On Air Now
Calm Classics with Ritula Shah 10pm - 1am
On the release of his new album, Live in Beijing, Chinese pianist Yundi tells Classic FM why he chose to record an all-Chopin album.
As well as hoping to record the rest of Chopin’s works in the future, Yundi is also planning to champion Chinese music, especially works written in the last 50 years, like the Yellow River Piano Concerto.
Parents of Chinese musicians are sometimes accused of being hard taskmasters; did Yundi ever feel pushed into music? “No. I didn't feel tired... I never stopped; my dream was to be a musician, to play the piano."
Yundi now makes it his mission to develop the next generation of pianists and talks of recent masterclasses at Cambridge University and the Royal College of Music.
Listen to Yundi's interview now