EIF Ryan Wang Queen's Hall 18th August 2025 Review
Ryan Wang was at the Queen’s Hall Edinburgh this morning, a performance that was one of the now well-established and always popular Edinburgh International Festival classical 11 AM concerts at this venue. This was an opportunity for this audience to experience an all-Chopin programme of music by the 2024 BBC Young Musician of the Year. Ryan Wang has, however, at only 18 years old, been collecting many other awards along the way of his already busy performance career. After this concert, few, if any, people can have any doubt that Ryan Wang has a long career as a musician of high standards ahead of him.
This concert’s programme of music was made up of the following below.
Chopin 24 Preludes, Op.28
40mins
Chopin Mazurkas, Op.59
10mins
Chopin Piano Sonata No.2 in B flat minor, Op.35
21mins
Chopin Variations on ‘La ci darem la mano’, Op.2
16mins
It is obvious with the benefit of hindsight as to why Ryan Wang chose not only an all-Chopin selection of music for this concert, but this particular music too. Frédéric François Chopin (born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin; 1 March 1810 – 17 October 1849) was a Polish virtuoso pianist and there is that immediate link both with this year’s EIF focus on Poland, and a pianist as gifted as Ryan Wang.
For Ryan Wang, there was everything in this selection of four Chopin works to demonstrate his very obvious technical skills. The 24 Preludes are a classic exercise in musical keys and timing and for me it was interesting, as always, to feel that very small change between a major and minor key producing entirely different shades, colours and emotions to the music. Ryan Wang clearly felt all of these changes too.
The three movements of Mazurkas, which drew their inspiration from Polish folk dances, provided Ryan Wang with an opportunity to lighten the whole atmosphere of this concert before shifting again dramatically to the Piano Sonata 2. Finishing this concert with Variations on ‘La ci darem la mano’ gave Ryan Wang an opportunity to infuse this performance with a lot of his own personal vision on how this work should be played.
To perform the music of Chopin properly, a performer must also have the softer skills needed to interpret this music with the emotional sensitivity that it requires. Chopin was a composer who also fully understood how important silence can be when used at the correct time in a work and Ryan Wang understood all of this too.
Despite his huge influence on music, Chopin is a composer who, although so many musicians are drawn to his music, a lot of non-musician people may not be as familiar with today as they are with say Beethoven, Puccini, or Tchaikovsky. Part of the reason for this may be that Chopin and his music is everywhere without us truly realising it. People may think that they do not know Chopin’s music, but play many people the Preludes No. 7 Andantino in A and they will recognise the music. Likewise, the third movement of Piano Sonata No. 2 is possibly the most well-known funeral march of all time, so much so that after a few opening bars most us will just think “funeral”.
It is always interesting to watch someone so gifted and young a musician as Ryan Wang perform. It is even more interesting to watch their career develop in the years ahead.
Review by Tom King © 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
This concert’s programme of music was made up of the following below.
Chopin 24 Preludes, Op.28
40mins
Chopin Mazurkas, Op.59
10mins
Chopin Piano Sonata No.2 in B flat minor, Op.35
21mins
Chopin Variations on ‘La ci darem la mano’, Op.2
16mins
It is obvious with the benefit of hindsight as to why Ryan Wang chose not only an all-Chopin selection of music for this concert, but this particular music too. Frédéric François Chopin (born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin; 1 March 1810 – 17 October 1849) was a Polish virtuoso pianist and there is that immediate link both with this year’s EIF focus on Poland, and a pianist as gifted as Ryan Wang.
For Ryan Wang, there was everything in this selection of four Chopin works to demonstrate his very obvious technical skills. The 24 Preludes are a classic exercise in musical keys and timing and for me it was interesting, as always, to feel that very small change between a major and minor key producing entirely different shades, colours and emotions to the music. Ryan Wang clearly felt all of these changes too.
The three movements of Mazurkas, which drew their inspiration from Polish folk dances, provided Ryan Wang with an opportunity to lighten the whole atmosphere of this concert before shifting again dramatically to the Piano Sonata 2. Finishing this concert with Variations on ‘La ci darem la mano’ gave Ryan Wang an opportunity to infuse this performance with a lot of his own personal vision on how this work should be played.
To perform the music of Chopin properly, a performer must also have the softer skills needed to interpret this music with the emotional sensitivity that it requires. Chopin was a composer who also fully understood how important silence can be when used at the correct time in a work and Ryan Wang understood all of this too.
Despite his huge influence on music, Chopin is a composer who, although so many musicians are drawn to his music, a lot of non-musician people may not be as familiar with today as they are with say Beethoven, Puccini, or Tchaikovsky. Part of the reason for this may be that Chopin and his music is everywhere without us truly realising it. People may think that they do not know Chopin’s music, but play many people the Preludes No. 7 Andantino in A and they will recognise the music. Likewise, the third movement of Piano Sonata No. 2 is possibly the most well-known funeral march of all time, so much so that after a few opening bars most us will just think “funeral”.
It is always interesting to watch someone so gifted and young a musician as Ryan Wang perform. It is even more interesting to watch their career develop in the years ahead.
Review by Tom King © 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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