Yundi Li gives phenomenal performance: review

24-year-old Chinese pianist Yundi Li gave a virtuoso performance last month in Toronto, to which he received a standing ovation.

At age 18, Li was the first person in 15 years to win first prize in the prestigious Chopin International Piano Competition in Poland.

This man is also a player with personality, much like superstars of yore like Vladimir Horowitz and Arthur Rubinstein. Like those 20th-century legends, Li imprints the music he plays with a personal esthetic that may not necessarily be true to the original score or to mainstream style.

In the case of last night’s program of crowd-pleasing dazzlers by Mozart, Schumann and Liszt, Li grabbed great handfuls of notes and shaped them into his own artworks with an iron will and breathtaking virtuosity.

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But many of the results were odd, even off-putting.
In the case of Mozart’s popular Piano Sonata No. 10 in C Major, K.330, Li overlaid the Classical-era purity of sound with a Romantic sensibility. This made for a sweetness that became downright saccharine in the slower second movement.

Read the full review: Young pianist’s technique magical