Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Yuja Wang vs. Page Turner

Youtube has a nice feature which seems to automatically aggregate videos for a certain topic under one channel, came across this:



Here's the Topic - Yuja Wang channel: http://www.youtube.com/channel/HC9Iw6P_o1fvQ

I've also really wanted to post this video and ask some opinions of professionals who have experience with page turners...
Is it appropriate for the pianist not to turn the pages themselves when they're not playing and look that way at the page turner ? I really don't know what to make of this video, as I really like Yuja Wang...

I don't know if I see much reason in this video... I mean Yuja looked at the page turner, who might have messed up before... :-/ Who knows really... She doens't appear to be overly angry or anything...

The one thing I have a problem with, with page turners, is that a lot of times, they seem to actually NOT know when to turn the page. In Texas my page turner (with Dr. Solomons) messed up at some point. And she didn't show up on the last rehearsal for some reason (which probably would've saved us)...

There were two page turning gaffes in that video. The first was when she was holding notes in the bass and indicated the page should be turned. She maybe could have pressed the pedal and turned the page herself, but there may have been other reasons-- didn't want the additional resonance, etc.

The second gaffe was worse. I watched this without sound, but I could see YW nodding her head asking for the page to be turned. Then she nodded again more vehemently/desperately. The page turner has ONE JOB. Even if you get lost in the score, the pianist will nod.

Yes, I've turned pages for my former teacher. I can be nerve wracking because, as I said--ONE JOB--but if you screw it up you look like a total idiot. And worse, you can botch the performance.

Then there was the time that I was turning a page for my son, and two pages stuck together. Ooops.

Stuff happens.

Compare wih the video of Berezovsky against his page turner?

Thank goodness pianists don't normally have the kind of problem with page turners as depicted in the French movie La tourneuse de pages.....

http://youtu.be/OV1dpNYYQVM

I've seen a page turner knock the book onto the keyboard before.

I've turned pages for many concerts, and what you see from the side for someone nodding to turn the page looks different when you're standing and looking down with your peripheral vision. If the performer already has head movements while playing, it is difficult to tell if he/she is nodding to turn the page or if it is just the typical head movements while playing. I've also seen someone mistakenly turn the page when the performer was cuing the other members in the ensemble.

As for the first one, performers will usually prefer to turn their own pages between movements, but apparently Yuja Wang wanted her page turner to do this and hadn't communicated beforehand. I always find it strange that as the page turner I have to ask the performer what their page turning preferences are.

The other faux pas from the page turner was to slap her hand on the page after turning it, thereby obscuring Wang's view of the score.

I thought the second gaffe was that the page turner turned too early. I didn't see Yuja Wang making any nod movements before the page was turned. But she put her hand out on the page as it was being turned.

Frankly, I'm just impressed that Wang is playing with platform stiletto heels. I sat down to practice before going out to dinner the other night in a shoe somewhat similar, and was rewarded every other measure it seemed with a big ol' *CLUNK* as my foot just skated right off the pedal.

Once I had a lesson right before a dinner party in the same heels, and wisely decided to take the lesson in bare feet. But the party dress looked nice, if not a little over-the-top for a piano lesson.

As a young piano student, the GREATEST HONOR IN THE WORLD was getting to the turn the pages for the music director at our school. I took that job so seriously. I just loved being close enough to watch him play and I remember exactly how his hands moved. I actually got the chance to tell him so not long ago when we reconnected on Facebook. Funny how you have impact on kids you might not know.

I don't play cello, but I'm pretty sure that's not what that thing at the bottom is for.

Turning pages is a very serious job, if the page turner screws up, the whole performance is screwed... the page turner will get lost at different places at times, sometimes he/she is daydreaming.

I've been a page turner once, without anyone teaching me, I figured the following:
- get ready to turn the page when the pianist is at the 2nd last line
- fold the corner of each page or make sure you have enough time to separate the pages
- if you get lost, look at the pianist' eyes since he/she will be reading the music, then you can figure out where she is, or find a small area/passage on the music and wait for the pianist to reach there, then you know where you need to pick up
- do not make too many movements to disturb the pianist

I've also had a page turner turn for me, we practiced quite a few times, my pieces only have 2-3 movements and she still messes up... as a pianist, I figured the following:
- you have to memorize the last line before turning the page and first 1-2 lines (just in case your page turner is daydreaming)
- tell your page turner to get up and start preparing when you are on the last line, if he/she doesn't, you know he/she is lost
- my page turner got up when i was on the last bar, then to find that the 2 pages are glued together... shouldn't this be sorted it ahead of time?

My last teacher used to turn pages for me when he plonked down a new piece in front of me and asked me to sight-read through for the first time.

But even he messed up the page-turning (either turning the page too early or too late), forcing me to improvise for a bar or two so as not to break the flow. Or maybe that was his sneaky way of seeing how well I can improvise?

I had the honour of turning pages for a two-piano performance of Rachmaninoff's Fantasy Suite (Op. 5) for two pianos (a work I greatly love), the two grands being "nestled" as they often are for such performances. I was turning for Piano I, the lid of which opened towards the hall; piano II's lid was open towards the back of the stage. It took me but just a few minutes to realize that I was hearing more of Piano II than of Piano I, but since the score contains both parts, it ended up not being a problem, although initially a little disconcerting. I ended up following both parts, but one at a time.

The only time I got slightly lost I did what was suggested above: watched the pianist's eyes to figure out where she was in the score and then I caught my spot. Luckily for me, I took the task with the seriousness it deserved and didn't miss a page turn, nor was I late or early for any of them.

Page turning is, make no mistake about it, a very important job. I've heard some say that they'd rather perform than turn pages! I'm not sure I'd go that far!

Regards,

I am unsure how much information I can disclose here, but a couple months ago, I pageturned both for a concert and a recording session of Dvorak's Piano Trios for a major recording company.
The pageturning during the concert proved to be okay and perfect to my relief, but the three-day recording session was quite taxing -- I could only imagine how difficult it was for the musicians. Towards the end of the third day, I started to make a few mistakes and doze off that we all had to take half-an hour break. It was quite embarrassing.

Love those facial expressions of Yuja's! priceless....

For a couple of years I was my former teacher's page-turner of choice, for non-academic performances. Mostly it was chamber music. I think he kept asking me because he knew I enjoyed it.

I'm happy to report that I never botched anything. No pages stuck together, never dropped the score into his lap, etc. Part of it is having the presence of mind to ask ahead of time if there's anything special I need to know. Repeats? Cuts? DCaFs or other odd jumps?

But really the hardest one was a 6 hour recording session. For some reason I was far more wrung out than the musicians were. I was a little embarrassed to say it, but I found it exhausting! Much worse than a live concert.

I was in Seattle a few years ago to attend a premier of one of my works (for string orchestra). The program also had Chopin concerto No. 2 (I think it was No.2) and I was asked by the Canadian pianist to turn pages, which I did.

I'm happy to report that I didn't miss a page...

Am I not great and all that? (not sure why I actually posted this here...)

Yes; we knew that already!