Terrific concert.

It would be much appreciated if some musically knowledgeable person, or someone from UMS, could post what the encores were. Thank you.

I don’t think I’ve ever heard the Spanish group played better. Someone said, “this is not technique; it’s nature!” Sounds right – either first or second nature. There’s nothing she can’t play. She does have a left hand that should scare off any potential mugger. If there was anyone waiting for wrong notes, he went home sad.

The Beethoven was fine as well. The first movement Allegro was a bit more tempestuous than usual, and the last movement was on the fast side. But the point is it worked; it was totally plausible.

She also knows how to play dreamy as witness every other Scriabin piece.

I kept predicting she’d play a Schubert impromptu to show us that she had another side. Well, we did get Schubert via Liszt as the third or fourth encore. She’s very generous with encores.

She’s young and talented as hell, and I hope in time she’ll turn to more substantial music. What I mean is: not the piano version of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice or that wild first encore which sounded vaguely Prokoffiesque to me.

Many of these pieces, performed brilliantly this afternoon – I forgot to mention Ms. Wang’s striking crescendo – just don’t go very far in musical terms.

If I were conspiratorially minded, I’d suggest that in future she lure people into the hall with thunderous Rachmaninoff and beautiful gowns and then play middle Beethoven and/or late Mozart and the Brahms sonata that was at one time on the program.

Can’t keep all the encores straight: there was Gretchen am Spinnrad (Schubert), the aria from Thais (Massenent) Sorcerer’s Apprentice (Dukas) and that first sorta Prokoffisquy thing, maybe a Vision Fugitive. Anything esle?

How about a Hill Auditorium Manner Course? Manners 101!

Ms. Wang was sublime, though I’d have paid five times more to sit in a more intimate setting. Hill Auditorium seems just too huge for a solo piano recital. I sat on the main floor, and I wondered how the folks in the balcony were doing. I thought the two inane incidents of the cell phones ringing and the constant tubercular hacking were embarrassing though. If Ms. Wang had sat there silently until the cellular offenders were evicted from the auditorium, I would have been thrilled and I would have cheered her (and jeered them). I don’t know what to say about audience members who openly cough without any attempts to muffle the noise. I think there will always be people who are indifferent to the disturbance they make, and will act surprised and shocked when called on it. Like the woman sitting near us who drank from a plastic water bottle, which she insisted on noisily crinkling.

For those who simply cannot get enough:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O10IWGH-asE

What a gift, thank you to UMS for bringing this stunning talent to Ann Arbor. This was an illuminating performance, I expect and hope to see Yuja Wang in Ann Arbor many times in the coming years!

One of the most remarkable piano recitals I’ve heard in over 50 years. I haven’t been so moved since my last Horowitz recital in 1980, which says a lot. And her quirky transcription of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice reminded me of Horowitz as well (and her infinite range of tone color). At the same time, her technique is the most natural I have seen of ANY pianist. This was my first concert in Michigan, and I couldn’t believe the number of cell phones. We clap between movements in California, but at least we manage to turn our cell phones off.