Review: Wang's New Rachmaninoff Concerto Stunt Doesn't Pay Off

Dave Hurwitz reviews Yuja Wang's 2023 Rachmaninoff concerto cycle with Dudamel and LA Philharmonic, finding it competent but flawed.

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Key Takeaways

Yuja Wang is a skilled pianist but this Rachmaninoff cycle lacks greatness due to interpretive and balance issues.
The orchestra-piano balance is a major problem, especially in the second and third concertos, affecting the symphonic nature of the works.
The Paganini Rhapsody performance is underwhelming due to tempo and orchestral accompaniment problems.
Live recording and engineering choices at Disney Hall contributed to an unnatural sound and diminished impact.
Despite flaws, the cycle is not dreadful and has moments of technical brilliance and charm.

What the video covers

Yuja Wang and the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel recorded a Rachmaninoff piano concerto cycle in early 2023 for Deutsche Grammophon.
The cycle included all four concertos plus the Paganini Rhapsody, performed over a few days in February 2023.
Wang's previous Rachmaninoff performances were mixed, with some criticized as slow and unexpressive.
This new cycle is better than her past efforts but still not a great interpretation of Rachmaninoff's piano concertos.
The Paganini Rhapsody performance suffers from poor tempo choices, balance issues, and lack of orchestra color and character.
The second concerto is described as boring, with the piano too prominently balanced over the orchestra, losing symphonic interaction.
The third concerto has technical skill and a lively finale but is weighed down by slow and dull moments in the slow movement.
The first concerto is charming and suits a piano-focused approach, while the fourth concerto is hard-edged but also suffers from balance problems.
Overall, the recording is an average live performance with engineering and balance issues that prevent it from being special.
Hurwitz encourages listeners to continue exploring Rachmaninoff interpretations as better performances exist.

Chapters

Who are the main performers in this Rachmaninoff concerto cycle?

The cycle features pianist Yuja Wang with the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, released on Deutsche Grammophon.

What are the main criticisms of this Rachmaninoff cycle?

The main issues are poor orchestral-piano balance, underwhelming tempo choices, especially in the Paganini Rhapsody, and a lack of symphonic interaction.

Is this recording considered a great interpretation of Rachmaninoff's works?

No, while it is better than some of Wang's previous efforts, the cycle is described as average with technical skill but lacking special qualities.

Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

Speaker A

Hello friends, this is Dave Hurwitz, executive editor at ClassicToday.com, here with, uh, they just keep churning them out, don't they? Another Rachmaninoff piano concerto cycle, now featuring Yuja Wang and the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel on Deutsche Grammophone. Now, this

Speaker A

was something of a stunt. This was a Rachmaninoff concerto cycle done in a very short period of time. It's in February of like 2020 something, 2023 I think it was. I can tell you what the actual dates were, and they did all of

Speaker A

the concertos plus the Paganini Rhapsody all in a clump. It was a Rachmaninoff concerto clump. Let's see here, we have February 9 and February 11, and I think there were a couple other ones as well, 2023, celebrating Rachmaninoff's, you

Speaker A

know, birthday, death day, something day, I don't know, some anniversary. Now Yuja Wang has already done some serious Rachmaninoff and not very well. First, she did the third piano concerto with this guy Dudamel with the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra Venezuela with a very

Speaker A

good for coffee have second piano concerto I was coupling but the Rachmaninoff third. Ah, so so then she did the second piano concerto and the Paganini Rhapsody with Claudio Abbado of all people and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Oh my God, that

Speaker A

performance was horrible. It was glacial, inexpressive, miserable. Everything about it was just like a wrong. Yeah, so this had to be better, and it is. It's considerably better. She's a good pianist, a very good pianist, and she knows the

Speaker A

music, heaven, heaven for sure, for sure. But that still doesn't make it a great Rachmaninoff piano concerto cycle. Nope, not even close. It's not dreadful, but it has some issues. What are those issues? Well, first of all, let's talk about the

Speaker A

Paganini Rhapsody because that's Rachmaninoff's greatest piano work. That's, it's just, it's just doesn't, it's a non-happening performance, and I'll tell you why. Well, first of all, the variations themselves, which is what the piece is, it's just a theme and variations.

Speaker A

I have issues with tempo, as in the 12th variation, the tempo di minueto, which is no minueto. It just dawdles along. It's stiff and unyielding. And then the 17th variation leading into the famous, famous 18th variation, that's the one where the

Speaker A

piano has these triplets, the lower octaves, and on top of that, the brass are going, yeah, I don't know, that's the tune, that's the melody. Well, balances are all wrong, and that's a problem throughout these performances, by the way, which I'll talk

Speaker A

about more in a second. But the thing is just too loud. And then the 18th variation, which it leads to, the famous 18th variation with the big tune, is something just not there. I'm not quite sure what it is. I'm not

Speaker A

sure whether the rubato, the tempo flexibility, doesn't cut it. It's just not, it's not natural feeling, where the climax somehow misfires. I mean, these are the kind of risks you run when you've got live performances, effectively one shot to do

Speaker A

it, and you're releasing it no matter what. And I'm sure if people were sitting there watching that performance of the Paganini Rhapsody, they would have thought, okay, it's not bad, but it's not great. And at the very end, when the

Speaker A

orchestra really has to come in with the DS era, you know, with the DS cra, and it's supposed to be like, think of Fritz Reiner doing it, the color, the glitter, the hardness, the edge, there's nothing like that. It's just accompanying of no

Speaker A

special character. And the orchestra matters in this work, at all of Rachmaninoff's piano concertos, at least after the first. So let's talk about the concertos a little bit. Number two, number two is the snooze. It's just

Speaker A

boring. And one of the reasons it's boring is because of, as I mentioned in the Paganini Rhapsody, the balances. The piano is way too forward. One of the things about the second and third concertos is that they are essentially

Speaker A

symphonies or symphonic works for piano and orchestra, and as often is not, the piano is accompanying the orchestra, not the other way around. But here the balances are so skewed towards this jumbo piano that it becomes very, very

Speaker A

fatiguing and monotonous, and you don't hear the melodic, the melodic material the way you should. The opening of the second piano concerto, you know the tune, right? I mean, it's this huge outpouring in lower strings, and the piano's accompanying. It's just

Speaker A

[Music] it doesn't have body. It really doesn't have body. The climaxes aren't very, aren't very powerful. You know, the first movement leading into the recapitulation, you really want to hear those, the orchestra come in with just the power of

Speaker A

the string section. I mean, the best sounding thing here in the orchestra is the bassoon. It's a really beautiful bassoon play, especially at the beginning of the third concerto. And it's the same thing in the third, the third, you know,

Speaker A

you've got the piano gets the opening tune right, and then down the piano goes doing lots of running accompany, but you know, it's doing all this accompaniment stuff when the orchestra gets the tune, and you want to hear the orchestra, and you don't.

Speaker A

Dudamel is really comparatively faceless. I know that, that, that Wang and Dudamel get along very well. They've worked together frequently, and obviously they've done the third piano concerto before. I mean, it's a better performance than they did before. The finale is

Speaker A

particularly well done. It's quick and sprightly. It doesn't have any dead spots that it can. It's like in the slow movement, which has plenty of dead spots. Uh, you know, I'm impressed by her facility, her technical aplomb, you

Speaker A

know, the way that they keep the thing moving in the finale of the third. But getting to that point, getting to that point, it's just a slog. Now the first and fourth concertos are the ones nobody cares about. I think the first is

Speaker A

a charming piece, a piece, it's given a charming performance, and here the approach works a little better because it's so much more focused on the piano as a work. It's not a real symphonic interaction between piano and orchestra.

Speaker A

And the fourth, well, I like the fourth because it's kind of hard-edged and, and, and, and, and a little bit less, it doesn't, it doesn't sort of disintegrate, it doesn't descend into schmaltziness the way two and three can. And again, this

Speaker A

is a decent performance of the fourth, but the balances, the balances for me, it just about kill it. It doesn't sound natural at all, and that's a function of live recording in Disney Hall on the day in question with DG's engineers. I, I wish

Speaker A

it were better. I, and I, I wish that, that, I mean, this was something to really get excited about, but it's not. It's just an average night at the symphony when you go, and I'm sure you would have had a

Speaker A

good time, and I'm sure you would have heard a much more natural give and take between the piano and the orchestra than DG has recorded, you know, it's preserved on these recordings, and you'd have been happy with the result. But as it is, this

Speaker A

is just not special, and we can do special with this music. We really can. So keep on listening, friends. Thanks for joining me. Take care.

Topics:Yuja WangRachmaninoffpiano concertoGustavo DudamelLos Angeles PhilharmonicDeutsche GrammophonPaganini Rhapsodyclassical music reviewlive recordingorchestral balance

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