Yundi in Master Class (April 22) and Live Concert (April 23) from Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts

By -

The young and charismatic Chinese pianist Yundi (also known as Yundi Li) performs two programs this week from his homeland that can be viewed for free at medici.tv. On Friday, April 22 he will give a master class – available via delayed streaming – that will illuminate his approach to interpretation and his unique vision of the art of piano playing. The next day, on April 23, medici.tv will offer a live webcast of Yundi’s highly anticipated concert at Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA). The venue’s orchestra, under the direction of conductor Zuohuang Chen, will join Yundi for Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1. Yundi will also perform solo works by the composer with whom he is most closely associated, Frédéric Chopin – including three nocturnes and the Heroic Polonaise, Op. 53 – as well as Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2. The concert, part of the NCPA’s celebration of the 200th anniversary of Liszt’s birth, will also include Zuohuang Chen leading the orchestra in the Hungarian composer’s best-known symphonic poem, Les Préludes.

Yundi’s remarkable artistry first received international attention when he won the Chopin Competition in 2000, the youngest pianist ever to receive the prize. His master class will showcase his special affinity for the music of the Romantic era, as he shares anecdotes and gives memorable advice about some of the piano’s most popular repertoire. Is playing an innate gift or is it learned technique? Black magic or strenuous repetition? These are just some of the issues Yundi will touch upon. It promises to be a fascinating “up close” encounter with an artist whom the New York Times has called “a technically astounding pianist who is by turns elegant and rambunctious, coolly expressive and white-hot.”

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Role of Music in Opera

By -
There are numerous books on the topic, and every composer, librettist, director, singer and audience member has their opinion as to what role the music should play in an opera. In a play without music, the words ought to support the meaning behind a character's actions. However, in the case of action movies, often times the action is what tells the story and there aren't words, just images to forward the plot. We might hear music to accompany action, build tension, but the action tells the story. Musicals tend to speak until the emotion of the moment just "has" to break out in song - unless it's something like "Mama Mia" where the dialog is the rails we travel on between songs; the songs themselves, written before the concept of the musical, are the focus of the production, while the story is secondary. Operas are a different beast. The music provides emotion to the words spoken, but it also plays the role of ambience when there is only action. In ...
Read more

Episode 210b: Joyeuse le départ

By -
Image
Podcast:  Play in new window  |  Download Subscribe:  Apple Podcasts  |  Android  |  Google Play  |  Stitcher  |  TuneIn  |  RSS Provost Cunningham has Transmigrated, but to where! What is Dr Sage going to do with his body? And how can she bring home her friends, Abigail and Erasmus, without also bring home Cunningham? What are they going to say when they find the “skeleton” she’s hiding in her closet? Cast: Eddie Louise Clark  as Dr Sage Chip Clark  as Professor Savant Justin Bremer  as the Narrator Emily Riley Piatt  as Abigail Entwhistle, Calypso & Dean Stewart Written by  Eddie Louise Theme music by  Unwoman Sound Design by  Chip Michael
Read more

Teaching Composition – What are we trying to achieve

By -
In the process of learning composition I have spent time with a number of instructors who have encouraged me to write twelve-tone, pitch-class, electro-acoustic and other forms of experimental techniques. No matter how much I might understand and appreciate the work of other composers in the genres, these are not forms of music I resonate with. They are simply not forms of music I listen to and I struggle with the idea of writing them. However, in a Master Class by Libby Larsen she made the comment, “Learn them all, because all forms of music have something to offer.” This I very much agree. There are elements of each of the above mentioned forms (and others) that I do resonate with. Berg’s Violin Concerto is a beautiful twelve-tone work, although it is possible to look at numerous sections of the music with a “tonal” analysis. Another composer friend, Gary Bachlund commented that using these techniques can narrow the choices for how to compose a piece of work. If you look at ...
Read more