Yuja Wang
Fantasia
DG
The 18 works on Yuja Wang's latest album show how fearless the 24-year old Chinese pianist has become as she takes command of a wide variety of styles, ranging from baroque to 20th-century arrangements.
The four short works by Rachmaninov and five by Scriabin, daunting in their technicality, are played with relative ease. Her attack in the former's A-minor Etude, for example, is no less crushing than if played by a man with much bigger hands and more power. But in the melancholy Elegie, she mesmerises with a tender singing quality.
The same tantalising touch can be heard in Gluck's Orfeo and Schubert's Gretchen. Chopin's famous C sharp minor waltz is played with superb poise.
Even more thrilling is her tackling of virtuosic works by pianists such as Liszt and Horowitz. It is audacious to attempt Carmen Variations and Danse Macabre but the lady dynamo handles both with dash. The biting rhythm in Johann Strauss' Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka has to be heard to be believed. Topping it all is The Sorcerer's Apprentice, the masterpiece from the Disney film which also gives the album its title. In the climax, the harmonic notes are so dense it sounds like four hands at work. Absolutely stunning.