Yuja Wang: Monday YouTube Fix
Andrew Hitz
This past weekend, my wife Tiffany and I traveled to Philadelphia to see the Philadelphia Orchestra perform both Ein Heldenleben and the Wind Serenade of Richard Strauss. I did not know what the first half of the program until we arrived. I was delighted to discover that it was Yuja Wang performing Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto. I had heard wonderful things about her playing and of course always get excited about the prospects of seeing someone perform the piano works of Rachmaninoff. The entire performance was truly stunning. It was a magical program and the orchestra, from Ricardo Morales in the woodwinds to Carol Jantsch in the brass, sounded absolutely superb. I have seen hundreds of orchestral performances in my life and this was absolutely near the top of the list. One of the reasons for this was the breathtaking performance of Yuja Wang to open the program.
Her level of artistry was impressive, both her interpretation and execution. Here is a clip of her performing another monster of the romantic piano repertoire, Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto. This performance features Hannu Lintu leading the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in a live performance from Helsinki in 2012.
Enjoy!