Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Yundi Li in Vancouver this Friday

Thanks BruceD, but one of the only words I DO understand in their broadcasts is "Victoria". I sort of thought they were based in Victoria. Thanks for the info anyway!

I will be seeing him this coming Tuesday here in Santa Barbara with a similar program. I've followed his career for awhile now it'll be my first time seeing him in person.

So I just got home not long ago from the recital. It was quite enjoyable I'd say.

He did replace the Liszt Rhapsodie with the Sonata in b, though he left the Polonaise in as programmed. I thought his playing of the Liszt Sonata was much improved from the last time he was here. Alot more clarity and also more maturity in the interpretation.

I liked his pedalling in the Mozart and while I'm not too familiar with Carnaval (other than from this one other time I heard it in concert), I still enjoyed it.

The Chopin was pretty good overall too, despite a few note flubs in the 'orchestral intro' part of the Polonaise.

The crowd gave him a standing ovation once again (as was the case in 2004), but unfortunately he did not play any encores.

However he did do signings and photos afterwards and I had bought his Vienna Recital CD to get his autograph on. He seemed like a rather shy, but modest guy, as opposed to Lang Lang, whom I remember was much more outgoing when he did his signing. But nonetheless, it was definitely a fun night. Hope he continues to come here once in a while in the future.

Wow, you are lucky. Yes, he is shy and modest, compare with LangLang, they have totally different personalities, LL is very extrovert and open, Yundi seems keep the traditional trait. I like him, and someone says he looks like a famous Japanese acter!

Yundi's program is just SICK. He plays exactly the same program everywhere. He was playing Chopin 4 Scherzi and Liszt sonata for well over 2 years without any changes. Same encores everywhere he visited. Now he's playing Mozart K.330, Schumann Carnaval, Liszt SR + cliche encores. I understand he wanted to promote his latest CD, but this is just SICK. Play something else. His program always lasts at least 1.5 year. Imagine yourself playing the same thing everywhere 2-3 times a week. Psychologically speaking, Yundi himself should get affected to a certain degree and due to a large load of repititions, this doesn't do him any good at all especially in the long run. What can I say. He's just a little puppy for DG.

His latest CD isn't very successful imo.

Quite.

He didn't even play it very well when I heard this program last year. Memory lapses all over the place in the Schumann and Chopin.

Seems to have worked okay for Sokolov for the last 40 years, who plays the same program for a year 2, 3, even 4 times a week (obviously with some extended breaks in that year). I dont know much about concert touring, but isn't this a commonly used strategy among most internationally touring pianists?

As for the concert, it was awesome! (I havent been to that many, so pardon my enthusiasm ) The Mozart and the Schumann in the first half were pristine, full of the Zimerman-esque qualities that you'd expect from Li. As for the Liszt sonata in the second half, well lets just say that for the last 10 minutes of the piece his playing had me clenched with excitement. As eric mentioned with the Chopin he did have a little slip that lasted about a measure in the opening of the polonaise, but aside from that it was very smooth, and you could tell that this was the most experienced piece of his program.

What about Rubinstein than? He played the same Chopin pieces for nearly 75 years, right?
If that isn't called "sick", I don't know what "sick" is .

You don't get it. Yundi's program is exactly the same everywhere for 1.5 yr. Not to mention Yundi current program which is very similar to his latest CD. It's been almost 6 months already that he hasn't changed his program at all. Rubinstein, on the other hand, is very different. His program is flexible. Even though he plays Chopin more than any other composer, he still covers a wide range of other composers plus Rubinstein's program changes all the time. Unlike Yundi, his program remains unchanged unless new CD is coming out. This is what I mean by "SICK".