On disc, Yundi’s Chopin has ranged from exciting and scintillating (his Scherzos for DG) to mall-music bland (his EMI Nocturnes cycle). The pianist’s 2010 Beijing recital covers both extremes. He tears through the B-flat minor sonata first movement like an unleashed puppy, and still finds room for dramatic repose. The energy spills over into the Scherzo’s main section, but the Trio turns to goo before it settles in, due to Yundi’s choppy melodic phrasing and flaccid pulse. Yundi’s heavy-handed accentuation similarly stops the Funeral March in its tracks, while by contrast the brisk Presto Finale unison octaves whiz by with random punctuation and little harmonic clarity.
The Nocturnes are more shapely and animated in comparison to Yundi’s relatively homogenized, rounded off studio counterparts. Aside from some glib rushing, the A-flat Polonaise boasts convincing swagger and élan, while the Grand Polonaise Op. 22 easily withstands the pianist’s superficial flash. Of the four Op. 33 Mazurkas, I enjoy Yundi’s tension-generating rubato in the G-sharp minor, but find his little tenutos and affetuoso holdbacks in the C major and B minor overly mannered. The encores comprise a charming, gorgeously pointed rendition of the traditional Chinese folk song Cai Yun Zhui Yue, and a relatively slapdash, over-pedaled Revolutionary Etude. The CD program sequence, incidentally, differs from the concert’s actual running order as seen on a bonus DVD, which offers fine performances of the Op. 27 No. 2 and Op. 48 No. 1 Nocturnes not included on the audio CD under review.
