Another chance to be astonished and seduced in London by the playing of this young pianist, still in his twenties having taken the world by storm ten years ago in Warsaw when he was the youngest competitor ever to win a top prize in the Chopin Competition
It is playing of such excitement and exhilaration that Horowitz or Cziffra come to mind .
‘X certificate’ stuff as the sheer animal excitement from his obvious joy of seducing the piano is communicated with astonishing feats of virtuosity and heart on sleeve sentiments that seduce the public.
But Tony is not only a showman but a poet of the keyboard with sounds of jewel like beauty that he allows to glisten and glow with a kaleidoscope of colours that are rarely heard in the concert hall these days .
This is old style playing when communication and personality could seduce audiences as indeed Liszt himself did. In the Paris salons of the eighteen hundreds refined ladies of the aristocracy would be reduced to a screaming mob ready to snatch any souvenir from their idol.
The nearest we got to this in our time was Horowitz who on arriving in Paris in the 30’s was described by a critic as the greatest pianist alive or dead!
Artur Rubinstein was not amused, but there was room for both pianists. One looking back to the times of the romantic virtuosi like Liszt or Thalberg and the other looking forward to the modern day pianism of Lipatti or Pollini where the pianist was the humble servant of the composer. As the princess Belgiojoso very diplomatically exclaimed in the famous duel between Liszt and Thalberg. ‘Thalberg is a great pianist but Liszt in unique’. Honour was saved !
‘Je joue, je sens , je trasmet’, was the raison d’etre of a humble servant of the composer.
It is a high wire act where those that can climb up onto the high wire can easily fall to one side as a showman or to the other as an intellectual, both though creating excitement , but one like good wine matures with age and the other that thrills the palette but after a while becomes rather flat and predictable .
I remember Shura Cherkassky telling me of his visits to Horowitz’s New York home, and with the recent death of Jorge Bolet they both exclaimed that they were the last two left of a past age.
No one knew the scores better than Horowitz but he was also from the Golden age when virtuosi could exert a power over their audience much as the Beatles or Rolling stones could do in the stadium.
All this to say that for all the wonders that Tony showed us last night the highlight for me were the simple Preludes op 16 by Scriabin. Playing of such freedom and with exquisite sounds of jewel like beauty . A sense of line and architectural understanding that could show us the moment of creation with the ink still wet on the page. Tony became Scriabin in one of those magic moments of recreation that are so rare in this play safe CD perfection age that can lead to performances as Gilels said, like canned instead of fresh food.
Tony has the courage to climb on the high wire and in Chopin adding deep bass notes and double octaves where Chopin was happy with scales and his piano had less notes. If the four scherzi had overstepped the border between animal excitement and scrupulous attention to the score , Tony had a personal vision of these works that might shock rather than inform as he sometimes feels more animal exhilaration rather than respect for the composers precise indications. But it communicated a vision of poetic artistry with a mastery of colour and balance that I am sure he will distill with less youthful exhilaration into interpretations of extraordinary depth. There were so many wonderful moments to cherish such as the simple Christmas Carol that Chopin quotes in the central part of the B minor Scherzo .It reminded me of the weight and beauty that Cherkassky could bring with his chiselled Belcanto of subtle innuendo.
I remember Fou Ts’ong playing in my series in Rome the day after Pogorelich had played the four scherzi .
I explained to Ts’ong that he had the same sort of freedom with the score as Cherkassky which might not be to his eclectic taste. After the concert Ts’ong, in his inimitable way, exclaimed :’ but Shura loves the piano, this man hates it !’
Tony’s love for the piano shines through all he does and if his youthful mastery excites him as much as many of the audience he will pare it down with maturity and these performances will become interpretations to cherish . I remember John Barbirolli defending the passion of the young Jacqueline Du Pre saying if you do not play with passion in your youth what do you pare off in maturity ! Jacqueline lived just long enough to show us,before her career was so cruelly interrupted by illness at only 28.
Tony’s playing of Scriabin was quite extraordinary as this was the world of perfumed sounds of multicolour . A decadence of seething passion and an undercurrent of burning intensity like a cauldron coming to the boil . A volcano with the red hot lava spreading over the entire landscape . It was this, the neurotic obsessive work of Scriabin that spoke to the youthful Tony more than the refined aristocratic poetry of Chopin.
Two Liszt Petrarch Sonnets were played after Scriabin, with the same kaleidoscope of colours and a knowing freedom of ravishing beauty. The first of Liszt’s two legends was given a masterly performance where showmanship and poetry were combined with the fervent conviction of a true believer .
Ashley had studied with Eliso Virsaladze in Florence with Tony where I too first met them both
What can one say of Tony’s Mephisto where showmanship and astonishing virtuosity combined with poetic understanding giving an architectural shape but including the exhilaration and excitement as only Horowitz or Cziffra could have done.
A scintillating encore , one of Rubinstein’s favourites , the A flat waltz op 34 n 2 was a refined and brilliant way to finish before greeting old and new friends backstage anxious to thank this great young artist who had so generously shared his passion for music with us in the new born Bechstein Hall
Hailed by CBC Music as one of Canada’s finest young musicians, pianist Tony Yike Yang first rose to international acclaim at the age of 16 after becoming the youngest-ever laureate in the history of the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, winning the 5th prize in 2015. Additionally, Yang has also won prizes at the Van Cliburn, Gina Bachauer, Hilton Head, Cooper, and the Bosendorfer & Yamaha USASU International Piano Competitions.
As a soloist, Yang has performed internationally in venues such as Koerner Hall in Toronto, Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, Severance Hall in Cleveland, Carnegie’s Weill Hall, Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, the National Philharmonic in Warsaw, Seoul Arts Center, the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Osaka Symphony Hall, Rockport Music, Esplanade Singapore, and the Millennium Amphitheatre in Dubai.
Yang has also performed for royalty and dignitaries such as Her Royal Highness Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, Queen Mathilde of Belgium, former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and Polish President Andrzej Duda, among others.
Concerto highlights include appearances with the Cleveland Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic, Orchestre Métropolitain, Ontario Philharmonic, Fort Worth Symphony, Toronto Sinfonietta, Jakarta Sinfonietta, Edmonton Symphony, Saskatoon Symphony, Changsha Symphony, and the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra.
Born in Chongqing and raised in Toronto, Yang is a recent graduate of Harvard University where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Economics. He is Artist-in-Residence at the Ingesund Piano Center in Sweden and at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and in the past, was a fellow at the Oberlin-Lake Como International Piano Academy. Currently pursuing his Master of Music at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover under Prof. Arie Vardi, Tony is named as “One To Watch” by Scala Radio UK in 2024.Programme
CHOPIN: Scherzo in B minor, Op. 20
CHOPIN: Scherzo in B-flat minor, Op. 31
CHOPIN: Scherzo in C-sharp minor, Op. 39
CHOPIN: Scherzo in E major, Op. 54
Intermission 30 minutes
SCRIABIN: 5 Preludes, Op. 16
SCRIABIN: Fantasy in B minor, Op. 28
LISZT: Sonetto 47 del Petrarca from “Années de pèlerinage II”, S. 161/4
LISZT: Sonetto 104 del Petrarca from “Années de pèlerinage II”, S. 161/5
LISZT: Légende No. 2 “St. François de Paule marchant sur les flots”, S. 175/2
LISZT: Mephisto Waltz No. 1, S. 514h
ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 