Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Child prodigy and classical music phenomenon, world-renowned, playing for presidents, royalty, and 4.5bn at Beijing Olympics.
On the island
Eight records
I'm actually choosing my childhood musical icon, Michael Jackson, and uh his biggest hit, Suller. It's quite interesting. It's really the most exciting track I ever know. But in the same time, this track is actually uh happened in nineteen eighty two, which is the year I I was born.
Waltz in D-flat major, Op. 64, No. 1 "Minute Waltz"
Yeah, we're going to uh hear Chopin's vaults uh in D flat major. This is played by the great Arthur Ruminstein. This is one of the most uh famous vaults and this is the one that actually I played uh in the first recital.
Now we're going to listen to my favorite singer, Luciano Pavarati and uh his most famous song, Solomia. This one really inspired me to start listening to classical operas. And Pavarati w is the first classical tenor to reach out to millions of people.
Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11: II. Romance - Larghetto
This is uh one of the world's most beautiful piano concertos. It's the Chopin piano concerto, number one, a second movement, and this is played by the Boniform Muri Pariah with uh the Israel Feharmoni conducted by my favorite conductor, Subi Mehta.
Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23: I. Allegro non troppo e molto maestoso
Yeah, so now we're gonna hear the opening movement of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. one in B flam major and played by Van Clyburn. And somehow that that piece, the Tchaikovsky concerto, opens many great pianists' career, including also Horowitz, for example, when he played with uh Toscanini.
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in C-sharp minorFavourite
Talking about dreams, we should listen to the first inspiration from the Tom and Jerry cartoon, uh, The Cat's Concerto. This is the great Vladimir Harvest version, playing part of the List Hungarian Rhapsody, number two.
Yellow River Piano Concerto: II. Ode to the Yellow River
I like to bring everyone to China a little bit and for Chinese this is the even more famous than the national anthem. It's called the Yellow River Cantata and what you're gonna hear is a movement played actually by me. I really enjoyed the beginning of the bamboo flute songs. It's really beautiful.
My second part of um my studies was actually in in America and now I live in New York and also Leonard Bernstein was it's also an absolute musical idol for me. And so here is he he's actually playing and conduct.
In conversation
Presenter asks
7:30How did your parents get you to actually sit down and practise [when you were five or six]?
They don't really need to push me so hard because because in the beginning I thought piano is like a toy, and also in the beginning … your parents not pushing you to practice so much in the beginning. In the beginning. Later, yes, but in the beginning it's like, you know, kind of like play a toy, play Transformers, play games, and play piano, almost like that.
Presenter asks
16:36How did it feel [to be separated from your mother at age nine]?
In the beginning it was very bad. I mean, in the beginning I I started missing home, missing all my friends, especially m my mother. That that's the really painful part. I mean so that's why, you know, I I think now these days I I need my mom all the time, you know, to be with me. It's just because I my heart it was really hurting when I was uh separated from my mom.
Presenter asks
17:50What did your father do [when the piano teacher kicked you out]?
He went crazy, went nuts, of course, and … he was hard on me. … one day he got so mad and he asked me to to jump the building and to uh to not live anymore and and that was uh … we had this big fight. And then I also went nuts, I started, you know, trying to destroy my own hands, you know, on the walls and and somehow we didn't talk for a long time.
The keepsakes
The luxury
Presenter asks
18:58Was your father's reaction out of anger or out of shame?
Shame, I'll say.
Presenter asks
34:46Do you feel sometimes that you're not quite settled in Western culture and yet you're not entirely steeped in China?
Yeah, I mean, in a way I like it because for me there are a lot of incredible things in Western culture that China doesn't have. And in the same time there are many great Chinese traditions, great philosophy and the most beautiful poems nobody knows in the West. So in a way that, you know, if you combine Shakespeare to Confucius, there something happens, there something new comes out.
“I think my competitor i is actually myself. And if the focus is on the music, then I think everything will come.”
“I think that that's father's love. I think that's um that really shows his love for me and his support, you know, as a father. I got very emotional when when I remember those things. But in the same time my father was very tough, you know, so it was like real love and hate relationship.”
“In order to be a a normal human being, we can't always on the spotlight every day. We just can't do that.”