Press Coverage

Review of Yuan Sheng's performance of Bach's Goldberg Variations at the Mannes Festival in New York City, July 2011.

On one of the hottest nights of the summer, Yuan Sheng, professor of the piano at the Central Conservatory in Beijing was in New York to perform at the International Keyboard Institute and Festival. His appearance brought forth a large and knowledgeable crowd at the Mannes College. Mr. Sheng played but one composition, the monumental Goldberg Variations. For 70 minutes you could not hear a sound, the audience was about as concentrated as Mr. Sheng. In his performance there was not a shred of fake spirituality, nor any influences of Gould or Mr. Sheng’s mentor Rosalyn Tureck. This was a highly pianistic rendering; full throttle piano playing. The Goldbergs are Bach’s most worldly keyboard work and Mr. Sheng brought flesh, the devil and humor to the long but tightly knit score, certainly the greatest set of Variations of the Baroque period. Mr. Sheng’s preparation was strong, and his fingers never faltered. He seems to conceive the work, one may perhaps say, as a non-verbal play - each Variation bringing its own cast of characters. I do not know if such a Stage Conception was in Mr. Sheng’s mind, but for this listener I saw one character after another jumping and bouncing from the keyboard - I kept thinking of the Commedia dell'arte. Of course I don’t mean this in a literal sense, only that tonight’s conception was so graphic that the Goldbergs had a new vibrancy. As I left the concert, a young pianist exclaimed, “This was the best hour of my life.” Mr. Sheng is becoming well known, and his Goldbergs have been heard in many venues, but let’s not typecast him, as his repertoire is vast.