I enjoyed reading everyone's comments (battle over this fan-club event). One thing left me unsettled though...those fan-club girls might not be so simple or annoying. I am Japanese and we have the similar culture. Many women act as if they are cheerful & superficial, but they often have deeper and serious thoughts inside...it is supposed to be cool to hide them.
Wow, you'd think Li Yundi were some uber-hot Korean pop star from all the cheering fangirls, haha! Honestly, if classical musicians are welcomed as "rock stars", that's great! Doesn't it show that they can keep up with standards of the day? That classical music is still beloved by the "masses" even if less cerebral?
And I still maintain that a great pianist shouldn't be treated, marketed or perceived like a rock star. This fan meeting, and some of his music videos I've seen, say to me that Yundi either has a bad agent, or no agent at all.
plus, very difficult to hold a culture with all intellectuals. u need the mass audience to make famous certain individuals with their mindless respect
This comment has received too many negative votesshow
So wrong, girls squealing over him like that. It's clearly giving him an ego, which is a pity.
If he played the piano exactly the same but was old and ugly, he wouldn't have fan clubs! It's annoying, cheapening a great pianist like that. He clearly feels he's above them, by the piece he chooses to play. I don't know it, but it's not difficult (for him), and I think kind of inaccessible to the layperson. Not a fit piece for a brainless fan club audience, which he'd be fully aware of, I think.
Oh! Thank you. That makes it a bit better. Your other comment makes a lot of sense too, at least for these days. There weren't fan meetings held for Chopin, or even Rubinstein, were there? Maybe the music-listening population was more intellectual then, though smaller.
I still think Yundi has an unnattractive ego in this video, but then, those girls annoy me as much as they're clearly annoying him, so can hardly blame him.
yes i agree with u too actually, the girls r annoying. at one point, yundi li mentions `horowitz and rubinstein etc etc'' for some insight but u can see his voice trail off because he knows that what he says has no meaning in the simple minded ppl
@coffemuse None of those pieces are particularly challenging to listen to, though the first is melodically very generous and lovely. Perfectly chosen for a fan club audience.
You have a point though. Part of the great pianist of the canon image is a distancing from the layperson. Horowitz had his own fan club of young ladies in Kiev, but no one remembers, so his image as this eccentric/wise genius is kept intact. In this age though, these appearances work against Li long-term.
@coffemuse However, your comment is surprisingly stupid. He's had several best-selling CDs released, won the Chopin competition, had a contract with Deutche Gramaphon, the approval of Martha Argerich had Krystian Zimmerman say "there is nothing I can teach you" to him. If that doesn't give him an ego, having a few girls fawn over him isn't going to change anything.
Again, those are folksongs, not Beethoven sonatas. Fairly appropriate.
@demosj I've learned a lot about music in the past year - I was pretty ignorant when I posted above comment, just starting to 'discover' real music. The folksong style he plays was new to my culture which is why I called it inaccessible, but I take that back now I understand what it is. Listening to it now a year later, I agree they're lovely pieces
@demosj I also see your point about his reasons for having an ego - makes sense, though there was no need to call me stupid.
It's reasonable for him to have an ego about his pianistic talent, but IMO quite a different kind of ego is engendered by a squealing nearly-all-female fanclub.
@coffemuse I was calling your comment stupid, not you, no offense meant on that account.
Not even the other kind of ego. He's a superstar in China, I've seen posters of him in every music store, classical devoted or no, this kind of fan occasion isn't going to change anything when he has girls giggling after him whenever they recognize him when he's walking outside. I met him when he played in Portland in 2005 and I'm sure he's still the nice, level-headed guy he was back then.
he's so gentle
Mreleezy 1 year ago
I enjoyed reading everyone's comments (battle over this fan-club event). One thing left me unsettled though...those fan-club girls might not be so simple or annoying. I am Japanese and we have the similar culture. Many women act as if they are cheerful & superficial, but they often have deeper and serious thoughts inside...it is supposed to be cool to hide them.
LikeJasonBourne 1 year ago
hahahh you press the subtitles buttom ...the piano speaks!!!! ΧD
AkainuAokiji 1 year ago
I love him.
Cocobear538 1 year ago
5:15
seanmcnally 2 years ago
1:35 Lol
seanmcnally 2 years ago
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seanmcnally 2 years ago
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seanmcnally 2 years ago
actually it was horowitz and argerich :O
but still.
YSFmemories 2 years ago
Wow, you'd think Li Yundi were some uber-hot Korean pop star from all the cheering fangirls, haha! Honestly, if classical musicians are welcomed as "rock stars", that's great! Doesn't it show that they can keep up with standards of the day? That classical music is still beloved by the "masses" even if less cerebral?
加油！ As the Chinese may say.
ChildofCalliope 2 years ago 6
@ChildofCalliope He's Chinese.
MartinVanBoven 1 year ago
And I still maintain that a great pianist shouldn't be treated, marketed or perceived like a rock star. This fan meeting, and some of his music videos I've seen, say to me that Yundi either has a bad agent, or no agent at all.
coffemuse 2 years ago
plus, very difficult to hold a culture with all intellectuals. u need the mass audience to make famous certain individuals with their mindless respect
callenishss 2 years ago
can a kind soul translate the entire video please? (:
pinkwaterbottle 2 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
So wrong, girls squealing over him like that. It's clearly giving him an ego, which is a pity.
If he played the piano exactly the same but was old and ugly, he wouldn't have fan clubs! It's annoying, cheapening a great pianist like that. He clearly feels he's above them, by the piece he chooses to play. I don't know it, but it's not difficult (for him), and I think kind of inaccessible to the layperson. Not a fit piece for a brainless fan club audience, which he'd be fully aware of, I think.
coffemuse 2 years ago
the piece is based somewhat on chinese pentatonic scale, the ppl know the style too, its imitative of other instruments
callenishss 2 years ago
Oh! Thank you. That makes it a bit better. Your other comment makes a lot of sense too, at least for these days. There weren't fan meetings held for Chopin, or even Rubinstein, were there? Maybe the music-listening population was more intellectual then, though smaller.
I still think Yundi has an unnattractive ego in this video, but then, those girls annoy me as much as they're clearly annoying him, so can hardly blame him.
coffemuse 2 years ago
yes i agree with u too actually, the girls r annoying. at one point, yundi li mentions `horowitz and rubinstein etc etc'' for some insight but u can see his voice trail off because he knows that what he says has no meaning in the simple minded ppl
callenishss 2 years ago
@coffemuse None of those pieces are particularly challenging to listen to, though the first is melodically very generous and lovely. Perfectly chosen for a fan club audience.
You have a point though. Part of the great pianist of the canon image is a distancing from the layperson. Horowitz had his own fan club of young ladies in Kiev, but no one remembers, so his image as this eccentric/wise genius is kept intact. In this age though, these appearances work against Li long-term.
demosj 1 year ago
@coffemuse However, your comment is surprisingly stupid. He's had several best-selling CDs released, won the Chopin competition, had a contract with Deutche Gramaphon, the approval of Martha Argerich had Krystian Zimmerman say "there is nothing I can teach you" to him. If that doesn't give him an ego, having a few girls fawn over him isn't going to change anything.
Again, those are folksongs, not Beethoven sonatas. Fairly appropriate.
demosj 1 year ago
@demosj I've learned a lot about music in the past year - I was pretty ignorant when I posted above comment, just starting to 'discover' real music. The folksong style he plays was new to my culture which is why I called it inaccessible, but I take that back now I understand what it is. Listening to it now a year later, I agree they're lovely pieces
coffemuse 1 year ago
@demosj I also see your point about his reasons for having an ego - makes sense, though there was no need to call me stupid.
It's reasonable for him to have an ego about his pianistic talent, but IMO quite a different kind of ego is engendered by a squealing nearly-all-female fanclub.
coffemuse 1 year ago
@coffemuse I was calling your comment stupid, not you, no offense meant on that account.
Not even the other kind of ego. He's a superstar in China, I've seen posters of him in every music store, classical devoted or no, this kind of fan occasion isn't going to change anything when he has girls giggling after him whenever they recognize him when he's walking outside. I met him when he played in Portland in 2005 and I'm sure he's still the nice, level-headed guy he was back then.
demosj 1 year ago