“Mythology Reborn” will debut in December
International piano artist Muye Wu officially announced his new tour for 2025
Mythology Reborn: 24 Liszt’s études de concert
The concept poster for the global tour was released and the premiere city is Shanghai. On December 15, 2024, Muye Wu will play the music of speed and fury at the Cadillac·Shanghai Concert Hall. In the poster, a No. 24 race car sits on the keys and drives into a musical jungle of myth, magic and endless adventure, all the way to the top of the world of piano concerts.
Muye Wu wrote on Weibo: “If I weren’t a pianist, I’d be a racing driver. I pay tribute to everyone who has unfulfilled dreams with the newest tour tracks. May every one of you who is speeding on the track of life keep surpassing!”
Since 2018, Muye Wu has launched a complete series: a set of repertoire for global concert tour every year, from “Inspiration-Schubert: The Complete Impromptus” and “The Complete Works of Chopin’s Waltzes”, to “Pinnacle of Beethoven’s Oeuvre” and “Pinnacle of Liszt’s Oeuvre”. This tour marks the first time he has chosen to perform the extraordinarily challenging “Liszt’s études de concert”. This is the worthiest concert to listen to in life. This may also be the last time Muye Wu will perform this set of repertoires in its entirety in the form of a tour. The whole set of works presented in a concert can be regarded as the expression of a pianist at the peak stage, which requires strong physical strength, life experience and strong ability for artistic understanding and presentation.
“The transcendental études”, also known as “super études” and “extraordinary étude”, are familiar to the audience. Many pop musicians will also find inspiration in this set of tracks to adapt their own music. Presenting this set of works in its entirety in a concert has always been Muye Wu’s dream. He felt that although he could choose to perform the same repertoire at the age of 20 or 30, his attitude towards the world and his understanding of life at that time were not yet mature: he had not completed nearly ten years of wonderful reading and more than a million kilometers of driving, and he had not faced the loss of life and the unexpected encounter of life…… Maybe in another 10 years he will be more mature, but his physical condition may be far from the state required by Liszt’s repertoire. Muye Wu hopes to complete this super-technical repertoire at the most suitable age for himself and perform Liszt’s most difficult virtuosity work.
As an internationally renowned piano master, Muye Wu’s performance is both imaginative and explosive. He has won the essence of the France piano school, with superb skills and delicate and precise touches. In this tour, in the face of Liszt’s études de concert repertoire, Muye Wu changed his gentle and elegant style, combining high performance skills with intense emotional expression, assembling the passionate expression of tone and the sincere romance of melody, intertwining the fiery character and poetic fantasy, showing his exquisite skills and pure emotional dimension.
Mythology Reborn: 24 Liszt’s études de concert
Tracklist
The Douze études d’exécution transcendante, S.139, circa 1851, is a formidable piece of the piano history. From a technical point of view, Liszt’s 12 works are too difficult, as if it is the ivory tower of the art of piano performance. Few performers dared to challenge them in the 20th century, when piano masters were like carps crossing the river. In terms of repertoire, Liszt’s 12 études are all in different keys and arranged in descending order of fifths. Liszt’s piano music has always been considered “sensational, beautiful, and empty”, and perhaps it is well reflected in these 12 etudes. Like Hungary rhapsody, these études are his “best” music and the most virtuosity piano music. Unlike Chopin’s études, Liszt’s études have always been more intense, as if there is infinite passion to be consumed, and also the beauty of the melody.
The Trois études de concert, S.144 was composed between 1848 and 1850, when Liszt was court orchestrator in Weimar. Although they are called études, Liszt wrote them poetically, and once gave them the title “Poetic Caprice”.
The Grandes études de Paganini, S.141, written in 1838 and published in 1840 by Breitcobb Press, was originally titled “Études Based on Paganini’s Caprice”. Paganini was the violinist who developed the violin to the pinnacle of his skills. He was described as doing what only the devil can do with the violin, and he directly influenced Chopin and Liszt’s pioneering of the art of the piano. Liszt arranged five of Paganini’s Twenty-Four Caprice and the rondo theme in Violin Concerto No. 2 into piano etudes.
The tour, which was named “Mythology Reborn”, will be released in 10 cities around the world in the first official announcement. Starting from Shanghai, Muye Wu will also go to Xiamen, Beijing, Geneva, Vienna, Paris, Tokyo, Kyoto, Macau, Hong Kong and other global landmark cities. Dates for tickets and performances will be announced one by one!
