Fantasia

Description

Pour her fourth album with Deutsche Grammophon, Yuja Wang had the idea to record a selection of miniature pieces that she usually plays as encores at her concerts. For Yuja, an encore is something ephemeral and at the same time full of truth: "It's a temporary state of mind that the audience shares. I have been playing these pieces for so long that they are part of me. It's a kind of testimony of what I feel at the moment." It was with Walt Disney's film "Fantasia" that Yuja Wang discovered classical music, and this title also reminds her of Paul Dukas' The Sorcerer's Apprentice, which she adapts here from the piano transcription made by Victor Staub. With Fantasia, Yuja Wang also pays tribute to two legendary pianists who hold a special place in her personal pantheon: Rachmaninoff (with the Études-tableaux) and Horowitz, whose piano transcriptions of Bizet's Carmen and Saint-Saëns' Danse macabre she performs. "I was almost tempted to title this record my heroes!" Once again, Yuja Wang brilliantly meets the challenge of technique and virtuosity while interpreting these miniatures with great musical sensitivity. "People often think that an encore is spectacular, but for me, it's a small moment of tenderness from the heart."