The pianist formerly known as Yundi Li now reappears as Yundi, and with a new label behind him. On the basis of his strong, incisive Chopin Scherzi for DG, I had high hopes for his EMI debut consisting of all 20 Chopin Nocturnes. To be sure, Yundi’s technique is beyond cavil, and everything sounds uniformly pretty and tasteful. But not much else. The fault partially lies with overly resonant engineering that places the piano at a distance in a kind of sonic halo, smoothing out the registers and the dynamics and blurring slow-moving sustained music such as Op. 62 No. 1’s long trills. It’s as if the piano had been transformed into an angelic harp. As a result, the notes emerge all at the same timbral and emotional level, with little sense of the music’s harmonic tension and contrapuntal interest.
When Yundi’s not bland (which is most of the time), he’s prosaic, as the square, lethargic Op. 55 No. 2 and tensionless Op. 32 No. 2 selections bear out. And there are fussy moments, such as how Op. 27 No. 1’s climax dissipates due to Yundi’s tapered phrasing. Compare Yundi’s Nocturnes to Nelson Freire’s equally beautiful yet infinitely more detailed and musically deeper interpretations–or listen to Rubinstein, Pires, or Ashkenazy–to hear what’s really in this music. File this one in your collection’s New Age section.
