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| Chopin, Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 1 |
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List Price: $16.98
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Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0028947764021
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Deutsche Grammophon
Release Date: 2007-02-13
Studio: Deutsche Grammophon
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Editorial Reviews:
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This sonically in-your-face recording is a bit heavy-handed and lead-footed, particularly in the Liszt. There is no doubt that Yundi Li is the real thing β a terrific virtuoso who can cool his tone down for quieter moments while keeping acres of strength in reserve for the showy, fast passages β but something goes wrong here and these performances are not particularly enjoyable. The most successful moments are in the middle of the Chopin, where his holding back is almost vocal, with long phrases kept interesting enough to make us hear them anew. But there's also a lot of blurring, some due to the recording and some due, I think, to Liβs overuse of the pedal. His reading also feels as if the Liszt is a series of separate chunks; the parts do not flow organically into one another and we feel he's underlining too many "special" moments. In other words, it's probably as flashy as Liszt might have played it, but the overall effect is lacking in shading. The emotions are huge here, and while one is dazzled by the technique, it's an exhausting experience. Martha Argerich's coupling of these two concerti under Claudio Abbado on DG is magnificent β go for it instead of this. --Robert Levine
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| Spotlight customer reviews: |
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Yundi Li plays Liszt and Chopin
Comment: Yundi Li won the prestigious 1999 Liszt International Piano Competition and the 2000 Chopin Competition in Warsaw where he performed Chopin's E minor concerto. Yundi Li has commented how rare it was to encounter Western classical music in his homeland during his childhood years and how he first heard Liszt's E flat Concerto on lp's when he was nine and the Chopin E minor Concerto at fourteen. Growing up with these popular favorites of the Romantic concerto repertoire Yundi Li has been performing both regularly around the world for some years.
Liszt made the first sketches for his E flat major Concerto in 1830 and completed the score around 1849 making revisions in 1853 and more adjustments again in 1856 prior to publication. Dedicated to the piano virtuoso and composer Henry Litolff it would be hard to imagine more eminent performers at its premiere in Weimar in 1855 with the composer as soloist and Hector Berlioz conducting. The E flat major score is divided into four sections. The triangle part in the third movement has been the cause of ridicule by some over the years and influential critic Eduard Hanslick dubbed the score the `Triangle Concerto' a nickname now used with affection rather than sarcasm. Yundi Li does a magnificent job with the contrasting demands of Liszt's two sided genius, with writing that is virtuostic one minute and then takes you on an emotional roller coaster the next. His playing is exciting, perfectly blending drama with poetry. The opening section has an emotional searching quality to which Yundi Li gives an apt and natural response. The sheer intensity of his playing is remarkable, with compelling tenderness creating an air of mystery that closes the section. Love and romance were clearly dominant in Liszt's mind in the Quasi adagio section. Liszt seems uncertain about which direction to take, however Yundi Li is assured in the gentle episode of heartfelt beauty when he plays. Yundi Li is powerful and dramatic displaying light hearted playing of a scampering quality that develops to a hair raising climax of outstanding virtuosity.
Chopin dedicated the E minor score to his friend the virtuoso pianist and composer Frederic Kalkbrenner. With Chopin as the soloist the E minor Concerto was premiered as the center piece at a ceremonial farewell concert at Warsaw's National Theatre in 1830. It was only three weeks later that Chopin left his homeland never to return to Poland. On account of its earlier publication the E minor score is designated as the Piano Concerto No. 1 even though it was the second of his two concertos to be written. The playing is bold and beautiful catching the feminine quality of Chopin's fluid and lyrical lines. The tender flowing lines return with brilliant passages containing an abundance of arpeggio runs. Yundi Li performs with a crystalline quality that very few people possess. Yundi Li remarks, "the second movement is the most important in this concerto" and infers strong influences to love and romance. Yundi Li's performance in the poignant Larghetto has all the intensity of a passionate love letter. The concerto ends with a fiery and vigorous Rondo movement, a Vivace in the form of a Polish dance. The music gains in intensity as Yundi Li confidently brings the score home to a heroic conclusion.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Perfumed Liszt?
Comment: Yundi Li won several international piano competitions, the Gina Bachauer Young Artists International Competition, and 2000 Chopin Competition in Warsaw, Poland. He has foresworn further competitions.
Having first established his name in Southern China (where he and his family resides - Shenzhen) after his Warsaw win as a `pop' classical pianist, mainly owing to his physical resemblance with the girlish idol Takuya Kimura of Japan's hot favourite pop group `S.M.A.P.', he went to Hannover in Germany to further his musical studies.
On keyboard, Li is perhaps more reminiscent of Murray Perahia. His light and transparent touching often assume a jeweled, perfumed flavor. This feat is probably the trademark of Li's piano playing: lush and beautiful, whether you want it so or not.
While Li remarked that there two sides to his nature: poetic and passionate, the Liszt No. 1 is a thermometer piece to Li's passion.
The first movement opens in grandeur. There are lots of fiery sparks and the powerful harmonics all anticipative of an even more impassioned final movement. Some how, however, the temperature failed to maintain, and the third and fourth movements melt into an anti-climax, with the last movement ending in a rather hurried and grittily under-powered finale. No perfumes or jewelry for Liszt.
Keyboard pyrotechnics aside, Li still has way to go towards heavily demanding repertoire like Liszt and other Eastern European romantic composers. Perhaps, like F'ou T'song, he should build his repertoire along the French impressionistic school.
The Chopin No. 1 was a piece that Yundi Li played at Warsaw. While I would not go into detailed comparisons of this with his earlier performance some 6 years ago, this is overall a much more refined performance, and cleverly placed at the end of the disc instead of the Liszt No. 1.
For fans of Yundi Li, perhaps the Chopin concerto alone is enough to justify this disc. The case packaging by DG is also an upgradeing, as such are often used in SACDs, and comparing to cheap CD cases employed for the Beethoven Concertos by Lang Lang, such packaging is super-luxurious indeed, as is in tune with Yundi's love of luxurious stuff, so glaringly promulgated by the Grammophone (China) and the CAAC inflight magazine alike.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Virtuoso playing, but requires better ensemble work.
Comment: Since his spectacular win in the Chopin Competition at the age of 19, Li Yundi has become the youngest top-notch interpretor of Chopin's works.
He has also won a Lizst Competition earlier, and hence could be said to specialise in those two composers.
Yundi is a very conscientious pianist. His steady progress in technique is undisputed, and so is his interpretative skill for these two composers' works.
Some have criticised Andrew Davies' conducting in this recording - Robert Levine here, and the Sante Fe Listener.
However, it should also be noted that Yundi is also known to be individualistic in his performances with orchestras. He was known to prance ahead ignoring the orchestra in his Liszt No. 1 Concerto at Carnegie Hall this March with Chailly, too. I think the noticeable dichotomy in this recording should be accounted for on both ends.
Compared with the Chopin concerto (a piece he played at the 2000 Chopin Competition), the Lizst No. 1 offered less of the shimmer both in tone and dynamics. A striking comparison of the Li-Davies rendition with the 1979 historical Liu-Osawa (Liu Shi-kun), the latter shows up a much more fiery and glamorous version of the No. 1 Concerto of Liszt, with a breathtaking 3rd to 4th movements done in an almost unsurpassable bravura style that this Li-Davies version lacks sadly. That said, Andrew Davies' unimaginative conducting accounts for this at least 50%. Li's touching in the last movement of the Liszt No. 1 Concerto can be said to be too dry and flimsy, giving in to a fast tempo at the expensive of real expressiveness. The Chopin concerto, however, offers a colourful diverse-hued reading that is a real pleasure.
Unlike his compatriot Lang Lang who has a knack of picking out difficult pieces rather indiscriminately, young Li on the other hand needs to acquire more general musical nurturing apart from specialist works. But don't worry - he has the time to do it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Piano Concertos Refreshed
Comment: Standard repertory, but exceptional performances characterize this release. The pianist obviously has something to say, and says it in a way that is most refreshing. No lover of fine pianism can afford to pass this by.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A wonderful young pianist done in by a mediocre conductor
Comment: An odd situation here: a near pan from the Amazon reviewer and all raves from everyone else. In this case, I must agree with Mr. Levine. As it happens, I heard Yundi Li play the Liszt concerto in Carnegie Hall with the Leipzig Gewandhaus under Riccardo Chailly, and everything wrong on this CD worked incredibly well in concert. Since the difference is the conducting, I can only assume that Andrew Davis has led his young soloist astray. As Mr. Levine says, this frontal attack on the Liszt is a nerve-racking experience. From the first bar it's overblown, crude, and disjointed. The great thing about Yundi Li in concert was that he made this tin-plated warhorse sound like real music, but here it reverts to bombastic cliche. Too bad, becasue Li's technique is breathtaking, light and sparkling in a delightfully mercurial way when he isn't going wham-bang.
Davis doesn't hack away at the Chopin quite so badly, but you couldn't say his accompaniment has finesse--it's just loud, straightforward, and mediocre. Since this work, like the Liszt, isn't the strongest musically, it needs a sympathetic musical partnership between soloist and conductor. What can Li do with Davis in such pedestrain form? the best he caqn, which as Mr. Levine says, comes in the softer passages. This pianist has a special feeling for Chopin, and thankfully he doesn't pound and exaggerate here. But the musical depth of Argerich, Zimerman, and Pollini eludes him. In all, I did my best to enjoy this appealing young artist on his own terms, but the conductor posed too many drawbacks.
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