Tackling the notes

China's Wang Yujia will play 'the hardest concerto for pianists' in her upcoming concerts in Beijing and Guangzhou in March. Xu Jingxi finds out more about the greatly anticipated performance, a collaboration with conductor Daniel Harding and the 110-year-old London Symphony Orchestra.

It will be an explosion of talents in Beijing and Guangzhou in March when Chinese pianist Wang Yujia, British conductor Daniel Harding and the 110-year-old London Symphony Orchestra collaborate to perform in the two cities. The greatly anticipated program includes the two piano concertos from Wang's latest album - Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No 3, which is said to be "the hardest concerto for pianists", and Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No 2. It will also be an opportunity to honor Wang and Harding's respected mentor - Claudio Abbado, who passed away on Jan 20. The Italian maestro gave huge support for the two musicians at the beginning of their careers and helped them make a name in the world.

Rachmaninoff's piece challenges performers with almost all the techniques, such as exceedingly fast syncopation, heavy chords and grace notes rolling on the keyboard like pearls.

British pianist Cyril Smith (1909-74) once said that it required the strength of shoveling 10 metric tons of coal to play the concerto. The piece is not only physically challenging but also demanding on pianists' emotional expression since it incorporates a great variety of moods including sad, heroic, tough, jocose, happy and lost.

So difficult is the concerto that some noted pianists have declined to perform it. But the 27-year-old Chinese pianist has recorded it for her new album which was pre-released in the United States in October and was released internationally on Monday.

"Many people ask me which concerto I think is the hardest, and I really can't say. To play Mozart in a committed and convincing way can be just as hard as Rachmaninoff," Wang says.

"With Rachmaninoff, there are big physical challenges on the piano, just to move around and play the notes, but there is the bigger challenge of making the very long arc of the piece work. That's what is really fun."

Wang heard the concerto for the first time when she was about 11 or 12 years old and started her long-term exploration of the masterpiece.

"The more I play a concerto, the more layers unfold. It's like a long-term exploration. The greater the piece, the longer the exploration and with Rachmaninoff No 3, it's one of the greatest pieces that we have the privilege to play," Wang says.

The notes of the 45-minute concerto are so dense that the sheets look like pages in a phone book. But the thin, small pianist doesn't think it a problem at all to command the masterpiece.

Many people knew the swiftly rising star after they watched her playing Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee on YouTube. In the video, her fingers move so fast that they blurred over the keys. She was thus nicknamed "a pianist with flying fingers" in her home country.

As a young performer, Wang is fearless in taking on any technical challenges with confidence coming from her grasp of a complete set of skills, according to Zhao Yimin, a Guangzhou-based classical music critic and the producer of a classical music radio program.

"Some says Wang loves showing off her skills. On one hand, she is capable to show off. On the other, few pianists would show off their skills throughout their careers. Wang has gone past the days when she needed to attract people's attention by showing off her skills. Now she is exploring her repertoire, making attempts at romanticism first," Zhao says.

In the latest review about her upcoming China tour, Wang reveals that she doesn't really practice technical exercises anymore.

"Playing the piano feels like a very natural extension of me, physically that is, and now a lot of my time is spent trying to understand what the composer is trying to say and how I support their ideas. So these days, it's as much a mental and a physical exercise," Wang says.

Enjoying solitude and thinking help her probe deeper into the music, she told the US National Public Radio in an interview in December.

Wang currently lives in New York by herself but travels most of the time to give more than 100 concerts annually around the world.

She is used to living alone. Having been a star student at the secondary school attached to the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, she won a scholarship and moved to Canada alone at 12 and then moved to Philadelphia to study with Gary Graffman at the Curtis Institute of Music from 2002-08.

Being solitary is not a bad thing, she says.

"It really allows us to think about life and to think about why people write this music, or why those people are moved by certain melodies. It makes you start to wonder about things that are beneath the surface," she says.

The fashionable pianist often wows the audience with her low-cut blouse, mini-skirt and 10-centimeter high heels when she briskly walks onto the stage.

But she hopes people notice beneath the surface her deft and expressive interpretation of both dreamy melodies and brittle outbursts.

To better understand music, Wang reads widely. She enjoys reading books on her "trusty" iPad during long flights.

Her broad range of knowledge can be shown through her Sina Weibo, China's Twitter-like service, where there are many posts of words of wisdom from thinkers in various fields from philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) to movie director Woody Allen.

However, life is much more than practicing the piano and meditation for the outgoing, pretty girl with sassy-dyed short hair who often bursts into bubbling laughter during interviews.

Like most people her age, she loves movies, good meals and time with friends.

When asked if she yearns for love, the pianist is outspoken: "I'm a very normal young lady. Of course I yearn for love, as does anyone my age!"

In music critic Zhao's eyes, Wang is casual and acts appropriately for her age. She remains a lovely young woman in front of her family and friends, although she is powerful on stage.

"Wang hasn't become tired or slacked after staging more than 100 concerts a year, which is rare for a pianist," Zhao remarks.

"She doesn't play the role of a profound thinker on or off the stage. The straightforwardness in her personality is well manifested in her performance, which helps her win fans in the Age of Internet."

Wang is among the bunch of Chinese pianists who have claimed international success in recent years, including Lang Lang, Chen Sa, Li Yundi and Zhang Haochen.

"The international classical music scene is talking about a new term 'China's School'. However, we are still far away from establishing a school like Russian and French musicians have done," Zhao says.

Contact the writer at xujingxi@chinadaily.com.cn.