Yuja Wang in Vienna on Deutsche Grammophon

Cover of the album being discussed (courtesy of Crossover Media)

Many readers probably know by now that I have been following the work of pianist Yuja Wang for pretty much as long as I have been pursuing my current writing gig. Indeed, I filed my most recent article about her yesterday morning following her Great Performers Series recital in Davies Symphony Hall. While I continue to be impressed by the dexterity she can bring to massive quantities of notes, I have not always been convincingly satisfied by some of her approaches to interpretation. Indeed, my balance scales took a serious tip to the negative side about two years ago, when I cited her “slam-bang approach to Franz Liszt’s first piano concerto in E-flat major,” going as far as to described her as being a “partner in crime” with conductor Michael Tilson Thomas!

Things were not much better this week, when I realized that I had to turn to her encores to begin my article on a positive note! This morning, in hopes of a shift in context, I set aside time to listen to her latest Deutsche Grammophon album, The Vienna Recital. This provides a complete account of the music she performed at the Konzerthaus, Vienna on April 26, 2022.

The program was structured around two four-movement sonatas. The first of these was Alexander Scriabin’s Opus 23 (third) sonata in F-sharp minor. The other was the third of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 31 sonatas, composed in the key of E-flat major. As usual, most (if not all) of the notes were in the right place. Nevertheless, it was hard to get beyond what amounted to a sense of aimless wandering in her approach to Scriabin. The Beethoven account was delivered with more certainty but not much personality.

Woven among the sonatas were shorter compositions represented by three composers. The first of these was Isaac Albéniz with two of the movements from his Iberia collection. She returned to Nikolai Kapustin (whose music has interested her for the better part of her career) with two selections from his Opus 53, 24 Jazz Preludes. Those were complemented by two of the solo piano études by György Ligeti.

The remaining four tracks on the album accounted for the encores (a rather modest number when compared with Wednesday evening’s encounter). She continued the étude theme with the sixth in Philip Glass’ collection. She then turned to “Danzón No. 2,” which is probably the best known orchestral composition by Arturo Márquez. (This might be familiar to those that followed Mozart in the Jungle.) Her transcription was prepared by Leticia Gómez-Tagle. She then reverted to “old school” selections, an intermezzo by Johannes Brahms (the third in the Opus 117 set) and Giovanni Sgambati’s piano arrangement of music from Christoph Willibald Gluck’s opera Orfeo ed Euridice.

Taken as a whole, I would have to say that I was neither more nor less impressed with this recording than I had been with Wednesday evening’s recital.