I am always surprised and humbled when anyone likes my playing, because, it’s always about the music and never about me. I am equally embarrassed to share reviews, again, because I am just a vessel seeking to transform to something purer, more powerful, and dedicated in the service of music. To that end, I know we must share these pieces of affirmation from the Universe and keep it flowing forward. Heartfelt thanks to American Record Guide (May/June 2020) for your kind listening! Here’s to @CarolineAdelaideShaw, #JSBach, and #RobertSchumann and their cosmic creativity that inspire a lifetime of studying and learning, and, to the Team who helped put “Resonance” together!
“...I will discuss her program in order, beginning with her extraordinary performance of the Bach Partita in D. In the Ouverture, she takes the opening section at a fairly slow tempo that grows still slower by the end, following with an extremely light and fleet fugue that approaches the sonic and expressive world of Mendelssohn. There are dramatic changes in volume and rubato: the movement, in short, seems to come closer to the expressive variety one would find in a Czerny edition of Bach. Although I don’t agree with all her choices, it’s gratifying to hear a pianist taking these kinds of liberties with Bach. Caroline Shaw describes her Gustave le Gray as a “multilayered portrait of [Chopin’s] Op. 17:4”, the great A-minor mazurka. I find it difficult to describe Shaw’s music, but if pressed I would say it relates nicely to Chopin’s care for sonority and color, though Shaw’s harmonies are not always as rich. She is without doubt a great composer. Yang closes her program with Schumann’s Davidsbundlertanze. Once again I am enchanted with her interpretive approach to the music—just different enough to distinguish her performance from many others. The tone, phrasing—beautiful. She understands the mercurial expressive changes in Schumann’s music and projects them without overstating them. This is, in short, extremely sensitive and sophisticated artistry. I hope she tackles the WTC, or all of Schumann’s work.”
