Customer Reviews

Chopin Recital

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4 star:		(1)
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2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was attracted to this CD when I read that the artist was the 2000 Warsaw Chopin competition winner. I have some recordings of some of the performances at the Chopin competition, and I simply wanted to add this recent winner to my collection.

I wasn't expecting very much. My other recordings of Chopin competition winners include an early recording by Argerich shortly after her victory and recordings of Garrick Ohlsson and Krystian Zimerman during the competition. In all cases, these artists have improved considerably as they have matured. They were young when they competed and had much room for growing and maturing.

Yundi Li's debut recording is entirely remarkable by comparison. As soon as he begins the B minor Sonata, one can tell one is in the presence of a refined, mature artist. And he is only 19! After having listened to an absolutely enthralling, fully idiomatic, delicately lyrical performance of the B minor Sonata, I went on to read that he is the youngest person ever to have been awarded the first prize in the Chopin competition. Moreover, they had not given a first prize in the 15 years of competitions prior to year 2000. No less a luminary than Krystian Zimerman turned down a request to teach Mr. Li acknowledging that "I have nothing to teach him."

Highlights of the disc include the B minor Sonata, the Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise and the Fantasie Impromptu. The etudes are played with complete technical mastery. The Op. 9 Nocturnes are beautiful and refined. His use of rubato is always tasteful. He never loses the lyrical line even in the most technically demanding passages.

I once believed that one had to be ancestrally or geographically connected to Poland in order to play with such sensitivity to the idiom. I know that many others make the point that Fou Ts'ong bridges that East-West gap, but I don't agree. In listening to Ts'ong, I still have the impression that a layer of cultural overlay has been added. Ts'ong is a thoughtful and interesting performer, but I consistenly turn to Rubinstein, Zimerman, Davidovich, Czerny-Stefanska, Malcuzynski and Emanuel Ax, as well as some others, to hear Chopin's music as I think it is intended to be played.

I am pleased to say that I can add Yundi Li to this list. And that is a wonderful realization, for it affirms that Chopin's music is truly universal.

I also urge you to ignore the negative comments. One reviewer claimed this CD lacked rubato and Li's approach was more suitable to Bach than Chopin. Perhaps they've gotten a different disc than the one I have, as rubato is evident all over these performances. Check out his Nocturnes, and tell me that's played in straight time. Not even close.

What Yundi Lin does so well is manage to play Chopin with a keen sense of the Romantic idiom, without overstating it. Romantic-era music is so easily subject to over-interpretation, exaggerated rubatos and dynamic changes. It's much too easy to "ham up" and often is in danger of becoming a cariacature of itself. (I find performances by many Russian players to fall into this category.)

Despite his perfect technique, Lin's performaces are hardly academic. I marvel at the lightness and quickness of his fingers on Chopin's Etude 10 No 2 in A-Minor. His performance of this difficult piece sounds completely effortless and tastefully nuanced. His phrasing is spot-on, his dynamic changes smooth. It's a very warm performance of a piece that can be a cold display of finger and wrist dexterity.

Yundi Lin deserves all the accolades he's getting. He is the perfect combination of artistry and technique, and I doubt there is currently any better performer of Chopin. Buy this disc.

This is an absolutely brilliant, extremely well recorded recital of Chopin which should interest those who favor Argerich's and Pollini's technically brilliant styles of performance. Yundi Li takes their approach a step further, without forsaking ample lyricism in his playing. This is especially true of his exquisite performances of both the Sonata in B minor and the Grande Polonaise. But his techique is just as flawless in his playing of smaller works such as the etudes. And his playing of the "Fantasie" Impromptu is one of the most lyrical I have heard; emotionally thrilling and technically flawless. This is a splendid recording debut for Yundi Li, demonstrating both strong technical skills and lyrical playing destined to earn him recognition as one of the 21st Century's best pianists. Is he better than his compatriot Lang Lang, or Martha Argerich or Maurizio Pollini? Obviously the answer is no, or at best, incomplete, but I eagerly await hearing future recordings made by him. Recorded at Teldec's Berlin studio, this CD is among the best recent solo piano recordings from Deutsche Grammophon that I've heard.

The musical world now has a successor to the young Krystian Zimerman and Evgeny Kissin in the Chopin piano literature. The youthful Yundi Li has all the charactertistics of a superb Chopin interpreter, including virtuosity to burn and a mature poetic and emotional empathy for this music, phenomenal for one so young.
This is straightforward, idiomatic Chopin, free of mannerisms and distortions of dynamics and tempi. The piantist gets right to essence of this music, the virtuosic aspects never on display as an end in themselves but always serving to emphasize the emotional sweep of the more passionate pieces, such as the final movement of the 3rd sonata and the Grand Polonaise.
Li has a wonderfully lyric Chopin style, very cantabile, the right hand displaying magnificently rippling, singing, lines. The notes are struck with a wonderful articulation which enables the piantist to develope marvelous inner voices not heard in other interpretations.
Already one of the finest interpreters of Chopin now before the public, Li, if he continues his artistic development in the same manner, will become THE foremost Chopin exponent in another 10 to 15 years.

Yundi Li had truly played every piece here like a maestro although he was only 18 when he recorded this debut album of his. If you compare Li's Sonata No.3 op.58 with that played by Kissin, you will find that Li is more expressive, more emotional and has got more dynamism also. Li had interpreted Andante spianato & Grande Polonaise op. 22 in a most natural way. I haven't heard any other pianist playing this peice in such a natural way. His Fantaisie Impromptu op. 66 is simply fabulous. Not only had Li played this piece with impeccable technique, he had injected in it great imagination and passion too. While he played Etude op. 25 no.11 with equal virtuosity as Pollini, he is not clinical like Pollini.

Li has got not only extraordinary musicality, he has got virtuosity as well. Yundi Li is really a pianist to watch out for as it is really not easy to find one possessing both such qualities.

This is how Chopin is meant to sound, this is what the composer had in mind for the performance of his works, I am sure about that! Not technical, but lyrical, not pretentious, but humble, not loud, but whispering in the night...
Bravo Li!

Yundi Li's playing is mature, full of passion, and wholly enjoyable. This is as it should be...he won the Chopin International Piano Competition, like Maurizio Pollini, at the age of 18. Get this disc and let Yundi take you on a journey you won't forget.

And oh yes, please Yundi Li, save us from Lang Lang!!

This is the first solo album released by the latest winner of the prestigious Chopin competition of 2000. Does he measure up to his illustrious predecessors such as Pollini, Argerich, Zimerman? The answer is a resounding yes - he belongs to the same calibre as these artistes, as the recording of the Sonata in B minor and the Grande Polonaise Brillante attests to. The performance of the latter work must be one of the best around, past or present, with youthful vigour and perfect balance. For that alone it is worth to add to your collection. Li is an artist to watch out for. In comparison to his compatriot Lang Lang, he shows much more musicality and sensitivity lacking in the other, whose performance of the Rachmaninov 3rd is really a show of empty virtuosity despite breath-taking pyrotechnics. I believe that Yundi has what it takes to join the ranks of great pianists if he continues to develop his rare talent.

Please ignore the negative review! This disc is quite good. The etudes are amazing, the nocturnes are beautiful, the sonata is admirable, the Andante Spianato is terrific, and the polonaise is fantastic. Somehow, at such a young age, he is what seems a fully-developed musician -- and his technique is great, great, great! I do not care at all for the photos all over the disc and disc-case (though they're hardly as bad as the ones in the more recent recordings of Mischa Maisky's Bach Cello Suites, which are hilariously gawdy), and that's the only negative point I can find in an otherwise entirely exceptional and highly desirable disc. His Liszt disc is essential!

I would also urge you to take with a grain of salt the pontifications of a small cliche of self-styled high priests who dismiss this release. Either you appreciate Yundi Li's artistry or you don't. But the step from "This artist doesn't speak to me" to "This artist has nothing to say" requires a leap of arrogance. Contrary to the suggestion of the naysayers, discerning intelligent listeners enthusiastically embrace this release! Listen and judge for yourself!