NEW YORK, NY – On April 10th, Deutsche Grammophon releases pianist Yuja Wang’s fourth album, a release featuring small, solo works and encores. Fantasia follows her Grammy-nominated Rachmaninov album with Claudio Abbado and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Fantasia includes a stunning variety of works by Scriabin, Schubert/Liszt, Debussy, Ravel, Albéniz, Saint-Saëns/Horowitz, Strauss/Cziffra, Dukas/Staub/Wang, Prokofiev, Scarlatti, Rachmaninov, Chopin and Art Tatum.
After the heavier Transformation album (with works by Stravinsky, Scarlatti, Brahms and Ravel) and acclaimed Rachmaninov recordings, Yuja and Deutsche Grammophon agreed on this program of miniatures, a project of a radically different nature. “I love all the pieces here,” Yuja explains. “With these miniatures, I hope I can capture a mood or a scent – a hint of atmosphere. That’s all you can do with small pieces, create a vignette of a memory, or a hope. It’s like a haiku…People assume that an encore is something showy, but, for me, it’s a little moment of tenderness from the heart.”
Yuja Wang has performed the repertoire on this album on stages around the world, but her concert season sees her taking to the stage with larger concerto performances. This April, Yuja will appear with the New York Philharmonic performing Prokofiev and will make her debut with the Atlanta Symphony. In June, she appears with the San Francisco Symphony presenting Rachmaninov.
Yuja Wang US Performances Spring 2012
April 12-17 New York, NY
New York Philharmonic
Prokofiev: Concerto No. 3
April 19-21 Atlanta, GA
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Rachmaninov: Concerto No. 3
June 14-17 San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra
Rachmaninov: Concerto no. 3
Praise for Yuja Wang & Claudio Abbado’s Rachmaninov:
The young Chinese American virtuoso Yuja Wang has established her place as one of the most exciting pianists of our day with a series of formidable solo discs. Now comes her first release with orchestra – a pairing of two of Rachmaninoff’s most reliably alluring showpieces – and the results are, if anything, even more remarkable. These are both splendid performances, full of vigor and bravura as well as a canny mixture of sentiment and clarity.” San Francisco Chronicle
“Performances are intelligent, stylish, and have the emotional poise of the composer’s own recordings.” Philadelphia Inquirer
Praise for Yuja Wang’s Transformation:
“This 23-year-old pianist, though small of frame, plays with extraordinary power. More to the point, she approaches repertory staples with original, illuminating ideas. Her sharp articulation and the deftness with which she moves between thunder and sparkle yield vivid performances of Stravinsky (Three Movements From “Petrouchka”) and Ravel (“La Valse”), a searching account of Brahms’s Variations on a Theme of Paganini and uncommonly graceful readings of two Scarlatti sonatas.” The New York Times
For more on Yuja Wang’s recordings and performances, visit www.yujawang.com ‘)}
