A Startling Young Talent - Yundi Li: Chopin

The credentials are impeccable. He was the youngest ever winner of the Warsaw Chopin festival held only once every half decade at the tender age of 18. His performances in that competition stunned the world, showing a pianist who showed a brilliant range of touch and feel belittling his youth. Past winners of the Warsaw Chopin have used it as a launching pad for wonderful careers such as Martha Argerich and Maurizio Pollini. The question since then has been, can he live up to all the hype that has been generated, as well as to the vast achievements of other previous winners? This, his debut CD goes some way to answering those questions.

It is perhaps unsurprising, all things considered that his debut on Deusche Gramophone shows an all-Chopin programme, and includes such famous pieces as the Piano Sonata No. 3, the Andante Spianato and Grand Polonaise Brilliante, as well as the Nocturne No. 2. But like all pianists tackling Chopin, he faces a daunting task, namely, how does one add anything to pieces that have been interpreted by so many great pianists before him? How can the pianist deal with the burden of expectation that these previous interpretations places on him, whilst also not decending into cliche and resorting to merely mimicking them? It is to Li's credit that he nicely avoids these pitfalls.

Perhaps the most outstanding quality that is evident in this recording is his ability to confer upon the listener the whole range of Chopin's emotion and feeling, from a searching tenderness to a sense of a yearning melancholy. He is able to bring shades of feeling and meaning to many of the pieces with his wonderfully lyrical renditions. Indeed, the pieces are throughout played with nearly flawless technique but more importantly with a seemingly fearless ability to cut straight to the core of a piece and to communicate its essence straight to the listener.

This CD leaves little doubt that Yundi Li is an extremely talented pianist. Even more encouraging is the fact that his playing is remarkably thoughtful and reflective, especially for one with so little experience. His intrepretation of Chopin seems to find a middle path between becoming iconoclastic and radical whilst being too stoic and reserved in attempting to remain "true to the composer's intentions" rather like Brendel and his school. Indeed, Yundi Li has managed to bring life and sparkle to these standards, and his performance here with all its merits must definitely be recommended wholeheartedly.

Caleb Liu

Article Author: Caleb Liu

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