Yuzhang Li

Performers

Notes on the performers

24-year-old Chinese Pianist Yuzhang Li was one of the ten semi-finalists in the Leeds International Piano Competition in 2021 and a Medallist in the Hilton Head International Piano Competition in 2022. Her performance of Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 with Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra after winning the First Prize in Futian Cup Piano Competition was highly praised by Maestro Lang Lang, and reviewed by Shenzhen News as ‘A performance of such composed manner and maturity that exceedingly surpassed our expectation’.

At the age of 14, Yuzhang performed a full set of Etude Tableaux by Rachmaninov in her first Recital. Now as a concert pianist, Yuzhang performs in Europe and Asia extensively. Her major performance engagements included concerts at the Wigmore Hall, Royal Academy of Music, and Steinway Hall in UK, Bechstein KONZERTFLÜGEL in Germany, Yongsan Concert Hall in South Korea, and Central Conservatory, Sichuan Conservatory, Shenzhen Concert Hall, and HUAFA Performance Theatre in China.

She has received recognitions from other competitions throughout the years and collected some top prizes, including the second prize in the Steinway Piano Competition in 2019, the second prize in the “Grotrian” International Piano Competition in 2017, and the Special Performance Award in the Wiesbaden International Piano Competition in 2016.

Scholarships and titles she garnered also indicated her all-round development in musical life. In 2019, Yuzhang was awarded the China National Scholarship, recognising her outstanding performance in both artistic and academic spheres. She received a full scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Music and was named an ABRSM Scholar in 2021. Now, her new identity as a Tillett Debut Artist since 2023 has added another layer of sophistication to her journey.

Yuzhang was admitted with the best mark to the Central Conservatory in China in 2017, studying With Professor Danwen Wei and Professor Jiajia Shi. After graduating at the top of the class in 2021, Yuzhang started studying with Professor Ian Fountain at the Royal Academy of Music, where she has now commenced her doctoral studies.

Programme

Programme notes

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Adagio in B minor, K. 540

The Adagio in B minor, K. 540, is a composition for piano solo by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He entered it into his Verzeichnis aller meiner Werke (Catalogue of all my Works) on 19 March 1788.

In 1841 Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart used themes from his father’s adagio in his own Fest-Chor.

Source: Wikipedia

Johannes Brahms

Rhapsodies Op. 79

1. No. 1 in B minor. Agitato
2. No. 2 in G minor. Molto passionato, ma non troppo allegro

The Rhapsodies, Op. 79, for piano were written by Johannes Brahms in 1879 during his summer stay in Pörtschach, when he had reached the maturity of his career. They were inscribed to his friend, the musician and composer Elisabeth von Herzogenberg. At the suggestion of the dedicatee, Brahms reluctantly renamed the sophisticated compositions from “Klavierstücke” (piano pieces) to “rhapsodies”

Source: Wikipedia

Franz Schubert

Drei Klavierstücke, D. 946

1. No. 1 in E♭ minor
2. No. 2 in E♭ major
3. No. 3 in C major

The Drei Klavierstücke D. 946, or “Three Piano Pieces”, are solo pieces composed by Schubert in May 1828, just six months before his early death. They were conceived as a third set of four Impromptus, but only three were written. They were first published in 1868, edited by Johannes Brahms, although his name appears nowhere in the publication. In comparison with the D. 899 and D. 935 sets, these works are largely neglected and are not often heard in the concert hall or recorded. There is space for doubts, though, as to whether these pieces actually constitute a cycle or they were arbitrarily united by Brahms (the third piece was written on different paper sheets than the first two even though there were empty sheets after the second one). For the same reasons, the dating of the third piece is rather problematic.

Source: Wikipedia

Frédéric Chopin

Ballade Op. 23 No. 1

The Ballade No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23 is a ballade for solo piano by Frédéric Chopin. Completed in 1835, it is one of Chopin’s greatest and most popular works. The ballade dates to sketches Chopin made in 1831, during his eight-month stay in Vienna. It was completed in 1835 after his move to Paris, where he dedicated it to Baron Nathaniel von Stockhausen, the Hanoverian ambassador to France.

Source: Wikipedia