Teen pianist's recital dazzles
Marc Shulgold, Rocky Mountain News
Published March 25, 2006 at midnight
A full house certainly got their fill of Joyce Yang's talents Thursday in a piano recital that marked this teen as a major talent to watch.
Winner last summer of the silver medal at the hotly contested Cliburn competition in Fort Worth, Texas, the Korean-born, Juilliard-trained pianist dazzled her listeners with an unhackneyed program.
The closest to a familiar tune was Chopin's Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise Brillante, a lyrical work that displayed the 19-year-old Yang's wide dynamic range and innate musicality.
Even more appealing was her way with two Polish songs by Chopin, transcribed for keyboard by Liszt. In My Joys and The Maiden's Wish, Yang displayed a clarity of line that brought out the music's simplicity, while adding just the right touch of phrase-stretching rubato to bring spontaneity to the songs.
This was hardly flashy playing - but a high point of the recital nonetheless.
The pianist offered a charming spoken introduction to Sonata No. 1 by the contemporary Australian composer Carl Vine, describing how this "infamous" piece had captured her fancy and how it then became the favorite of half the student population at Juilliard.
In her assured performance, it was easy to understand why a pianist (or gifted piano student) would be attracted to it: This is a fiendishly difficult piece that never chases away the listener with mind-numbing passagework, never descends into rambling self-indulgence.
Yang easily conquered the sonata's intense passagework while exhibiting pinpoint pedal control to manage those eerie overlapping harmonies.
Two other major works dominated the recital: the opening B-minor Partita by Bach, which revealed Yang's admirable attention to inner voicings, and the rambling Sonata Reminiscenza from Nikolai Medtner's Forgotten Melodies.
The latter opened (and closed) with a charming Russian folk tune but wandered from style to style (which, considering the title, may have been the main idea).
Yang was up to the challenge of stitching all the pieces together into a somewhat comprehensible whole.
Throughout the recital, she showed herself to be a totally committed artist, hunching over the keyboard, crunching her face into contorted expressions of concentration - allowing herself only one or two modest bows at music's end before heading for the wings.
Yang will turn 20 next month, a reminder that this talented, interesting pianist has time to develop her budding musicality and intriguing stage presence. If you missed the Lakewood recital, know that she'll return here next season for a date with the Colorado Symphony.
Joyce Yang
• Grade: B+
• When and where: Thursday at the Lakewood Cultural Center
Marc Shulgold is the music and dance writer. Shulgoldm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5296
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