Chopin's star to shine in Shanghai

• Source: Global Times
• [09:39 August 17 2010]
• Comments

Li Yundi. Photo: Courtesy of Liu Shuyun

By Hu Bei

In 2000, 18-year-old Li Yundi became the youngest ever pianist to win the prestigious International Frédéric Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. He was also the first Chinese winner and the first pianist to be awarded first-prize status (sometimes no first prize is awarded) for 15 years in the competition.

Some 10 years later, after two years in which the brilliant musician gave no concerts or made recordings, Li is returning in a comeback tour. Fittingly his return, after releasing a new album of Chopin nocturnes, will be in an all-Chopin concert to mark the composer's 200th anniversary.

Li will perform some of Chopin's nocturnes, polonaises, sonata and mazurkas tonight in the pavilion of the classical music festival, Music Summer in the Air (MISA), in Shanghai. This is part of a national tour which will include Nanjing and Chongqing (Chongqing is his hometown).

Li is nothing if not enthusiastic about his favorite composer. "I like Chopin's patriotism in his music, and what's rare and praiseworthy is that, unlike Franz Liszt and other composers, Chopin's way of expressing his nationalism is tender, elegiac, romantic and peaceful, full of hope and wishes," he said.

After his two year's absence from the public arena while he was studying in Germany, Li is returning with a new understanding and approach.

In May, Li received the Polish Honorary Medal of Arts and Culture from the Polish Government for his outstanding contribution to Polish culture.

"It is the highest honor I have been given. This is different from competing in a contest or winning a prize. For me it is an international cultural event," Li said.

"I have a special relationship with Poland. Poland gave me a launch pad for my music career. And because of Chopin, I had the chance to interpret the spirit of my music," he added.

Born in 1982 to working-class parents who were employed by the Chongqing Steel and Iron Company in Sichuan, Li began learning the piano when he was 7 years old. Two years later, he became a student of Dan Zhaoyi, one of China's most famous piano teachers, and studied with him for nine years.