A mixed-reality concert you can step inside
Pianist Yuja Wang’s mixed-reality concert experience Playing with Fire set critics and audiences ablaze upon its premiere at the Philharmonie de Paris in November 2025. It is directed by Pierre-Alain Giraud, winner of the award for Best Immersive Work at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.
The experience shifts between augmented reality and virtual reality before bringing audiences back to the real world. At its heart is the Steinway Spirio, the world’s finest high-resolution player piano, capturing the nuance, power and passion of a live performance straight from the instrument. Yuja recorded the repertoire in London in September 2024; the Spirio reproduces her keystrokes with such precision that the keys and pedals move in perfect synchronisation with her holographic presence. The piano appears to play itself in real time, even though Yuja herself won’t be on stage in person.
Putting on a VR headset reveals a lifelike image of the pianist, performing within a 360-degree visual world of surrealist fire, water and organic forms, created by Icelandic artist Gabríela Friðriksdóttir, with spatial audio by Academy Award-winning sound designer Nicolas Becker. Free to observe the virtuoso up close and wander through the unfolding scenery, you discover a perspective no concert seat can offer.
The programme traces an arc of fire through nine works, from the shimmering cascades of Ravel’s Jeux d’eau to the fading warmth of Brahms and Chopin. Stravinsky’s “Infernal Dance” from The Firebird and Prokofiev’s Precipitato from Sonata No 7 erupt at its centre, while Debussy’s Bruyères and “Clair de lune”, and one of Bach’s chorale preludes, bring moments of calm and contemplation.
Cultural District, West Kowloon, No. 18 Museum Dr, Tsim Sha Tsui