Yuja Wang might be the most famous pianist in the world at the moment; a mixture of pure talent, hard work and a taste for fashion. She has won the most prestigious awards, has played with the best orchestras around the world and has always stunned audiences with her outfit choices. Recently, she capped a three-night-long set of performances in the most typical “Yuja Wang” fashion, with her fashion at the center. Wang and principal dancer of the New York City Ballet, Tiler Peck, stunned in the “Nightcap” series event. The concert took place on Jan. 25, 2025, at David Geffen Hall in Lincoln Center.
A few hours before the “Nightcap” series was the main program. Wang leads the small orchestral ensembles from the piano in “Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments” by Igor Stravinsky; “Capriccio for Piano Left-Hand” and “Chamber Ensemble” by Leoš Janáček; and the titular piece of the program, “Rhapsody in Blue” by George Gershwin. Wang impressed audiences by conducting the ensemble from the piano while still delivering a performance that showed off her technical ability. She specifically exhibited an unbelievable amount of control over her left hand in the Janáček piece and demonstrated an impressive ability to phrase her pieces in a melodic yet fresh way.
Wang did an amazing job bringing out the despair and helplessness that emanates from the lyrics of the song.
The culmination of her programs on all three nights was the Gershwin piece, a jazz-classical staple that showed off her transferable skills in a new genre of music. My personal favorite part of this performance was her encore, Dmitri Shostakovich’s “String Quartet No, 8 in C Minor (II).” This piece was written to convey the panic of USSR officers chasing Shostakovich and his family out of a Communist country. Wang played it perfectly, making me and other audience members feel the deep emotional connection that the composer wanted us to feel.
While her curated concert series was an amazing night of music, Wang shines best when she is the star. This is why her “Nightcap” series, performed later in the night, was the perfect way to end her first set of performances this year as The New York Philharmonic’s Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence.
She opened the night with a duet contemporary ballet piece performed by herself and Peck — something she has never done before in her 30 years of performing. It was a captivating piece with a spotlight on Wang and Peck that flowed perfectly into the first piece titled “Gretchen am Spinnrade,” composed for the piano by Franz Liszt. Wang did an amazing job bringing out the despair and helplessness that emanates from the lyrics of the song and speaks to the painful aspects of loving someone for such a long time.
Wang has always been about including up-and-coming artists who break stereotypes in music, and that is exactly what she did by having Mariel Bildsten and her septet perform in between her pieces. A female-led jazz ensemble where Bildsten plays lead trombone brought a sense of modern interpretation to some very classic pieces in the jazz repertoire.
However, the most fun part of the night had to be the number of outfit changes Wang had. Spanning all of her performances over the weekend, there were 13 outfit changes. She curated a look for each piece she performed, starting Saturday night in a floor-length black gown with a signature split down the right side, breaking the normally monotonous gowns used in classical performances. For her next piece, she changed into a bright and sparkly mid-length gold dress that lit up the entire concert hall and brought even more life to an already energetic and challenging piece. During the “Rhapsody” piece, which was already a deviation from the other pieces performed, she reflected this divergence from the norm in her dress choice: an aquamarine, almost prom-like backless dress that shimmered perfectly as she hit the climax of the piece.
To begin her “Nightcap” event, she wore a flowy and abstract blue gown in her dance performance and then changed into an anime-inspired short dress with poofy shoulders and some adorable cat leggings, which might have been my favorite piece of the night. However, her short red dress to end the night definitely stole the show for me and everyone in the Wu Tsai Theater.
Leading up to the main concert’s last performance was a wardrobe malfunction. I had the privilege of sitting next to the interim director of production, Mike Takebe, who got a phone call between the second and third acts telling him that the back of Wang’s dress was not cooperating. Luckily, there was no significant delay, and the piece went on without any hitches.
Her performance of “Danzón No. 2” by Arturo Márquez was a joy to watch, with her stage presence in full force as she knelt on the piano bench throughout parts of the piece, playfully looking at the audience in the middle of playing. This is where Wang really proved that she is a once-in-a-lifetime type of performer. The energy and brightness she brings to the concert hall is just what the genre needs as it has experienced its lowest attendance rates since its creation.
People looking to catch Wang’s upcoming performances in New York in April are out of luck, as they are sold out. However, just a bit south at her alma mater, Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, she will perform Einojuhani Rautavaara’s “Piano Concerto I” on April 26.