Yundi Li Charismatic, Cool
(first published in The Cincinnati Post April 15, 2005)
Yundi Li knows he has fans.
He just doesn’t show it.
Watch one of his video clips on the web and you’ll get the idea (try www.deutschegrammophon.com/yundi.li).
There he sits, pouring out Chopin and Liszt at the piano, oblivious to the admirers (mostly female) who wander in and out of the room.
Li, 22, who performs a recital at 3 p.m. Sunday in the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music’s Corbett Auditorium, admits to having a bit of "magic." But he ascribes it to the aura of being an international competition winner.
"Like Van Cliburn when he won the Tchaikovsky (Competition)."
Of course Li’s record label (Deutsche Grammophon) and his management (Columbia Artists) have something to do with it, but Li doesn’t mind, he said.
Take the television commercial he made for Nike, seen during the Olympic Games last summer. That was Li scrambling out of bed and into a pair of Nikes, then cycling to the concert hall beside biker Lance Armstrong.
"If it is a story I don’t like, I will not do it," said Li. "I think this (was) exciting, like playing a concert. It fit me very well."
It hasn’t hurt him at the box office either. "Everybody after the concerts, they said they saw it and they ask me about it."
Basically, Li said, "I don’t care what they (his promoters) are doing. I care how I am playing on the concert. That’s why the audience is going. In a live concert, you have no time to think about this kind of thing."
Li’s program at CCM comprises Mozart’s Sonata No. 10 in C Major, K.330, "Carnaval," Op.9, by Schumann and the Sonata in B Minor by Liszt. It is being presented in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Greater Cincinnati Chinese Music Society. The Society also will sponsor a special outreach presentation by Li from 2:30-3:30 p.m. Monday in Werner Recital Hall at CCM for local music students and musicians (open to the public).
Li’s pivotal international victory came in 2000 at the Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw. At 18, he was the youngest person and the first Chinese ever to win first prize.
He was greeted in triumph at home by the president and ministers of the People’s Republic of China. He signed a recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon and his career was launched.
Tall and lanky, with a shock of black hair, Li is the equivalent of a rock star in Asia, as members of the Cincinnati Symphony and those who followed their 2003 tour of Japan, can attest. A guest artist on the tour, Li attracted throngs of devotees. There were crowds around him for CD signings after concerts, camera phones held in the air. In Kitakyushyu, a flock of girls ran to the foot of the stage to deposit a gift for him.
A native of Chongqing in central China, Li was three when he heard a man playing the accordion.
"I wanted to play like that." Accordion is a very popular first instrument in China "because it is not so expensive," he said. "Not every family can pay huge prices."
At six, he discovered the piano. "I really liked that sound. I wanted to start it and I told my father."
Li’s parents were not musicians, though his mother had been a dancer and his father, a businessman, "likes music very much."
They were very supportive of their only child and he began piano lessons at seven - "quite late," said Li, "though I developed very fast."
At 11, he moved with his mother to Chengdu in Sichuan province to enter the conservatory there. When his teacher moved to Shenzhen near Hong Kong, he and both parents followed.
Li always loved performing, he said.
"I loved to play for people. When I practiced at home, I liked my mom or uncle to come up to listen."
His first international competition was in the United States, the Stravinsky Youth Piano Competition in Champaign, Ill., which he won at 12. He followed that by winning the Gina Bachauer Competition in Salt Lake City and third prize in the Liszt International Competition in The Netherlands.
After winning the Chopin, he moved to Hanover, Germany to study with Israeli pianist Arie Vardi. He completes his work there this year, and will move to another city, possibly London or New York, he said.
Much in demand in his native country, Li he gets to visit China regularly. "I spend time with my family and enjoy my car (a BMW - he doesn’t have a license to drive in Germany). I can eat what I want (he prefers Chinese food), sleep very late and hang out with my friends."
During the "few weeks" of vacation he allows himself each year, he likes to be "a very easy person and lead a normal life, like my friends." (Li was spotted in the audience at a recital in New York recently wearing a baseball cap.)
Some of the Yundi cool – he is sometimes contrasted with the flamboyant Chinese pianist Lang Lang – is the result of self discipline.
This is one reason he likes golf. "When you play golf, you should focus on concentrating. It can help you control when you are playing concerts."
For inspiration, he often turns to Shakespeare. "When you want to get some emotion or some feeling, you can get it, and Shakespeare you can read a long time. I have a lot of editions, some simple, together with original. You can compare when you do not understand."
The adulation of fans is something Li does understand, he said.
"I think every person when they love you, they want you to be growing and to hear you more. And of course, your music should touch them.
"That is my personal wish. If I can understand this piece or this composer, I feel much more happy and relaxed on the stage, and I feel more deeply connected with the audience. When you play, you give the soul to the music. That’s the only thing I want to do when I play."
Tickets for Yundi Li’s recital, at 3 p.m. Sunday in Corbett
Auditorium at CCM, are $20-$65. Call (513) 236-6731 or (513) 891-9255.
Information: ehmli@hotmail.com.