YUJA WANG: CARTE BLANCHE
Yuja Wang never fails to surprise us. For her carte blanche, the virtuoso pianist showcases her musician friends, such as the Frenchman Gautier Capuçon in a fine sonata by Grieg, and Yamen Saadi (concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic) in Berg’s Chamber Concerto, where technical constraints are wedded to incandescent lyricism.
Programme
EDVARD GRIEG (1843-1907)
Cello Sonata in A minor Op. 36
FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847)
Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor Op. 49
Interval
ALBAN BERG (1885-1935)
Kammerkonzert, Chamber Concerto for Violin, Piano and 13 Wind Instruments
Artist(s)
- James Gaffigan conductor
- Yamen Saadi violin
- Gautier Capuçon cello
- Yuja Wang piano
Smetana: Sonata for two pianos 8 hands at the Verbier Festival 2018 (Wang, Kissin, Schiff, Cho)
Find out more
Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto is one of Yuja Wang’s favourite works. Unable to play a second concerto by the Norwegian composer, the Chinese-American pianist presents the Sonata for Cello and Piano, which was first conceived as a concertante piece. The work having been written for John Grieg, the composer’s brother, Yuja Wang invites her brother in music, Gautier Capuçon, to perform this beautiful lyrical sonata.
‘It is the master trio of our time, which will delight our grandchildren and great-grandchildren for many years to come’, wrote Schumann of Mendelssohn’s Trio No. 1. Posterity has proved the Saxon composer right since, after 180 years, the Trio No. 1 remains one of the most popular chamber works in the repertoire. The credit lies in the rapid changes of mood within a single movement, and in the nimble exchanges between the instruments, in a light and virtuosic style.
To conclude this carte blanche, Yuja Wang performs Alban Berg’s famous Chamber Concerto. A work that resembles her: formidable technical virtuosity (Berg uses twelve-note series built on the musical initials of Schoenberg, his teacher, Webern, his colleague, and himself) in the service of flamboyant expressiveness. In this masterpiece where piano and violin converse, the pianist invites Yamen Saadi, a brilliant young violinist from Nazareth, who at under thirty is already conquering the world.
