beyond the reach of most others.

[@ewabrycesmith]

Relatively simple piece?? ....

[@waimusic3559]

That's the Yuja's way, so beautiiful... Did Chopin play that way too! if you don't watch the footage, you might believe the piece was played by two persons...

[@maruohamamaru6839]

ほんものだね

[@jimc1466]

She is a great talent , no can play this like Rubinstein, I have listened to many but Rubinstein is number 1

[@mickizurcher]

R has always left me cold.

[@gulimemmedli5616]

vov

[@rmacdon2010]

#Team Valentina Lisitsa

[@DrDLL99]

I do think that she prefers to play Russian composers

[@luffe2006]

I don't understand what Yuja Wang is playing. First part is without any meaning, no beginning, no end or where to go. The middle part seems to wake some kind of challenge in Yuja Wang with the octaves as a technical challenge to her, but still with leaving the listener with too many questions and no answers. This was not a great perfomance at all. She seems to lack of concentration. And what is the announcer doing there? Throw her out!

[@billlash3881]

luffe2006 p

[@bloodgrss]

Moron and musical fraud...

[@danijelamikic5363]

she don't like this nocturne she don't feel It too .To match loud.

[@DanieleMO77]

The "doppio movimento" is a big big NO.

[@joszaynka]

fuck you

[@kefka34]

"NO" as in short for number in italian?

[@tensorprodukt]

Jepp. Claudio Arrau plays it best in my opinion.

[@andrewc9643]

I also love Arrau's version

[@terrytunes5268]

Gilels! tw

[@rayfreeman7878]

the second part seems rushed. But then I like Barenboim

[@danijelamikic5363]

no order no heart in this performance she don't like chopin

[@TJFNYC212]

I don't know ... the technique of YW and DT are awesome but I still do not find their playing at all inspired. Here in this Nocturne, the doppio section is banged and there is not quite enough rubato in what follows. As for Chopin today I don't think you can find much better than Piotr Anderszewski his f minor ballade is wonderful kzbin.info/www/bejne/eqLIiZt_r6qdjK8 Of course there is no accounting for tast. Most people will not like this but I think Yuga will do better to call a little more attention to the music and the composer and not her body :)

[@otto6891]

She's usually absolutely amazing with a great touch, but this was an uncharacteristic bang-fest for her.

[@bloodgrss]

Only in your ears...

[@WillonFire87]

You need you ears checked my friend! The quality wasn't good of the video itself. The play was superb if not the top. The color and how she made it sound so clear at the end the melody. Crazy good.

[@mortyyudi]

Better than chopin himself !!! ❤

[@bloodgrss]

How would you know? Were you there?

[@charlescxgo7629]

Besides decent technique , she has nothing to offer musically...it's just all banging...

[@karstenwintherjensen2677]

Even it was a free concert, by publishing this unofficial video recorded from some in the audience you are violating law of copyright

[@jemimahcastillo4387]

kanya kanyang forte lang yan. Masyado kasi bilib sa bilis niya. pPero kulang sa emotion.

[@91483]

Doppio too fast too loud - could be more emotional..

[@richardhuter2292]

maybe a bad day?more nonchalance

[@johnrenehan7406]

Everyone is entitled to their opinion here ; reading many of the comments i would guess people are most impressed by the virtuosity of her playing - fair enough But there s way more to a great pianist than hitting the right notes with speed .... This interpretation lacks depth - she seems in a hurry to finnish - her playing is ( often ) mechanical and somehat cold ..... This nocturne more than anybother , seperates the good from the great - after hearing dozens of her interpretation s or different works - she's definetly the former In my opinion there are no really gifted or great pianists among most of todays artists - plenty of virtuoso s sure, as good as they are - few or none will be remembered as truely great - i.e having given up that one truely outstanding & difinitive performance ....

[@bloodgrss]

What a stupid and biased comment, this is a fine performance by any standard...

[@LLismyPianoHero]

and they call Lang Lang "bang bang," maybe they can start calling this pale imitator "Yuja Bang". Half the bang for your buck.

[@Feedurehed]

Get new headphones dude...just sayin

[@bloodgrss]

***** Right back attch' ya lil' boy....

[@bloodgrss]

***** Right back attch' ya lil' boy...

[@bloodgrss]

***** Are you Meta Art or The Piano moron...please decide troll...;-)

[@marthajane6617]

LLismyPianoHero I agree, both she and Long Long are so overrated, her with her hooker dressing and him with the RIDICULOUS facial and arm jesters.

[@ajgssa]

Im really sorry , but Wang does not like Chopin. She is a playing machine but lacks feeling in almost everything she plays. Now you can kill me but a big marketing is not enough.

[@bloodgrss]

What a musical idiot....

[@artdemjaha]

This is not a good performance at all, I dont understand all the comments

[@privateprivate22]

One of the most mediocre performance of this nocturne by classical pianist, especially with the high status of YW

[@PC-eu4xj]

lol are you deaf??