When the news filtered out, the day after the 2021 Chopin Competition – of which he was the only Chinese winner, in 2000 – that Yundi had been arrested by the Chinese authorities, we did not know when we would see this great musician again or in what state. psychological and musical. Yundi suddenly reappeared at the end of October 2023 in Australia. Less than a month later, he recorded the Sonatas K. 310, 331 “Alla turca”, K. 457 and the Fantasy K. 475 by Mozart at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. A prompt publication allows, apart from personal pangs, to position this CD, four years after the contract linking Yundi and Warner, inaugurated in 2020 with the two Chopin concertos. Compared to the Sonata K. 330 once engraved by the little prince of the piano for DG, the lightness and innocence have vanished. The singing remains wonderful, but the line is more pronounced, tense. Each note seems more necessary (2e pane of K.310) in this almost essential record to prove, in solidarity, to this elegant artist that his presence matters a lot to us.
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