I first heard Ryan Wang four years ago in Florence when as a fourteen year old boy he played Chopin Preludes with such artistry that he won first prize at the final of the Montecatini Competition.
I later heard him several times at Eton where he held a music scholarship . Recently he also won the BBC young musician of the year award with a prize winning performance of the Rachmaninov Second Concerto broadcast on television.
Last summer I heard his farewell performance of Tchaikovsky as his schooldays came to an illustrious end .
Now as an eighteen year old artist he was playing a Chopin recital in the sumptuous salon of the Boas . Little were we aware that Ryan had played Chopin’s First Concerto in Paris last night.
So at 18 he is already a consummate artist on his way to Harvard to complete a NEC Dual Degree Programme under Wha Kyung Byun.
Before crossing the Atlantic there is a small matter of having been selected to take part in the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw. Hence today’s concert with the ever generous Boas promoting a try out recital for Ryan before he steps into the Circus arena where many of the finest young pianists of their generation are preparing to fight it out like Gladiators in Roman times .
Ryan playing a long programme including such masterpieces as the Fourth Ballade op 52, the Polonaise – Fantaisie op 61, together with the Waltz op 34 n 1 , the Nocturne op 62 n.1, the Winter Wind Étude and the Mazukas op 59 . Not forgetting the Polonaise Héroique op 53 . But it was the Variations on ‘La ci darem la mano’ that Chopin had played at the same age as Ryan today, on his arrival in exile, that brought forth the finest playing of the evening. Schumann had written ‘Hats of Gentleman , a Genius’ and it was exactly the same words that could follow Ryan’s inspired performance. A performance that showed all Ryan’s youthful exuberance but allied to a masterly control and breathtaking technical mastery. A scintillating jeux perlé played with teasing brilliance and even a glimpse of the Bel Canto that already gave a taste of the genius who was to create new art forms on a piano that now had a ‘soul’.
The concert had begun with Chopin’s late Nocturne in B that was played with nobility and delicacy giving an architectural shape to this most eloquent of tone poems. There was magic in the air as trills unfolded with vibrations of extraordinary poignancy.
A passionate fearless ‘Winter Wind’ from a young man with fire in his veins. If it had moments when the strain of this ‘tour de force’ that Ryan is attempting in these days leading up to Warsaw, it has the making of something very special full of breathtaking exhilaration and excitement .
The Waltz op 34 n 1 lept from Ryan’s fingers with youthful brilliance but he could now have more fun and playful delight. Aristocratic charm and beguiling subtlety mark Chopin’s waltzes as jewels that can be made to sparkle with refined brilliance.
The Ballade op 52 is one of the pinnacles of the romantic piano repertoire and Ryan played it with masterly control and understanding . Allowing the variations to unfold with ever more intricacy until the final passionate outpouring and dramatic chords . Five gentle chords followed after such a tempestuous full stop, and they were played with beautiful shape until the explosion of technical bravura of the coda.
If sometimes Ryan played with too much vehemence and his forte was too uniformly passionate it is because this young man has a God given talent and an urgency to express what is in his fiery heart.
The opening of the Polonaise- Fantaisie was played with masterly control and a palette of sounds that until now he had not fully revealed. An architectural shape to this masterpiece where Chopin combines a fantasy world with the dance of his homeland that was always in his heart.
It was in the Mazurkas that the poetic mastery of this young man was revealed and where these ‘canons covered in flowers ‘ to quote Schumann again, were given a palette of colour allied to a beguiling freedom that was really the highlight of the recital. Gone was the temptation to throw himself into the fray, as here was a young artist listening to every note that he was conjuring from his poetic fingers . This was an oasis of beauty and calm after a truly tempestuous Polonaise Héroique, where the military in the central episode have rarely been heard to March with such speedy perfection .
Ryan may have been exhausted after the strain of concerts in these past days but after such an exhilarating performance of Chopin’s youthful variations he could now let his hair down and treat us to a ‘Für Elise’ that became a true jam session of scintillating jazz . Ryan said he had picked it up off a performance he had heard on YouTube and obviously he relished every minute of it as we certainly did .
Surpringly a second encore was offered with the last of Chopin’s Preludes played with the breathtaking exhilaration and passion that this young man had demonstrated all evening .
A remarkable evening from a young man on the crest of a wave and the admiration and good wishes of every one present tonight will follow him to Warsaw next month.
ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 