Juja Wang and the Bumble Bee


Juja Wang is all the rage as a pianist and personality and rightly so.  She plays.  In the music business "she has chops".

I caught her about a few years ago when she played with the New York Phil.  That is, and was that night, a great orchestra. They loved her and they generally don't like much of anyone.  That brings me to the bumble bee.

Over a century ago (1899-1900 to be exact, a Russian named Rimsky-Korsakov wrote an opera call the Czar Sultan.....I won't bore you with the plot other than there is an interlude based on this text from the libretto:

SWAN-BIRD:
Well, now, my bumblebee, go on a spree, catch up with the ship on the sea,go down secretly,
get deep into a crack. Good luck, Gvidon, fly,only do not stay long! (The bumblebee flies away.)

We've all heard this piece, the Flight of the Bumble Bee" a million times.  But not like this. Some consider Juja Wang to be near super-human. Watch the hands.