@ Anon - alas, I can promise you that my remark is an honest response to the last live performance of hers I attended and therefore is by no means bizarre. I had a similar reaction to her recording of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with Previn. You will find that responses to that on Amazon.com are similarly mixed: some are ecstatic, others raise the word 'tasteless' (speaking of 'out of taste'). This is normal. It would be truly bizarre if people's opinions were always identical.

I must say that your comment on Anne-Sophie Mutter is both bizarre and out of taste. Wild horses could not keep me away from a live performance, she is a world phenomenon, brillian, soulful and true.

I made it to Yundi's concert last night. I foresee that it will probably receive bad reviews from the critics; unjustly so. It was clearly always going to be different from the Zimerman and Pollini recitals, but to compare is surely to miss the point. Z and P have had years of experience and thought into Chopin's music. What Yundi brings is more raw; so although the pieces don't sound "there" yet, it's tremendously exciting to hear a pianist making such fantastic sounds and with good taste. The music can't be compared with Zimerman - there were issues here and there with pedalling and a bit of smudging, for example, which I would expect from Zimerman. The structure of the sonata was a bit wayward in the first movement particularly. I didn't get much feeling from the Mazurkas. I also found it a little strange that one would dive into the heroic polonaise directly after the haunting sonata. But all of this doesn't matter yet. This young man is not even 30 - he has time. What should be taken from this concerts were the moments of real depth and beauty, the moments of phenomenal clarity in playing and the clear thought and interpretation given to certain passages that makes the listening audience smile. These are the signs that the critics should pick up on; I don't think they will, but let's see. No, he's not there yet; but how far he's travelled since the last concert I saw him play. And there's much excitement that can be gained from considering his potential. Apart from the skill, he clearly has good taste (which is more than I can say for his certain other Chinese rival). I think this concert will be broadcast on Radio 3, so you'll have another opportunity to listen to it.