The controversial Chinese pianist with tiny clothes, 10-centimeter heels and dazzling technique arrives in Colón

Until the arrival of the Chinese pianist Yuja Wang On stages around the world, a pianist’s attire has never been such an intense topic of discussion.

Can what you see interfere with what you hear at a concert? How much? Distraction or dramatic tension?

Yuja Wang she looks like a pop diva. Far from the discretion of the formal and sober clothes that classical pianists generally wear, she prefers to play short and tight dressesso tight that they seem tattooed on the body, some 10cm needle heel.

The make-up and hairstyle are in accordance with the clothing, which can vary between a dominatrix style – barely covered or leaving the thighs, chest and back uncovered -, or that of a pole dancer, or “stripper”. , as New Criterion critic Jay Nordlinger notes, when Wang stepped out to play in a “shorter-than-short red dress, barely covering her butt.”

It is common for singers to change costumes during a recital, but not pianists, with the exception of Yuja Wang, who She usually wears Roberto Cavalli designs and Louboutin heels..

Wonder girl

Ten years ago she said, “I’m 26, so I dress like 26. I’ll be able to dress in long skirts when I’m forty.” It was in a London Telegraph report that the journalist asked her about her preference “for riskily short and tight dresses”.

Today Wang he is 36 years oldan equally statuesque body and continues to play with her provocative sensuality on the stages of the main theaters of the world.

She is one of the most famous pianists and no longer shocks critics, as Mark Swed did when he wrote in the Los Angeles Times in 2011 that if Wang had stepped out in a shorter skirt, “the Hollywood Bowl would have been forced to limit entry to any lover of music under the age of 18 unaccompanied by an adult.

Of course, Wang’s boldness goes far beyond defying the concert hall’s dress code. She was a child prodigy and built his career playing Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev.

He has since expanded his repertoire, which includes the recent world premiere of Piano Concerto No. 3 by Magnus Lindberg in San Francisco. Published and recorded Does the devil have to have all the beautiful tunes?by John Adams, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel and received an Opus Klassik Award in 2021.

Last season he included works by Beethoven, Ligeti and Schönberg in his tour and once again surprised audiences with his style, technical skill and exceptional artistry. In 2017 she was recognized as Musical America’s Artist of the Year.

He recently held a Rachmaninoff marathon at Carnegie Hall with conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth. He played the four piano concertos plus the Rhapsody on a theme by Paganini in one afternoon. People stood in long lines to buy tickets.

Yuja Wang was born in 1987 in Beijing, the daughter of a musician father and a dancer mother. She began performing in public at the age of six. She used to win first prize in every competition she entered. At the age of nine she entered the Beijing Conservatory and when she was a teenager of fourteen she moved to Canada to study at the Calgary Conservatory.

The defining factor in his career came when he moved to Philadelphia, entered the Curtis Institute and began studying with pianist Gary Graffman, who knew very well how to recognize talent. She “she She was extraordinary among the illustrious students. She didn’t play like a prodigy. She sounded like a finished artist,” Graffman told Janet Malcom in an interview for the New Yorker.

A dizzying career

His career began to develop rapidly. And a day, Capricious fate crossed her with Martha Argerich: The extraordinary Argentine pianist canceled a concert at the last minute and Yuja replaced her in 2007 while she was still a student at Curtis.

He learned quickly Piano Concerto No. 1 by Tchaikovsky and was a soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Charles Dutoit. Although the audience was disappointed not to find the piano legend on stage, Yuja managed to win him over. That performance catapulted her to fame and gained international recognition..

His interpretations are never indifferent. Owner of a dazzling technique, Wang stands out for his personal style and innovative approach in the interpretation of classical works. At times he challenged traditional conventions by offering fresh and provocative interpretations of well-known songs, earning both praise and criticism.

One of the aspects often criticized is his inclination towards extreme speed and virtuosic technique to the detriment of interpretative depth and musical expressiveness. Although his technical ability is unquestionable, for some critics his focus on speed overshadows other essential aspects of the music, particularly in some pieces by Chopin and Rachmaninoff.

He Monday 11th Yuja will perform for the second time on the stage of the Teatro Colón – the first was for the Argentine Mozartetum in 2018 – in the cycle of Extraordinary Concerts, where she will perform works by Schubert and Chopin

Wang knows that not even her skimpy dress and dazzling shoes could eclipse the profound beauty she is able to project in her often electrifying performances.

It’s a game, a clothing, a fashion, it’s another expression of one’s artistic individuality and another way to intensify the musical experience, generating a tension between what you see and what you hear.

After all, at concerts you have always heard and seen.

File

Extraordinary concerts

Yuga Wang, piano

Piano Sonata No. 20 in A major D 959, by Franz Schubert

Ballad no. 1, no. 2, no. 3 and no. 4by Frederic Chopin

Monday 11 March at 8pm

Hall: Colon Theater