Vivien Schweitzer on Yuja Wang

"The enormous surge in the popularity of classical music in China is now well documented. One of the latest talents to emerge from that country is Yuja Wang, a 22-year-old pianist endowed with a powerhouse technique and penetrating musicality. The daughter of a percussionist and a dancer, Ms. Wang trained initially at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing; then at the Mount Royal College Conservatory in Calgary, Canada; and most recently with Gary Graffman at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. In 2006 she received the prestigious Gilmore Young Artist Award. Ms. Wang makes her Deutsche Grammophon debut with works by Chopin, Ligeti, Scriabin and Liszt, a weighty program that showcases both her muscular technique and her poetic gifts. She brings the requisite excitement to the opening of Chopin's tumultuous Piano Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor and imbues the ensuing Scherzo with wistful longing. The chordal progressions unfold with stately grandeur in the Funeral March. … Chopin's sonata inspired Scriabin's Sonata No. 2 in G sharp minor. … Ms. Wang plays the Scriabin with improvisatory flair and brooding passion" ("Classical Recordings," New York Times, 7/26/09).