Wang Yuja rehearses for concert held March 1 and 2 at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA). Photo: Courtesy of NCPA

Dressed in a short red one-piece, Wang Yuja performed Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No.3 in D minor, considered one of the most difficult piano concertos in the world, at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing on Saturday. The next day, she performed another great piece: Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No.2.

A month prior to the concert, the 27-year-old Wang released her fifth album through Deutsche Grammophon, covering concertos by Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev with Gustavo Dudamel and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela.

After the concert on Saturday, one of the audience members, a pianist and professor from the Central Conservatory of Music Zou Xiang, wrote on his Sina Weibo: "It is great that young pianist Wang Yuja has been recognized by international mainstream music circles... I enjoyed her passion, her straight forwardness and even the sexiness of her performance tonight. She has a natural understanding when it comes to playing, especially when it comes to the magical way she moves her hands and those octave jumps."

Nobody doubts that Wang's skills are up to the task of playing these complex concertos. As some of her fans have said, "The only problem that Wang has when playing piano is she makes it seem too easy."

"These aren't new pieces for me. I've wanted to record these concertos for a long time," Wang told the Global Times.

"Although difficult skill-wise, the greatest part of these pieces is the strong emotional impact they possess. They contain psychological details similar to those found in Russian novels," she said, adding, "I hope to attract people with music and grab the hearts of the audience in the same way a story does."

Star from the start

Many budding young pianists' image of Wang is that of a little girl with ponytails playing sonatinas and etudes. Studying under famous pianist Ling Yuan, a professor from the Central Conservatory of Music, Wang appeared in many of Ling's teaching videos when she was still a primary school student during the 1990s. Before appearing in the videos Wang had already won her first international championship in a piano competition for children in Spain.

With a dancer mother and a percussionist father, Wang was brought up in a musical family and started to study piano at 6. At the age of 11, Wang went to Canada to attend the Morningside Music Bridge International Music Festival at Mount Royal University. At the age of 15, she attended the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, US where she studied under famous music professor Gary Graffman for five years before graduating in 2008.

This contact with different cultures during her early life abroad helped Wang develop an independent and confident personality. Moving to New York a few years ago, she told the Global Times that she only spends about three weeks out of the year there as approximately 100 annual concerts and recording affairs around the world keep her constantly busy.

"Of course I'd like to rest, but whenever I take a holiday, I end up feeling quite bored and can't wait to get busy again," she told the Global Times.

Since her parents still reside in Beijing, Chinese cities are still one of her most common destinations. "I may not hold as many concerts in China as some musicians, but I come back quite often according to my own schedule.

"Nowadays most of my time is spent on planes and hotels. So I enjoy watching movies and reading books whenever I take a flight," said Wang, adding that she really enjoyed The Grandmaster by Wong Kar-wai and The Wolf of Wall Street.

Understudy to superstar

As quoted in many of her early interviews, Wang describes herself as a lucky person. Many of her early performances came about when she was an understudy and some well-known pianists failed to attend a performance. It was in this way that she was pulled into the limelight when she was still a student and got the chance to work with world-famous masters and orchestras.

Her North American debut came about when she filled in for Romanian pianist Radu Pulu in playing a Beethoven concerto with conductor Pinchas Zukerman in 2005. This opportunity gave the then 18-year-old pianist a chance to show her amazing skills and confidence when playing with a world-renowned master.

Another opportunity came in 2007, when Wang replaced Martha Argerich, the legendary Argentine artist considered as one of the greatest pianists of the late 20th century, in playing Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No.1 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. This concert was one of her early career's greatest breakthroughs.

One of the most reputable pianists of her generation and a skillful artist that excels at presenting Russian composers such as Rachmaninoff, Wang has been called a "young Argerich" by some of her supporters. She, however, doesn't quite agree, "I'm very pleased to hear that. I know Argerich and I think maybe we are a little similar in personality. But we play piano in different ways," Wang told the Global Times.

The pianists Wang used to understudy for also include famous Chinese pianists Lang Lang and Li Yundi. Both Wang and Lang were students of Gary Graffman and are young Chinese pianists that have won global awards.

"I don't read people's comments about my music. I don't care. I just enjoy playing what I want," said Wang.

In recent years, people no longer refer to her as the "female Lang" or a "young Argerich" quite as frequently. Her fan-base now recognizes her for her own distinguished personal style: outgoing and modern, straight forward and diligent. Her intelligence and good taste have won her praise from many of the world's greatest conductors and music critics, while her concertos have consistently won her loud applause. With this world-wide recognition many have realized it is no longer necessary to compare her to any other famous names anymore as she has already become her own unique piano idol.

Learning from great masters

Among the great conductors that have enjoyed cooperating with her, Claudio Abbado and Charles Dutoit are the undisputed top of the contemporary classic music genre. Wang has worked with Dutoit hundreds of times, including last summer when they brought Rachmaninoff's music to Beijing during the orchestra's tour of China.

Now in his late years, Abbado rarely invites pianists to cooperate with him, but he seems to have made an exception for Wang. After Abbado saw some of her recordings, she was selected by this great master to perform with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra in Beijing in 2009. Wang was the only Chinese pianist to have cooperated with Abbado during his later years before passing away in January.

"I was in Rome when I heard the news about his death. My mind felt blank for hours and it felt so wrong when I played the piano that night," said Wang.

Wang shared some of her memories of Abbado with the Global Times, "It really surprised me when he first invited me to the opening of the music festival in 2009. It means a lot to me, as it was my first time performing back in China after I went abroad as a child.

"Many conductors ... some will make you play their way, while some let you keep your own style. Abbado, however, could improve you and bring out the best of your own style. He was like a magician," said Wang.