UBS Soundscapes – LSO Artist Portrait: Yuja Wang, Barbican Hall

There is something for everyone in this Artist Portrait; the piano is truly celebrated and the young Chinese classical pianist Yuja Wang gets to demonstrate her wide-ranging repertoire.

Wang is playing alongside the London Symphony Orchestra in a trio of concerts. In her mid-twenties, she is one of the few pianists to have achieved major international status by her 21st birthday. She is renowned for being technically brilliant and for having a broad repertoire. Unsurprisingly, the programme that has been announced so far for the trio of concerts is nothing short of demanding.

For the first concert, think big and romantic. Wang will be playing German composer Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 and Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2 under the baton of Jaap van Zweden , Music Director Designate of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Van Zweden is not a well-known name in Britain, but is nonetheless a sought-after conductor who last year (2012) won Musical America’s Conductor of the Year Award.

The second concert is rather more impressionistic, with French composer Claude Debussy’s La Mer and condensed Suites Nos 1 & 2 from Maurice Ravel’s ballet Daphnis et Chloé . This is the young American conductor, James Gaffigan ’s debut performance with the London Symphony Orchestra. Gaffigan is based in Lucerne, Switzerland, and like van Zweden, hasn’t conducted much in Britain. 

Tickets are already on sale for these concerts at the Barbican, but be quick. Half the tickets for the third concert have already gone – and the programme for that one hasn’t even been announced yet. Make sure you don’t miss out on this London Symphony Orchestra series that is sure to paint a portrait of Wang to lasting effect.

Tickets:  £10 £15 £20 £28 £37

Address and map: Silk St, EC2Y 8DS

Nearest Tubes: Barbican, St Paul’s and Moorgate