Yundi CHOPIN Preludes

"This year is actually the 15th anniversary to celebrate when I won the Chopin Competition in Warsaw," says Chinese pianist Yundi Li, "so I started this Chopin project as a tribute to Chopin."

At the age of 18, Yundi became the youngest performer ever to win the International Chopin Competition. He celebrates his 15th anniversary of earning that award by launching a series of recordings honoring Chopin, starting with the complete Chopin Preludes.

When performing these preludes Yundi says his attention is focused on the melody and on creating a beautiful musical phrase.

"For Chopin's music, especially for the preludes, the most important is the character of the tone color, so that is the most difficult," Yundi says. "You need to play with a singing tone, but a high-quality tone. So it's not about fast or slow or loud or something. It's really about detail and about the sensitivity of tone color.

"So, that's about attack on the keyboard. When your fingers feel the weight of the key. Sometimes you need the finger to play fast. Sometimes you don't use the finger, but you use your arm or your body. It's how deep you press the key or the keyboard. But that's the most difficult part, because you need to try for hours and hours to find out the tone quality — ah, this tone is what you wanted."