It is said that timing is everything.
For 33-year-old Li Yundi, who started playing the piano at 7, the timing seemed right for him to perform the ballades of Polish-French composer and pianist Frederic Chopin as his musical career reaches a level of maturity, according to China Daily.
During an interview in Beijing, Li said that he attained a “mature stage” that enabled him to reveal the “poetic and dramatic qualities hidden” in Chopin’s four renowned ballades by playing them.
He added that he possessed “better control” to interpret his favorite pianist’s “most challenging works.”
The Chongqing-born classical pianist first learned how to play the accordion at age 3. Apparently, it’s the piano that has catapulted him to international fame.
In Oct. 2000, at age 18, he joined--and amazingly won--the 14th International Chopin Piano Competition held in Warsaw, Poland.
This astonishing victory set a record for Li: It earned him the distinction of being the youngest and first-ever Chinese first prize winner in the history of the competition.
Chopin (1810-1849) ranks as one of the finest musicians the world has ever known. With his “superfine imagination and fastidious craftsmanship” and “brilliantly original piano style,” he left behind “61 mazurkas, 16 polonaises, 26 preludes, 27 études, 21 nocturnes, 20 waltzes, 3 sonatas, 4 ballades, 4 scherzos, 4 impromptus, and many individual pieces,” according to Encyclopaedia Britannica.
The first half of the year filled Li's calendar with schedules of local and international performances.
The Yundi Chopin Tour kicked off in February, making its first stop in Los Angeles, U.S.A., according to his official Facebook account. From there, Li continued spreading his brand of music in Austria, Belarus, Canada, the Czech Republic, Ireland, France, Poland, Russia, the Netherlands and Turkey.
Li likewise performed in three cities in Italy and the U.K. and four cities in Germany. He went back to the U.S. in March to serenade New York.
The last leg of the tour happened in Fribourg, Switzerland, on April 16.
He resumed touring in May, performing Chopin’s Ballade No. 1, 2, 3 and 4, and 24 Preludes Op 28 in different cities in Japan, with his last recital slated on June 12 at the Tokorozawa Civic Cultural Center Muse in Tokyo, according to his official website.
Li will be back in the country to engage in a string of performances--the same repertoire--covering six cities beginning in Shenzhen in Guangdong Province on June 29 at the Shenzhen Concert Hall. He will conclude the tour in Beijing on July 13 at the National Center for the Performing Arts.