An Introduction to Lang Lang

When Chinese pianist Lang Lang left the classical music label Deutsche Grammophon in early 2010 and signed a new record contract with Sony Music the Internet was buzzing with speculation about the millions of dollars involved in the transfer.

Lang Lang is a rare breed indeed - a classical music performer who is also a household name, guaranteed to pack concert halls and sell huge amounts of records. Indeed, he would seem to thrive on contact with the public and now tours the world endlessly, playing around 130 concerts a year and is a charismatic standard bearer for classical music in general.

Named as one of Time magazine's most influential people in The 2009 TIME 100, he is also a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations' Children's Fund (UNICEF) and is keen to promote the benefits of musical tuition to children. Indeed, in an interview with China Daily in February 2012 Lang Lang announced his intention to reduce the number of concerts he performs and instead devote more time to helping others achieve their music dreams through charity and education.

Whilst his fans love his virtuoso performances, he is sometimes criticised for what is seen in some quarters as overly flamboyant showmanship. I've been lucky enough to see Lang Lang perform several times in Rome, Italy, and for me his stage presence only serves to make him all the more exciting to watch!

This lens is an unabashedly biased look at the man's musical career through the eyes of a Lang Lang fan and includes reviews of all his major recordings. Enjoy the music and feel The Lang Lang Effect!

[...] a spectacularly fine recording [...] Prokofiev's concerto is full of dancing, in a distant reflection of something from a couple of centuries earlier, and Lang, Rattle and the Berliners serve it up with a breathtaking range of dynamics and colouring.

Here is a live, beating heart, inside the often icy-cold chest of 20th century music.

Prokofiev 3 Bartok 2 CD review by John Terauds

Musical Toronto - 17 October 2013

***

This Prokofiev 3 is exceptionally good - thunderous when it needs to be, and always rhythmically alert. And Simon Rattle is a supremely effective partner, bringing out the seductive, fairy-tale magic in the orchestral writing. [...] the concerto's close is astonishing. Trust me. It's splendid.

Bartok's Piano Concerto no 2 makes for an unexpected, rewarding coupling. [...] Lang Lang dazzles in the central Presto. [...]

Prokofiev 3 Bartok 2 CD review by Graham Rickson

The Arts Desk - 12 October 2013

Hip-hop meets classical music in this video by Lang Lang and Marquese 'Nonstop' Scott to promote 'The Chopin Album'

Lang's Chopin Album is a showcase for the very best of this remarkable artist.

The pianist's technique is phenomenal, but he deploys it here in the service of grace and elegance [...] this is Chopin that is fun, lively, rendered with emotion on shirtcuff but with a sense of proportion and poise. It should make even more converts to the Cult of Lang Lang

The Chopin Album CD review by John Terauds

Musical Toronto - 5 October 2012

***

There is subtlety and poetic beauty in his readings, and to each piece, even to the technically demanding etudes, he brings emotional depth and feeling. One immediately senses that Lang Lang takes pleasure in this music - and it is a pleasure hearing him play.

This CD is an absolute must have.

The Chopin Album CD review by Edward Reichel

Reichel Recommends - 9 October 2012

***

[...] a dazzling interpretation of some of the best piano works in the repertory, perfect as an introduction for beginners or a gem to add to any connoisseur's collection.

The Chopin Album CD review

Classic FM - 15 October 2012

Includes bonus DVD "My Life with Chopin"!

Lang Lang's gifts get a fruitful showcase in Liszt's Piano Concerto No 1, performed with the Vienna Philharmonic and Valery Gergiev.

Liszt - My Piano Hero CD review

The Times - 3rd September, 2011

***

Quicksilver, impeccable musicianship is everywhere in Liszt: My Piano Hero [...] played with what sounds as if it comes from a deep, unaffected and longstanding love for the music, with lots of glitter and joy in the closing pages [...] hero worship of the best sort.

Liszt - My Piano Hero CD Review by Bob Clark

The Calgary Herald - 7 September, 2011

***

When I was two and a half I was watching a Tom and Jerry cartoon and Tom was playing Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 and that was my first impression of classical music and Liszt [...] Liszt is my piano hero [...] he is the real piano god! [...]

Lang Lang on his hero Liszt

Interviewed on Classic Fm - 19 August, 2011

Will Lang Lang and Gran Turismo 5 do what previous games have done for, say, Gregorian chant? Or put it another way - will Lang Lang and Prokofiev do for Gran Turismo 5 do what surely no other classical music has yet done for a game, namely, make it more popular? It would be rather cool (I use that word advisedly) if the tail wagged that particular dog.

Gran Turismo 5: Original Game Soundtrack review by James Inverne

Gramaphone, 3 December 2010

***

Gran Turismo is the most exciting racing game in the world and I have been a fan of it for many years. I feel honored to have this opportunity to connect with people who have never been in a concert hall before and show them that classical music is not just a part of history, but is actually very present and relevant today.

Lang Lang on recording Gran Turismo 5: Original Game Soundtrack

Recording the music for this advert was hugely enjoyable, Ilan's score perfectly complements each part of the storyline, and the uplifting ending is a great moment. So much is communicated in the two minutes that you almost feel as though you have watched an entire movie!

Lang Lang commenting on the recording of 'A Sony Christmas Carol' at Sony Music

The score for the advert was specially created by leading young film composer Ilan Eshkeri, whose scores include Stardust, Kick-Ass and The Young Victoria, and features the piano playing of Lang Lang, one of the world's greatest pianists and most inspirational musicians. It was supported by a 35 piece orchestra and recorded at the legendary Abbey Road studios.

Lang Lang's busy touring schedule meant that his part had to be recorded in Paris, at the Fondation Singer-Polignac, where composers such as Ravel, Faure and Stravinsky lived and worked.

It's become rather fashionable to sniff at the achievements of Lang Lang, but he is the most communicative pianist of his generation, with a huge following in the east, and for any open-minded listener there is seriously good piano playing in this fine recital from Vienna. He is intense and focused in the "Appassionata", sharp and lively in Beethoven's early C major sonata. His Albéniz is thrillingly colourful, his Prokofiev vivid and pungent. Then he relaxes into his Chopin encores; perhaps he is indulgent, but the technical command is peerless and the emotional warmth envelops us. He is surely the Horowitz of our generation.

Lang Lang: Live in Vienna CD review by Nicholas Kenyon

The Observer, Sunday 12 September 2010

***

Lang Lang's debut release for Sony captures him in performance at Vienna's Musikverein Concert Hall, playing a varied programme which on one disc pairs Beethoven's dramatic Piano Sonata No 23 in F minor, the "Appassionata", with the more youthful and innocent Piano Sonata No 3 in C minor, while the second disc traverses diverse territory from Albéniz's impressionistic sketches of Spain in Book 1 of "Iberia", to the dark material of Prokofiev's innovative Piano Sonata No 7 in B flat major, before concluding with encores of a popular trio of Chopin pieces.

It's hard to imagine a programme to better display the pianist's prodigious range.

Lang Lang: Live in Vienna classical album review

The Independent, Friday, 20 August, 2010

This marked the first time that a classical artist had ever released a single on iTunes for the purpose of raising funds and awareness for a charitable cause.

On Tuesday, March 16, 2010, iTunes released a new recording of internationally acclaimed pianist Lang Lang performing Chopins Polonaise in A-flat major, Op. 53, Héroïque. All net proceeds from the sale of this track will be donated to the US Fund for UNICEF in their efforts to bring relief to the children surviving the devastating earthquake in Haiti.

All the men and women working for UNICEF are truly heroes, says Lang Lang, so the Heroic Polonaise allows me to pay tribute to them at the same time as raising even more money for this cause. Its an honor to serve UNICEF as a Goodwill Ambassador. Any small part I can play in the effort to bring hearts and minds to their incredible efforts is as humbling and inspiring as any of the great concert halls that I have played.

What do you get when you cross a world famous solo pianist with a world famous solo violinist and a world famous solo cellist?

[...] especially when the pianist in question is Lang Lang, the young Chinese virtuoso better known for attention-grabbing performances coloured by larger-than-life gestures. However, here he is in his first chamber recording, a medium where pianist regularly becomes accompanist, joined by Vadim Repin and Mischa Maisky, two undisputed soloist giants.

Despite such a threesome having all the makings of a bitter battle for musical supremacy, the result is impressive beyond expectation. [...] all three play with such confidence, verve and - wait for it - deference, that they bounce off and meld with each other perfectly in a performance that brings out all the tension, tenderness and exuberance of these two works.

[...] The concrete fact proved by this disc is that Lang Lang can not only do chamber music, but do it phenomenally well.

BBC Review by Charlotte Gardner, 22 October, 2009

***

Youth plus experience equals passionate communal music-making

Here is passionate communal music-making, most exhilarating in Tchaikovsky's final section, when the older musicians become gloriously infused with Lang Lang's youth and sparkle. At other points, the kaleidoscope of personalities keeps turning. In the Rachmaninov Maisky's soulful, yearning cello carries most of the music's emotional weight, with Repin in sweet support. Lang Lang himself stays bright, agile, but modest, as he does in his nonchalant dispatch of the theme for Tchaikovsky's central variations. [...] it's the human spark in the performances overall that delights the ear, and gives new hope for Lang Lang's development. Keep on playing chamber music, my boy!

Review by Geoff Brown

The Times, 30 October, 2009

Lang Lang's autobiography, written with David Ritz

"Born in China in 1982, the pianist Lang Lang now travels the world, playing at the Kremlin and for the queen of England. His memoir, which recounts how he grew up to become an acclaimed musician, reads like a fairy tale - though more Brothers Grimm than Disney, complete with dark and horrific themes. Before Lang is 2, he is playing the piano. Like other children, he loves Transformers, Game Boy and "Tom and Jerry," but he is also a virtuoso; at 5, he masters a challenging variation by the Russian composer Dmitri Kabalevsky. Soon his father takes him to Beijing to enter competitions. They live for years in icy apartments overrun with mice, as they "scrounge for food." He aches for his mother, and throughout, his father berates him for not practicing enough: "Were it not for Mozart's father, Mozart would not have become famous," his father explains, adding, "Together, they achieved im mortality." When 9-year-old Lang comes home late from school, his father, driven to near madness, tries to force a suicide pact on him. After subsequently quitting the piano, the boy somehow rediscovers his love for both his father and Mozart and, four months later, resumes playing. "Journey of a Thousand Miles," written with the music writer David Ritz, raises tough questions about the connection between genius and madness (as well as the overinvolved parent). Lang tells the story of his childhood without self-pity or bitterness, making his success, and the book itself, all the more satisfying."

Reviewed by Tara McKelvey

New York Times - 26 September, 2008

TIME interviewed Lang Lang at Steinway's flagship store in New York City where he answered reader questions (published in 2008).

Lang Lang has a knack for building interesting programmes, none more personal, perhaps, than his latest release. It encompasses a fascinating variety of traditional Chinese songs from several generations arranged by Chinese composers. Seven are for piano solo, while three others add a different traditional Chinese instrument to the mix. Each of these is an extended piece featuring energetic, dance-like interplay between the instruments. Not only do they marvellously showcase Fan Wei's pipa (Chinese lute), Zhang Jiali's guanzi (double-reed pipe) and Ji Wei's guzheng (Chinese zither), they also reveal Lang Lang as an inspiring and musicianly collaborator. He's not afraid to enliven the rhythms with emphatic accents and dynamic surges, yet he appropriately pulls back while his partner has the ball in court, so to speak.

Review by Jed Distler

Gramaphone magazine - March 2007 (Page 87)

There is some really fine music making going on here, offering evidence of both a big technique and a big heart behind the flashing finger work [...] The range of repertoire here, from Haydn to Tan Dun, is as impressive as the technical ease with which Lang Lang plays it all, sounding as fresh by the evening's end as he does at its opening.

Review by David Hurwitz on ClassicsToday.com

There is some delightful playing in both works.

Lang Lang is at his best in the slow movements, where his range of colour and articulation illustrates his all-encompassing technical command and sense of both elegance and pathos. The dialogue of the Fourth Concerto's Andante is especially touching: Lang Lang's emotional poise is superbly judged while Eschenbach's Parisian orchestra give solid support. The outer movements have infectious energy.

Review by Tim Parry

BBC Music Magazine, 1 September, 2007

Lang Lang and artists from all genres and backgrounds joined the President and the First Lady to honour Sir Paul McCartney, who received the Gershwin Prize for Popular song in the East Room of the White House.

Look out for Lang Lang on stage singing 'Hey Jude' alongside the likes of Stevie Wonder, the Jonas Brothers, Faith Hill, Emmylou Harris, Herbie Hancock, Elvis Costello, Jack White, Corinne Bailey Rae, David Grohl, Jerry Seinfeld... and President Barack Obama!

The Finales [...] skip along with real brilliance. He has a spritely way with the opening idea of the F minor's Allegro vivace, for example, that really brings it to life, and he imbues the later mazurka episodes with real humour and a cheeky lilt.

Review by By Hugo Shirley

MusicalCriticism.com - 30 November, 2008

***

Limpid, graceful arches mark the Romance movement, a superb balance of Bellini's bel canto and Hummel's declamatory styles, eminently sympathetic. The last movement, the Rondo-Krakowiak, has both Lang Lang and Mehta full throttle, playing to the house and to the devoted cult for this exciting pianist for whom any inscription simply adds to the legend.

Classical CD review by Gary Lemco

Audiophile Audition - 2 January, 2009

Over the past few years, critics have hammered on Lang Lang for being all show with little substance, but I think this new solo recording proves them wrong. Lang Lang may be only 23 years old, but he's already looking back on how his art has developed, and the works that have informed his musical journey. This new CD, "Memory," connects Lang Lang to music that he strongly associates with his childhood. Some of these works he learned many years ago, and some he remembers first hearing as a child. Lang Lang takes us from thoughtful moments of quiet reflection to radiant displays of virtuosity.

Lang Lang is an amazing storyteller at the keyboard, and he relies on that ability when he plays Schumann's "Kinderszenen," or "Scenes from Childhood." He's been entranced by this piece since first seeing a video of Vladimir Horowitz playing it a long time ago. This is by no means a work for children to play; it requires wisdom and a sense of maturity, which Lang Lang is able to express even though he's just 23 years old.

Review by Julie Amacher

Minnesota Public Radio, 21 March, 2006

The gifted pianist gives a finely calibrated account of this much-loved work, playing with power and authority, as well as expressive lyricism. Lang Lang's fearless approach serves him well in the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, as he expertly negotiates the daunting technical demands of the 24 variations. The performances are enhanced immeasurably by the presence of Valery Gergiev on the podium. The dynamic conductor and the forces of the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra match Lang's bravura with fiery playing steeped in the old-school Russian tradition.

Review on ArkivMusic.com

This young virtuoso impresses in big-scale readings of rarely coupled showpieces.

Recorded in Chicago's DIM Orchestra Hall in February this year, Lang Lang's performances of the Tchaikovsky and the Mendelssohn concertos bear out glowing reports of his youthful brilliance and sensitivity. [...] The opening of the Tchaikovsky establishes this as a big-scale performance, strongly rhythmic and sharply accented, with high dynamic contrasts.

Lang Lang learnt the Tchaikovsky concerto at nine, and played it in public, in Beijing with the China Youth Orchestra, just three years later. He was even younger when he tackled the Mendelssohn, a favourite of his, playing it first at only seven. Though the dynamics are less extreme than in the Tchaikovsky, the close balance of the piano again establishes this as a big-scale performance.[...] with such sparkling playing - Lang Lang erupting into a winningly joyful account of the finale - this makes a rare and attractive coupling for the distinctive account of the Tchaikovsky.

Review by Edward Greenfield

Gramaphone Magazine, September, 2003

'The Painted Veil', composed by Alexandre Desplat.

Winner of the Golden Globe for Best Score of 2006.

25-year old Chinese virtuoso pianist Lang Lang plays a prominent part in the score. His effortlessly refined performances feature strongly in the formal, yet elegant "River Waltz" and its solo recapitulation in the second half of the album, before coming to a dramatic peak during the emotionally draining, musically powerful "Cholera". He even performs the re-recording of Erik Satie's classical work "Gnossiene No.1", a beautifully understated piece which actually sits in very well with the overall tone and style of the rest of the score. Probably the best cue on the album is the recklessly flamboyant "The Water Wheel", in which Lang Lang dances on his piano, fluttering up and down scales, while the orchestra around him injects all manner of wonderfully playful rhythmic devices and moments of thematic splendour.

CD review by Jonathan Broxton

Movie Music UK, 2007

***

'The Banquet'

Tan Dun’s score for The Banquet is a completely lovely score [...] It serves the movie magnificently while also providing on CD one of the best scores of the year.

CD review by Randall Larson

Music from the Movies, 1 July, 2007