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I was laying in bed, fighting with aftermath of a nasty flue, reading. The always “on” Rohde & Schwarz tuner was getting WHRB. The Macondo was up at 3 clicks very softly filing the room with WHRB’s “Cello Challenge” and “20th Century Brass Concertos” programs. The time was 8PM and my DAW-based recorder kicked in to record.  The San Francisco Symphony live-to-tape concert begins with Charles Dutoit conducting.

The orchestras proceed to Ravel’s “Le Tombeau de Couperin”. I did not listen and keep reading. With side-vision I notice that the meters on Lavry up running somewhere where they shall and it was enough for me. Then Rick Malloy announced the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat, Op. 19 with some another Chinese teenager at keyboard. “Oh, no, another sugary Mozart concerto and decided”, - and continued to read.

With the side-hearing I picked a few phrase from the beginning of the fists movement. It was so good that I sat on my bad and added a couple dozens dBs to Macondo. The performance was absolutely remarkable. I kind of did not feel comfortable to lay and was sitting in my bad the whole 3 movements, listening the unexpectadlsy phenomenal play. It was 20 years old Chinese-Philadelphian pianist Yuja Wang – she was so “natural” in her play that it was juts hypnotizing. It is not truly difficult work, nether technically nor intellectually but Yuja Wang played it even beyond of “easy” – it was pure joy to listen it. It is like you are a high jump athlet and you personal record is 240cm and somebody challenges you to jump 120cm… I think I need to pay attention to her play and I hope she will pop up in New England – I will go.

Still, listening Yuja very much like listening all of them (the teenagers-pianists) I always ask myself a question: do the teenagers-pianists able to play soft in concertos? Yes, they can collapse dynamic in solo play but when they with orchestras then they looks like afraid to execute this very proper phrasing only diving at much lower dynamic range. I do not know why they do it. Age? Ego? Desire to balance themselves with orchestra? Listening too many compressed music from iPads? Perhaps it is just me as I am accustomed to listen concerts from the perspective of the well-poisoned broadcast microphones? I still recognize the very same tendency during the live concerts. 

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