TIt all started a bit out of spite. «My mother is a dancer and the first thing I heard in my life was Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. “Oh my God, this is so beautiful” I thought. But when she started pushing me to dance too, I pretended to prefer the piano. Then I really fell in love with it! Laughs, Yuja Wang, who speaks of the stereotype of the musician as introversion & torment – hurray! – he has nothing. Super communicative (“I answer questions without having to ask them to me”, he will realize at a certain point in the interview), direct, not reticent. Not even on her boyfriend, another young star: the Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä (“Cute, right?”).
Yuja Wang, the exceptional pianist in Louboutin
She is the most celebrated classical pianist today in the world together with Martha Argerich (“google it” to believe it), but she doesn’t disdain sexy looks (she designs her clothes herself), high heels (preferably Louboutin) and trespassing: she recently took part in an immersive performance playing between David Hockney’s 3D paintings and collaborated on the soundtrack for The Hunger Games: The Rime of the Nightingale and the Serpent. But above all, she never replicates what you expect.
How much do you exercise every day, for example? «Mom says it depends on how busy you are: if you give yourself one hundred percent, even twenty minutes is fine. Arthur Rubinstein (one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century, ed.) maintained that, after three hours of practice, you should start to enjoy it, and he was right: the brain needs to be stimulated by various arts, because playing the piano is not something physical and it is not a question of technical perfection, but of how much energy you communicate. Classical music has a necessary function for the listener as well: it is a channel to get in touch with your emotions, to get to know yourself better and become more complete, kinder, more understanding, creative.”
Pianist Yuja Wang, exceptional pianist and Rolex brand ambassador
Classical music that inspires fear
Yet many stay away from it, they find it intimidating.
«It’s a prejudice. Let’s put it this way: classical music is like a longer – and perhaps deeper – version of a Rihanna song (laughs). Claudio Abbado said that it is born and ends in silence, if someone has chaos inside they don’t have the space to hear what it has to offer.”
And what would you advise an aspiring musician?
«Remove yourself from the “picture”, don’t think about the Ego: you don’t do it for yourself, you do it for something superior. And be willing to… I hate the word “sacrifice” (just as I hate the word “career”). However, yes, the concept is that: be willing to work like a slave. Only now do I give myself more time for myself, I went from the average of 125 concerts a year to 85.”
The best concert is next
What is your favorite so far?
«To keep the motivation high I repeat that the best will be the next one, yet I don’t deny that there have been memorable ones. I started studying in China at the age of six and listened to recordings that came from the West: a decade later, or so, I found myself performing with the orchestras on my CDs… Unforgettable occasions. And empowering: several masters have passed away and it is as if I had a torch to pass on to the next generation. At the top of the list, however, I would place the evening in 2009 in which Abbado chose me to inaugurate the Lucerne Festival (Abbado, someone who usually called Maurizio Pollini!). Immediately afterwards, among other things, they offered me to become brand ambassador for Rolex, and it was – as well as an honor (their commitment as a sponsor of the arts is commendable) – fun: the brand logo is a crown, and the My surname, Wang, means “the king”».
By the way: how important are your roots?
«I moved at the age of 14 – alone, my parents remained in Beijing – to Canada and then to Philadelphia to study, so the period of my education was between two cultures, between the American vision (“You have to take the control of your existence”) and the oriental one (“Be like water, follow the forms of things”). Now I find that it gives a sense of freedom to let go (we are just drops in the ocean and whether you want to have a finger on the pulse of the situation or not is absolutely irrelevant), leaving the driver’s seat to sit in the passenger’s seat. I finally understand my father (percussionist, ed.) better.”
Yuja Wang, 36 years old and with 16 successes, at the Salzburg Festival. She left China as a teenager and now lives in New York.
Being happy is a strength
In what sense?
«He is a Zen type, he never asks for anything, he is not results-oriented, he has no goals to achieve and he is very happy even doing nothing. I used to react like: “How can you be like this? Without ambitions?”. Little by little I understood that it is an extraordinary, liberating attitude. Being happy represents strength, if you are happy no one can influence you.”
And your mother’s most precious teaching?
«Be honest and don’t care about everything! (laughs) That’s how she is: she knows what she wants and has an absolutely independent temperament. I have internalized her vision of her, and she repeats to me: “Clean out the noise, she ignores” ».
What are you referring to?
«Sometimes I am embittered by stupid comments but, since we all have a limited source of energy, I intend to use it fruitfully, not by fighting».
She just has technique and is too beautiful
Sorry, what kind of comments?
«The usual things, the ones that Argerich also complained about: “He complains a lot, he doesn’t know what he wants”. And in my case, being Asian, the icing: “he only has technique, he is too young to understand the compositions. And she’s too beautiful: no one listens to her…”. Which is actually a compliment… (laughs) There’s something good about being a woman, I can wear different clothes and feel a different vibe, whereas men are reserved for those boring suits! Honestly, though, it happened at the beginning: things have changed.”
Thanks to greater sensitivity, #MeToo and similar movements?
“No. Maybe they can help, but I didn’t need empowerment: I always felt powerful. You need to tell society who you are and you will be treated accordingly, not ask to be treated special. And then I’m Chinese, China is a land of powerful women. (smiles).”
No to toxic positivity
Are you optimistic by nature?
«We need to understand. There is that forced optimism that I hate and call “toxic positivity”: come on, let’s be realistic, let’s not kid ourselves, there are disgusting circumstances. And, instead, there is a positive way of facing events, with courage and gratitude in any case, remaining open to the unexpected.”
An example that concerns you? (smiles)
“My hair. I wore them long, a sort of curtain that cut off the audience from my field of vision, so I felt like I was playing for myself or for the composer.”
When did you decide to cut them?
“Never. It was an accident, in fact. I went to get my hair trimmed in Spain by a hairdresser who didn’t understand English well: I fell asleep due to jet lag and, when I recovered… Oh nooooooo! At the concert that evening I felt naked. Today I find them very right for me. But he will want to know what I do in my free time…”.
What does he do?
«I spend time in nature, I take saunas, I watch films (the thing that relaxes me the most): I love the ones with Angelina Jolie and Charlize Theron».
Two strong women.
«Strong, but not bitchy, bitch… The dividing line is very thin! Or I read: Proust, Italo Calvino, Milan Kundera. As a teenager I was influenced by Marcus Aurelius with his philosophical thoughts – being stoic is good for a musician – and, speaking of empowerment, the writer Ayn Rand: she pushed me to decide not to get engaged, which at that age is an advantage … (laughs)».
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