[Rackety Sax]

I guess the classical audience isn't too open-minded. Wang listed the pieces in the concert program but spontaneously chose the order. Many in the audience were not pleased: https://www.chicagotribune.com/ente...0200225-ojdbzkbxjbb2th4osotb2zc5ha-story.html

 

[LostConn]

Any classical music listener who can't tell the difference between Scriabin and Bach should hide under the bed in shame, not whine on Twitter. However, I suppose that when a program includes multiple compositions by the same composer, more than a few audience members might benefit from having the particular works identified when they're played. But this is still no matter for public outrage. Flexibility in a program's sequence is a good idea, not a bad one. Maybe someone could just whisper in Yuja's ear and suggest that next time, she say the name of each piece before starting, if she's going to change the order.

Yuja Wang is possibly the greatest living pianist, at least in terms of technique. Her live performances of monstrously difficult works are as close to perfection as anything I've ever seen/heard (she has many concerts/recitals available on YouTube). What's more, she loves 20th century Russian repertoire, especially Prokofiev, and that's always a big plus. Her playing on Prokofiev's stupefyingly difficult, but also incredibly moving, Piano Concerto No. 2 is beyond belief.

Last year, my favorite concert was one that I missed: Yuja Wang and Leonidas Kavakos playing Prokofiev's Violin Sonata No. 1 in New York. My favorite pianist (probably) with my favorite violinist (probably) performing my favorite violin sonata (definitely). I just have to imagine how it went, at least until a video surfaces someday.

 

[johnebravo]

The prevalence of this stick-up-the-derriere attitude among a sizable number of classical music listeners may go a long way towards explaining why classical audiences are dwindling away. I haven't been very often in recent years, but I used to go a lot, and when I would look around at the crowd as people were filing in, probably 90% would be over the age of 50, and probably half the crowd would be over the age of 70. That ain't an encouraging sign for those that want it to stick around for awhile, but they're generally not known for their flexibility. It's especially odd since cadenzas were improvised at one time, and no one found that offensive.

 

[hakukani]

She was also criticized for wearing sunglasses for one of her concerts. She said she wore them because she had been crying, due to being upset at some intense questioning she got when entering Canada. She did not want the audience to see that her eyes were red and swollen from it.

Classical music audiences can be brutal, because they don't like anything unexpected or out of the ordinary.

 

[sopsax]

LostConn, thanks for highlighting the connection between Yuja Wang (new to me) & Prokofiev (my favorite composer). Will seek out recordings & videos.

 

[chilehed]

Freaking idiots. I'd never heard of her before, she's amazing and AFAIC she can play any damn thing she wants in any order that pleases her. She's in Toronto in April, and I might get tickets - it's only a five hour drive for me.

EDIT: Agh, it's during the Easter Triduum, I'm singing in choir and can't make it!

 

[Reet McVouty]

This just goes to show that so called intellectuals are no more open minded than just any average Joe. I wouldn't have known any of the pieces she was playing to begin with, and would have been very content just to gaze upon her while she played whatever piece she wanted to....

 

[LostConn]

LostConn, thanks for highlighting the connection between Yuja Wang (new to me) & Prokofiev (my favorite composer). Will seek out recordings & videos.

This one is hard to beat:

 

[paulwl]

Classical music audiences can be brutal, because they don't like anything unexpected or out of the ordinary.

And they always always ALWAYS can hide behind the excuse of "upholding standards."

 

[lesacks]

On the other hand...

In my formative years I - and I think many people - really would read the programme notes (as the news article points out!), treating a concert as part of an education and getting in the mind set for what I was about to listen to... possibly glancing at the title / nature of each movement as things move along, often reading the notes for the second half during the interval... I can see someone being wrong-footed and even disturbed by readying themselves to listen to Bach and then hearing Scriabin or whatever. You are, after all, settling down to 30 minutes or more of close listening - though I, personally, wouldn't write to complain if the programme changed!

The classical audience is very varied. I've seen people with whole scores propped on their knees, and no end of ladies in fur coats snozzing happily, and quite a few "when I was young and went to classical concerts everyone was old" listeners. Are some more "up tight" then you might find in a jazz concert? gosh, yes, quite possibly, who'd have thought! They also dance less than you might find in a techo-rave. Also less talking, getting up for beers etc. Yes it's all music, but different kinds of gigs can be quite different experiences - even within jazz... youtube is full of videos of nicely dressed people sitting and listening to music that, in the 40s, would fill huge dance-halls with thousands of crazy dancers!

Also, this was a sell-out concert (hardly dwindling) and got a few gripes, just how bad is that (we all know journalists have to fill column inches etc...)? "upset audience"? really? Ask Igor Stravinsky what an upset audience really (or apocryphally) looks like!

Yes, I personally wouldn't have complained, indeed, a change in the order of the programme may be taken is part of the conversation about the music... that's me. Others are different... and really I see no good reason, from this, for folks to slagg off a whole demographic of music audience members!

 

[Rackety Sax]

Fair enough, though I believe the program made clear that the order was at her discretion. As for writing to a music critic to complain... I mean really, if you are desperate to know what she played... go home and figure it out by looking up the pieces on youtube.

 

[Phil Barone]

I guess the classical audience isn't too open-minded. Wang listed the pieces in the concert program but spontaneously chose the order. Many in the audience were not pleased: https://www.chicagotribune.com/ente...0200225-ojdbzkbxjbb2th4osotb2zc5ha-story.html

I'm going to see her Friday night and I got an email saying that what she's playing has changed, not a lot but enough to **** me off. I bought the tickets based on what she was going to play but it's not the first time they've done this and one time I called them asking what one pianist was going to be playing and they couldn't say. That's BS. But yeah, classical music depends a lot on rich uppity people and they don't like her because of her provocative dress. In the meantime she's cleaning up. Good for her I say. I even heard her say F**K in an interview and she's pretty wild but then again so am I but I don't think she should have changed the order from the program because it's confusing and people don't like change and you have to keep your following. I mean since when are audiences educated?

I study with a concert pianist and he doesn't like her either but he has very strict ideas of what technique should be but he's a monster player so I don't argue with him but a lot of great classical pianists don't like
her for whatever reason. Personally, I don't believe anything anyone says anymore, I just use my ears ***etaboutit. Phil Barone

 

[Rackety Sax]

She was also criticized for wearing sunglasses for one of her concerts. She said she wore them because she had been crying, due to being upset at some intense questioning she got when entering Canada. She did not want the audience to see that her eyes were red and swollen from it.

Classical music audiences can be brutal, because they don't like anything unexpected or out of the ordinary.

I have to admit I'd find it really odd to see a recitalist wearing sunglasses... weird enough that I'd probably assume it was due to a medical condition and try to get over it. What actually happened is distressing. I haven't seen any explanation at all for why she was detained and questioned in Canada.

 

[Rackety Sax]

... but he has very strict ideas of what technique should be ...

What's his issue with her technique?

 

[Phil Barone]

What's his issue with her technique?

I've never discussed the details with him. I have one hour a week at a hundred bucks a throw so I use that time for myself but from what he is teaching me it could be that she holds her wrists too high or that she moves around too much. He learned from a German teacher who teaches to have a straight back and not move around and they hold their wrists pretty low like Horowitz and they sit low too like Gould and he's a stickler for these things but plenty of great pianists break these rules. It's like myths surrounding the saxophone. I went to him because I got injured because of too much practicing at my age and perhaps because of poor technique. 75% of pianists get injured and it sends them into depression, suicide and it ends careers. Apparently you have to back off of the practicing when you get older. Be well, Phil

 

[Manitou]

personally, i wouldn't mess with anyone who could keep all of that in their head - she could probably melt someone's brain with a stare.

 

[LostConn]

but a lot of great classical pianists don't like her for whatever reason.

Although I'm not sure how we would document "a lot," the main reason is probably jealousy/resentment. Wang gets a lot of attention as a glamour leader in the classical music world, AND she plays so well that it's impossible to write her off as a poseur. That can be annoying to some rivals.

What's his issue with her technique?

IMO, critiques of instrumental technique as "right" or "wrong" are applicable to students, but not to top-tier concert artists. When you reach a high-enough level of technical ability, only the results count, not the exact methods. If conventional wisdom has anything negative to say about the way Wang positions her hands or moves her arms, then the conventional wisdom is wrong, or at least incomplete. It should say, "Do it like this -- unless you're a genius and can achieve perfect results some other way, in which case just go for it."

 

[Phil Barone]

Although I'm not sure how we would document "a lot," the main reason is probably jealousy/resentment. Wang gets a lot of attention as a glamour leader in the classical music world, AND she plays so well that it's impossible to write her off as a poseur. That can be annoying to some rivals.

IMO, critiques of instrumental technique as "right" or "wrong" are applicable to students, but not to top-tier concert artists. When you reach a high-enough level of technical ability, only the results count, not the exact methods. If conventional wisdom has anything negative to say about the way Wang positions her hands or moves her arms, then the conventional wisdom is wrong, or at least incomplete. It should say, "Do it like this -- unless you're a genius and can achieve perfect results some other way, in which case just go for it."

I totally agree on both counts, people are jealous among other things and she has a different style and people don't like change. She's not the only women shaking up the classical scene, there's Lola Astonova who is extremely sexually provocative and there's a few others bringing sexuality to classical music and I guess close-minded old stuffy people don't like it. I personally like it. Watch Lola on YouTube playing clair de lune, if you're a guy, or maybe a girl, it'll knock you out of your socks. And what she wears! OMG!

As for her Yuja's technique, I think people spend a little too much time looking at players with their eyes instead of listening to the results and nobody should criticize anybody until they reach the other persons ability and she's a monster. Saxophone players frequently play their mouthpieces with their eyes and pianists that are stuck in their beliefs and call Horowitz a freak because of his unconventional technique but he plays so great they can't deny that he was possibly the greatest pianist that ever lived. Since this new wave of "mouthpiece techs" spewing nonsense on the net, everyone including every teenybopper has become a mouthpiece expert and I'm criticized for some cosmetic imperfections in my mouthpieces because they were castings so they're judged before they play them because they let some inexperienced "tech" influence their judgments. That's what critics do, they impose their own beliefs on less open-minded people. I can't wait to hear her Friday, it'll be fantastic and she's playing Bach and Chopin, my two favorite composers. Remember, don't believe everything you think. Phil Barone

 

[Arundo Donax]

...
and they don't like her because of her provocative dress. ...

... a recitalist wearing sunglasses...

Ah, well. They're probably not Elton John fans either.

 

[Phil Barone]

Ah, well. They're probably not Elton John fans either.

I saw Elton twice when I was a kid and he was amazing. I was living in Brooklyn and didn't have a ticket but I went with the only nine bucks I had and bought one in the orchestra. I went back the next night and copped an orchestra seat for 12 bucks. Phil