Ravel & Gershwin: Through The Eyes Of Yuja – Yuja Wang

   in Piano International (Nov, 2018)
Anaïs and Olivier Spiro’s rather soulful ‘road movie’ follows Yuja Wang on tour, criss-crossing the planet from concert venue to concert venue. We see her rehearsing (including several clips from Prokofiev’s Second Concerto in G minor, one of her party pieces), travelling in limousines and aeroplanes, and reflecting on her situation as the pianist loved not for herself but because of the music she plays. Elsewhere, she notes wryly that she is – to paraphrase her own description – the petite pianist who plays fast and wears short skirts.

Wang herself suggests her sometimes skimpy concert attire, and her unconcern about exposure, derives from her mother having been a dancer. Whether …