Yuja Wang's livery

[Belle]

She's starting to look like a sexual exhibitionist these days in her raunch livery:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3laBo2usGcA

[jserraglio]

Tiny dresses, skinny heels and towering talent: how's that ensemble not working out for her?

https://www.google.com/amp/www.newyorke ... rmance/amp

[Belle]

It absolutely IS working out for her! But I think you could eliminate two of the descriptors you wrote and she'd still have more than enough appeal to get people into the venues to see her. My question is "why" the extras ? What started out as elegant and appealing has become raunchy and excessive, IMO. I'm thinking of calling her Lang Wang.

That link to "The New Yorker" was an interesting read, especially this:

Schiff speaks in the slow, self-savoring way in which many Eastern European men speak, to let you know how interesting and amusing everything they say is—except in his case it is.

Andras Schiff is a very shy musician with no discernible sense of humour, so I found that coment rather gratuitous. I've often seen him described as a 'musical priest'; but 'amusing'? That's not an epithet most people would apply to Andras Schiff.

[jserraglio]

Too much of a good thing can be wonderful

[Belle]

Too much of a good thing can be wonderful

The same could be said of Lang Lang and all his "extras". Goose/gander. They're both telling us they're playing for a different audience now; I get that. Just as long as I can continue to see Trifonov in his conservative livery with breathtaking musicianship front and centre.

[Lance]

Well, Yuja does seem to have the "whole package," as it were. But I do think her dress code is substandard for a concert artist. I don't necessarily consider myself an "old fogey," either! In the clip you included, I was watching the orchestral members giving her a pretty good "look over" as well!

Of the most prominent Chinese pianists I have heard, I would place her in first place strictly from a "musical" point of view with Yundi Li second, and Lang Lang somewhere else on the list. She certainly does flaunt her body and I would have to agree that she is playing for a much different kind of audience than we had in previous decades. [Imagine someone like Lili Kraus or Gina Bachauer coming out on stage with Yuja's apparel. No, she always looked most elegant!] There is that old saying: "If you have it you can flaunt it!" And that she does.

[Belle]

I'm an 'old fogey' because I have tolerance for unfashionable livery - even when the pull-over is waaaay too big!!! It's the package inside, as far as I'm concerned:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/or ... bc57ea.jpg

The wonderful Kleiber was very wardrobe-challenged, especially in his later years. At home with the Kleibers:

http://oekastatic.orf.at/static/images/ ... 097419.jpg

However, on the podium (where he said the two essentials for conducting were hairspray and humidity-proof braces!) Kleiber stuck to the 'uniform'.

Who was looking at the clothes anyway when it came to Kleiber!!!??? His pal Riccardo Muti (in the first picture) is another matter altogether - an examplar of bella figura elegance and charisma.

[diegobueno]

10 years ago I played a gig with the Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes, in Elmira, New York. This was on March 4, 2007. Yuja Wang was the piano soloist, and she did a really stunning performance of the Prokofiev 2nd Piano Concerto. She wasn't yet the star she is today (indeed there's no way a minor orchestra like the Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes could engage her as a soloist today) but it was clear she totally had the goods and was headed for great things. She wore a long gown such as you see in the photos on this page:

http://yujawang.nicerweb.com/2007/

[jserraglio]

She wore a long gown such as you see in the photos on this page:http://yujawang.nicerweb.com/2007/

More is less when less is more. I agree she is a great artist, whatever her current state of dress, or undress.

[Belle]

10 years ago I played a gig with the Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes, in Elmira, New York. This was on March 4, 2007. Yuja Wang was the piano soloist, and she did a really stunning performance of the Prokofiev 2nd Piano Concerto. She wasn't yet the star she is today (indeed there's no way a minor orchestra like the Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes could engage her as a soloist today) but it was clear she totally had the goods and was headed for great things. She wore a long gown such as you see in the photos on this page:

http://yujawang.nicerweb.com/2007/

Yes, she wore an elegant long gown when I saw her in Vienna at the Konzerthaus in 2011. She looked like a dream and played phenomenally well. But she's going for the shock/exhibitionist value today and I just think that's a pity.

[jserraglio]

Roll over, Art Tatum. Tell Horowitz the news!
_______________________________________________________



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuDuIenxY1I&t=25s



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYqYxh6XsP8



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2sdOwMkdf8



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85IkZ0SvEyw



Grad recital at Curtis: Is the piano out of tune? Who cares . . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l1bs5hlnYk



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8alxBofd_eQ



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSbCmSOGLaQ



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkQ7kujoTeU

[maestrob]

I could care less what she wears (or doesn't). YUja Wang is a supremely talented musician, and if she knows how to generate buzz with her outfits, more power to her. I buy recordings and am unable to go to concerts, so I'm just listening anyway, and I love what I hear.

[Belle]

I didn't ever suggest her talent wasn't absolutely stunning. I simply say I'm disappointed to see the woman succumb to raunch schtick which is so much a hallmark of exhibitionism. My eldest son recently wondered whether it had anything to do with the fact that she was Chinese and had spend her young life being controlled by the State in a repressive society and that this now represents a form of personal rebellion. The performance in question took place with a Chinese orchestra. As I said earlier, I'm tempted to refer to her as Lang Wang.

Raunch culture is a bit more than "buzz".

I prefer this talented, elegant, beautiful and sophisticated female:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udletfBDheQ

[jserraglio]

Orchestras need to stop wearing dinner dress from a bygone age. http://www.classical-music.com/news/cla ... -says-poll

[Belle]

That will definitely make a difference to the music they play!!

[jserraglio]

It’s just natural for me. I am 26 years old so I dress for 26. I can dress in long skirts when I am 40. Anyway I have many different styles, I don’t only wear short. I don’t understand why I have to explain this, I just do what is natural for me.

If a beautiful male pianist wears tight pants, I’m not going to think, ‘What’s in those pants’?” OK, maybe. But if the music is beautiful and sensual, why not dress to fit? It’s about power and persuasion. Perhaps it’s a little sadomasochistic of me. But if I’m going to get naked with my music, I may as well be comfortable while I’m at it.

Yesterday, I was in a church [in Florence] dressed as I am now, [cropped yoga pants and skinny vest] having a little quiet spiritual moment to myself. Then this man taps me on the shoulder and says I’m being disrespectful to Jesus. Did you cover yourself up? No way. I don’t know if he understood what I said to him. But I guess everyone knows the F-word.

I love [Antonio] Pappano. So intense. So impassioned and sexy. And such a brilliant pianist himself!

I’m Chinese. We don’t do guilt. We do zen.

Few girls of the present day have any really solid qualities, any of the qualities that last, and improve with time. We live, I regret to say, in an age of surfaces. Pretty child! your dress is sadly simple, and your hair seems almost as Nature might have left it. But we can soon alter all that. A thoroughly experienced French maid produces a really marvellous result in a very brief space of time. I remember recommending one to young Lady Lancing, and after three months her own husband did not know her. And after six months nobody knew her.

[maestrob]

I’m Chinese. We don’t do guilt. We do zen.