At age 19, Korean pianist Joyce Yang won a silver medal at the 2005 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. She then took the United States by storm in a season of engagements with powerhouses such as the New York Philharmonic, earning raves for her “polished, pearly evenness” (LA Times) and “million-volt presence” (Dallas Morning News).

In Yang’s first recital at Duke Performances, the jocular daybreak of Beethoven’s sonata The Hunt fades into the twilight of Chopin’s Nocturnes and Bartók’s dusky suite, Out of Doors. In the second half, Yang explores American piano master Earl Wild’s illustrious transcriptions of songs by Gershwin and Rachmaninov, whose piano music she handles with “expressive shape” (Sydney Morning Herald).

BEETHOVEN: Piano Sonata No. 18 in E-flat Major, Op. 31, No. 3, The Hunt
CHOPIN: Nocturne in C Minor, Op. 48, No. 1
CHOPIN: Nocturne in F Minor, Op. 55, No. 1
BARTÓK: Out of Doors, Sz. 81
RACHMANINOV/WILD: Dreams, Op. 38, No. 5
GERSHWIN/WILD: The Man I Love
RACHMANINOV/WILD: Vocalise, Op. 34, No. 14
RACHMANINOV: Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat Minor, Op. 36 (revised 1931 version)