"The Yellow River" Piano Concerto - 2nd movmnt. Ode to the Yellow River

[tony80862]

one of the best intepretation ever. bravo!

[packout100]

Every time I hear this,I cry,it is such a beautiful

piece of music ever written.

[crazyviolinguy]

Chinese or not Chinese.. It matters not... This piece is gorgeous in composition, and performed wonderfully

[ac3761G]

"The Yellow River" Piano Concerto - 2nd movmnt. Ode to the Yi-An

"The Yellow River" Piano Concerto - 2nd movmnt. Ode to the Y

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[blk12r2o]

very beautiful rendering, you deserve 10/10 for playing this Chinese melody in such a lovely way... and thanks for playing it!

[jiangfsh]

It's not about culture or something, the performer made 3-4 mistakes in the overall concerto(wrong pitch). I can say, she is not practice it too much. For a man listened to Yin's perform a lot could easyly differenciate it.

[pai314ku]

it so wonderful that this concerto play by orther than a chinese...this concerto i thing is the only one in classical piano compose by chinese....its background are so impress people in china to fight japanese invation......

[NadiaWeintraub]

Dear auc1875

Thank You for your wonderful comments it is appreciated and I am truly happy you loved the piece and my interpretation of it, I certainly identify deeply with any composition I perform and reach out with music to all the listeners out there.

Best of wishes to you! Nadia Weintraub, pianist

[auc1875]

Wow, I listen to this at least 10 times with tears in my eyes, she played it as good as Yin's if not better. She made entire 'heavy' concerto lighter and even fly, she deserves perfect 10.

[jiangfsh]

Music is beyond national, I really appreciate this female version Huanghe River, it is more combined with tender and soft from original Yin's version.

Maybe Israel and China both have a miserable past...

[bhaihay]

A soulful rendering, congratulations.

[DoninWhiting]

Its as a beautiful song being sung close to God reaching down in protection of kindred soul looking for that needed divine love. I cannot fathom any link to Japanese war invasion.... more like a prayer of thanksgiving.. Masterful playing. But I am partial to Lang Lang playing this, I will admit.

[musicyh]

It's very beautiful, but there's something that seems 'off' to me. I'm kind of missing the nationalistic character here. Maybe it's because I'm native Chinese (by race, not nationality), that I know how Chinese music should sound. Still, it's very good for a non-native!

[duderfish]

@musicyh You're right, it just doesn't sound the same with Western instruments. Of course, I imagine Wagner wouldn't sound quite right with a yangqin (I'm of German descent myself.)

Anyone watching this should seek out a performance with traditional instruments, it's an experience!

[physphilmusic]

@duderfish I believe this piece (an arrangement from the original cantata) was intended for mostly a Western orchestral accompaniment from the beginning. Even the original composer of the choral cantata, Xian Xinghai, was Soviet-educated and influenced. Choral music (as in SATB as we know it) is not an ancient Chinese tradition. Same goes with stuff like the Butterfly Lovers concerto.

[physphilmusic]

@musicyh Stop talking about how "Chinese music should sound" or how "it's very good for a non-native". Would you have tolerated it if Western observers say the same thing about Asians playing Western instruments and pieces (there are lots of them, btw)? If you don't want racism in that genre of music, don't encourage it here. I believe that all good and beautiful music can be appreciated and played well by peoples of any nations. There's nothing constructive in comparing everything with natives.

[musicyh]

@physphilmusic actually, YES I would be able to tolerate it if Western observers say the same thing about Asians playing Western instruments and pieces. I am Asian and I play Western instruments, and I'm studying Western music. What I cannot tolerate is people making ill-informed assumptions and putting words into others' mouths based on a single comment.

[physphilmusic]

@musicyh Then you would approve, of course, of the Vienna Philharmonic's historically racist and sexist policies? That some members still believe that only true red-blooded Viennese can blend with them?

And it's not a matter of this piece or that piece, because every piece has some influence from some nationality/race.

[musicyh]

@physphilmusic I never said that such policies are right or should be encouraged. I merely stated that I wouldn't get mad if someone told me "you played this Prokofiev (as an example) piece well, but there is still something lacking," and then proceeded to inform me about Russia's history and culture, and the social background in which the piece was written.

[musicyh]

@physphilmusic I agree that every piece has some influence from some nationality/race, but there are certain pieces that have a lot more of it, and are a lot more deliberate about it - and this is one of them. Musical nationalism is a distinct category/style/genre (whatever you want to call it) in classical music. I can compose something that is 'Chinese-influenced' by using pentatonic scales and melodic shapes, but it is a different thing if I deliberately quote a Chinese folksong in my work.

[physphilmusic]

@musicyh My quote that "Only Russians can play Tchaikovsky" was of course not meant to be taken literally. I am indeed referring to the belief that natives tend to be the best interpreters of their works. While I don't think that it's completely wrong, for much of Western classical music we've gone past that phase. Nowadays there's no such thing as a distinctive "Russian" or "German" or "French" school of pianists anymore. And there is only so much you can improve from learning about the

[physphilmusic]

@musicyh composer's and the work's background, because music is at the very basic just sound produced by the same instruments. Not to mention that the emotions expressed in works are often very universal - what makes Shostakovich's experiences TRULY distinct from those of others in other oppressed countries? Not much that you can put in music. Learning about Russian culture and history is more beneficial to the listener than the performer. Apart from that, I believe it is just placebo effect.

[physphilmusic]

@musicyh And I doubt that there is ANY MUCH DIFFERENCE between being "Chinese-influenced" and "deliberately quoting a Chinese folksong." It just depends on the composer - Tchaikovsky and Dvorak both composed melodies which everyone thought were quoted from folksong, but it turned out that they were original. Folksong isn't very complex; a good composer with sufficient study can imitate it and fool others. The difference is probably only sentimental and personal, not musical.

[physphilmusic]

@musicyh And this very piece, the Yellow River piano concerto, is itself not a very Chinese piece either - it's really heavily influenced by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff in the writing of the piano part. The Yellow River Cantata itself, from which this concerto was extracted, was composed by the Soviet-trained Xian Xinghai. Hence the concerto is more of a populist Western piece with Chinese melodies, which is why I believe any good Romantic music pianist can play it well.

[musicyh]

@physphilmusic Many western pieces tend to be played/performed best by natives as well. It is not a matter of racism, it's a matter of different cultures each having its own take on classical music, and on the music written by composers of different nationalities and backgrounds. And rightly so, because who can best understand the historical and social contexts in which a particular piece was written, but those from the same culture and country?

[physphilmusic]

@musicyh Of course, you can understand the absurdness if someone says, look, Sarah Chang can play that Tchaikovsky concerto flawlessly, beautifully, powerfully, but she's not Russian! Only Russians can play Tchaikovsky! Which is wrong, because often there is so much more to music than merely having a national label on it. Such works have universal value.

[musicyh]

@physphilmusic: Nowhere did I say that only natives can play their own works. I said that natives TEND (not 'are') to be the best interpreters of their works. Please re-read what I wrote and stop taking things out of context.

[musicyh]

@physphilmusic I appreciate good performances by natives AND non-natives alike, as long as they can express the music in a way that is convincing. If I couldn't do that, I wouldn't be studying classical music in the first place.

[musicyh]

@physphilmusic and I do not compare everything with natives. I only mentioned it for this piece, because of its subject matter and its use of ethnic musical elements, i.e. the pentatonic scale and the melodic contour. The instrumentation is Western but the character of the music isn't.

[physphilmusic]

@musicyh The main problem I have with your view is that you base it on racial grounds (you said you're only Chinese by race), and I think that is rubbish. Do you think Chinese music developed as such that a racially Chinese person who has never even heard, nor grown up in that culture, would understand and play it better than a non-Chinese person growing up next to him? I'm not referring to you. But if you grew up experiencing Chinese culture then you can say what you did. Race is not enough.

[musicyh]

@physphilmusic: Chinese culture isn't only present in China. I live (and grew up) in a place with culturally and racially diverse backgrounds - my next-door neighbour is as likely to be of a completely different race and/or nationality as another Chinese family. I went to school with classmates of different religious views, cultural practices, AND nationality. I say I'm Chinese by race because I wasn't born in China - but it doesn't mean that I did not grow up experiencing Chinese culture.

[TTalive]

Splendid !

I Love it !

[mjiang111]

Wow so builtyful