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Artist: Yuja Wang
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Yuja Wang:

The Vienna Recital

“Yuja Wang sent the Konzerthaus into raptures … the hall went wild!” 117 No. 3, and further back in time again for the final work on the album, the “Dance of the Blessed Spirits” from Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice, as arranged for solo piano under the title Mélodie by the 19th-century composer-pianist Giovanni Sgambati – one of Yuja’s favouriteKapustin, via music by Albéniz, Beethoven, Glass, Scriabin and more. As can be heard on her forthcoming album, taken from that acclaimed recital, Yuja displayed an effortless ease in switching between different eras and genres. Yuja Wang – The Vienna Recital will be released by Deutsche Grammophon on CD, on vinyl (2 LPs) and digitally on 3 May 2024, with three tracks issued ahead of the album: the third movement (Andante) of Scriabin’s Piano Sonata No. 3 on 22 March, Philip Glass’s Étude No. 6 on 5 April and Kapustin’s Jazz Prelude No. 10 on 19 April. Subscribers to STAGE+ can enjoy the filmed performance on the DG platform right now. 
Reviewing the recital Yuja had given in London a few days earlier, Bachtrack noted that its “unpredictability added to [the] palpable excitement in a packed Royal Festival Hall”. Despite, or perhaps because of its eclecticism, this is unquestionably a programme with its own life, ebbing and flowing and creating a cohesive whole from its seemingly disparate musical elements. 
Yuja opens, for example, with music by one of her famous forebears – the prodigious pianist and composer Isaac Albéniz. The modal tones of “Málaga” from his Iberia collection make it an unexpectedly perfect prelude to Scriabin’s epic and restlessly chromatic Third Piano Sonata. Similarly, the bluesy verve of the Kapustin Jazz Preludes that follow sets the scene for a return to Iberia and the vibrant colours and rhythms of “Lavapiés”.

Yuja Wang:

Rachmaninoff w/LA Phil. - Gustavo Dudamel

Los Angeles, the city in which Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) spent the last few months of his life, played host to an exceptional festival of music last February. As part of this year’s Rachmaninoff 150 celebrations, Yuja Wang joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic and its Music and Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel over two consecutive weekends to perform all four of the composer’s piano concertos and the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Deutsche Grammophon were there to capture their sold-out and critically acclaimed performances live at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Rachmaninoff: The Piano Concertos and Paganini Rhapsody is now set for release on 2 CDs, 3 LPs and digitally on 1 September 2023. The Allegro vivace finale of Piano Concerto No. 1 comes out as an e single and e video on 23 June; the filmed cycle of five performances will be premiered on STAGE+ on 24 June and will also be available on the LA Phil’s online concert series SOUND/STAGE later in September. 
A formidably talented pianist himself, Rachmaninoff wrote a wide range of expressive, idiomatic music for his own instrument, including these five dazzling large-scale works for piano and orchestra. They have been part of Yuja Wang’s repertoire since the start of her career, and she continues to bring fresh insights to their kaleidoscopic riches. She has collaborated with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic many times, and a powerful sense of mutual respect and understanding is conveyed through these performances.  As Dudamel notes, “We connect as if we were playing chamber music.”

Yuja Wang:

The American Project

Yuja Wang gives a dazzling solo performance in the world premiere recording of a major new work specially written for her by her friend Teddy Abrams. Although originally conceived as a short companion composition to Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, Abrams’ Piano Concerto blossomed to become a 35-minute standalone showpiece. Celebrating the richness of America’s musical culture and the sheer depth and breadth of Yuja Wang’s virtuosity, the work now features on Yuja Wang · The American Project. Also included on the album is You Come Here Often?, created for the star pianist by another close friend, Michael Tilson Thomas. Both were recorded live with the Louisville Orchestra, conducted by Abrams, its Music Director. Yuja Wang · The American Project is set for digital and physical release by Deutsche Grammophon today.

Teddy Abrams and Yuja Wang met during their student days at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music, one of the world’s leading conservatoires. The highly versatile Abrams – pianist, clarinettist, composer and conductor – and the then rising-star pianist became friends at the time, after he volunteered to accompany her in piano-only play-throughs of the standard concerto repertoire. Following his appointment as Music Director of the Louisville Orchestra in 2014, he began writing large-scale works for its musicians. “It was,” he recalls, “the beginning of a really special relationship that we have retained to this day.”

Yuja Wang:

Ravel w/Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich

Ravel's music is, quite simply, unique – and pianist Yuja Wang knows why. "In my opinion," she says, "it has the exactness of a Swiss clock mechanism, but layered on top of that, it is about pleasure, pure and simple!" With their combination of jazz rhythms, sensual beauty and spiky vitality, Ravel's two piano concertos illustrate her point to perfection, as will be heard on her new album – to be released in October. It also features the original piano solo version of Fauré's Ballade in F sharp major op. 19. Wang recorded all three works in the spring of this year – in the concertos she was accompanied by the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, the ensemble with which she made her European debut in 2003 at age 15. She has just spent a season with the Orchester as Artist-in-Residence.

Yuja Wang:

The Berlin Recital

Internationally-acclaimed pianist, Yuja Wang will release her new album of solo works, The Berlin Recital, on November 23 on Deutsche Grammophonon - a survey of landmark works by the late-romantic era and 20th century composers: Rachmaninov, Scriabin, Ligeti and Prokofiev. In anticipation of the full recital release, a digital-only EP of Encores is available today. The album was recorded live in Berlin, as part of a North-American and European tour.

Yuja Wang's philosophy of music is both simple and profoundly complex. "I want to relate all life to music," she recently told veteran British critic Fiona Maddocks. The Beijing-born pianist's latest album captures the white heat of solo works by Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, Scriabin and Ligeti, a trio of renowned Russians paired with one of the late 20th century's greatest composers. The Berlin Recital was recorded live this summer at the Berlin Philharmonie's Kammermusiksaal during Yuja's extensive solo tour of North America and Europe. The Yellow Label also recorded her sublime series of Berlin encore pieces to form a separate EP, which spans everything from the riffs and roulades of Nikolai Kapustin's jazz-tinged Toccata to Earl Wild's sonorous transcription of the Pas de Quatre from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.