@mahgister
I have seen Yuja Wang live several times and I will see her again soon. I met a violinist in the L.A. Phil the first time I saw her in a short, sexy dress. The violinist said that they don't talk about what piece they're playing when she performs. They talk about what dress she's wearing.He also said that the orchestra had a lot of trouble keeping up with her.
Yuja Wang is a petite woman, but she is one of the most powerful pianists I have heard. My impression of her is that her technical brilliance has been what shines when she plays. I have a few of her CDs. One of her playing Prokofiev's Second Piano Concerto. I like her playing of that. She uses nuance.
For now, I like Mitsuko Uchida, Martha Argerich, and some younger pianists, Fazil Say and Igor Levitt more than Yuja Wang. Yet, I think she is young, extremely talented and as she learns to pull back on speed and power and gets more into nuance, she will be as good as the pianists I have mentioned above.
I think you might listen to Fazil Say and Igor Levit. They are into deconstructing pieces and putting them back together in very interesting ways. I would recommend listening to Fazil Say's recordings of Mozart's piano sonatas. I compared them to Maria Joao Pires's pristine recordings and it almost had me laughing to listen to how Say has deconstructed those sonatas and plays them so differently than Pires. I also think that Igor Levit has very interesting and modern interpretations of Beethoven's piano sonatas.
I heard a live concert of the Phil. with Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla conducting with a woman violinist whose name I've forgotten. They played Tchaikovsky's Violin Conceto, and talk about deconstructing! In the places where a violinist like Itzak Perleman would play bold sweet lines, these women played small, almost satiric passages. I came away saying that only women could forgo large sweet passages with small, internal interpretations. I love listening to the new, young performers playing these old, classic pieces. And I will go to watch Yuja Wang perform whenever I get a chance. Now that I mention it, I will stream her and hear recordings I have not heard. Hopefully later recordings.
