Yuja Wang Plays Chamber Music for DG

At the beginning of this past September, Deutsche Grammophon (DG) released its latest album of pianist Yuja Wang playing chamber music. My encounters with this aspect of her repertoire are so few that I needed a search engine to remind me of my last encounter. That took place back when I was writing for Examiner.com. On June 1, 2014 I wrote about her project with Greek violinist Leonidas Kavakos to record all ten of the sonatas for piano and violin by Ludwig van Beethoven (whose publications cited the piano before the violin).

Her latest release confines its attention to only two duo sonatas. The first of these is Johannes Brahms’ Opus 38 (first) cello sonata in E minor; and this is coupled with Sergei Rachmaninoff’s only cello sonata, his Opus 19 in G minor. The cellist for these performances is Gautier Capuçon. For the remainder of the album, the two of them are joined by clarinetist Andreas Ottensamer, who has partnered with Wang on a series of Blue Hour DG albums. On this new album the three musicians perform Brahms’ Opus 114 trio in A minor.

Most of those that have seen Wang’s solo performances, either in piano recitals or concertos with the San Francisco Symphony, probably know her for her abilities to take on both complexity and rhetorical intensity (along with her eyebrow-raising wardrobe decisions). Where chamber music is concerned, however, it is clear that she is just as capable as a “team player.” Even in the context of Rachmaninoff’s tendency to play up keyboard virtuosity, her chemistry with Capuçon registers as an intimate conversation between equals; and that level of partnership is just as evident in the Brahms sonata. When the “program” of the album then advances to Opus 114, the attentive listener can further appreciate the intimacy of conversation among three, rather than just two.

Cover of the album being discussed, showing Ottensamer, Wang, and Capuçon taking a bow after one of their recital programs (courtesy of Crossover Media)

It is also worth noting how these three musicians prepared themselves for making this recording. The album is basically a document of a chamber music program that the three of them had prepared. They gave recitals of that program at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Kurhaus in Wiesbaden, La Grange au Lac, the Konzerthaus in Dortmund, and the Tonhalle in Düsseldorf. As might be guessed, the press treated each of these performances with delight; and, thanks to DG, the rest of us can now share that delight.