Yuja Wang celebrated at the stand-in concert in Salzburg
One’s sorrow, another’s joy. Pain in Evgeny Kissin’s arm ensured that the young pianist Yuja Wang made a spontaneous debut as a soloist at the Salzburg Festival on Friday evening. The audience celebrated her in the House for Mozart for her courage.
It was not Wang’s first appearance at the Salzburg Festival, already in 2015 (when Wang was only 28) she made a powerful impression on the Salzach alongside violinist Leonidas Kavakos. A lot has happened since then, the pianist has traveled all over the world as a soloist, just never to Salzburg. Now also by chance, but by no means unprepared, because the Chinese pianist has a reputation in the industry for being very spontaneous.
The program that she pulled out of a hat for the Salzburg Festival was basically a complicated exhibition of what Wang made her name with: technique and emotionality. From the program leaflet cobbled together by the festival at short notice, it was clear that Wang was convinced that every program was a reflection of her current emotional state. And she obviously wanted Schubert, Schönberg, Ligeti, Scriabin and Albéniz for her debut.
It was surprising that Wang actually seemed a little tense during the first half of the concert. Schubert’s “Love Message” probably did this restraint and restraint stylistically well, as did Schönberg’s suite for piano opera. 25, however, this is very technical. The fact that a woman who made her breakthrough when she filled in for Martha Agerich with the Boston Symphony Orchestra still feels a certain excitement before a debut makes Wang a little more likeable.
After the break, with Scriabin’s Sonata No. 3, some serenity finally set in again, even if Wang, in addition to the multicolored movements, clearly continued to focus on the quiet and infinitely easy passages. After she ended the concert with two works by the composer Isaac Albeniz and a lot of energy, the audience fell upon her with great applause and many bravos. After the last tension had finally fallen from Wang’s shoulders, she decided to treat herself and the audience to a half-hour of fun with six encores ranging from Mozart to jazz, thus rounding off her successful solo debut at the Salzburg Festival.