After listen to his recent performance of the Mozart Concerto No 17:
http://youtu.be/rMWmvIT9ktw

I have DVDs of both Bernstein and Pollini 's versions, but I think Lang Lang betters both. The second movement is specially moving. It is the first time I actually think his emotion might be real.

Direct comparisons to great established artists might invoke the wrong reaction, but, yes, I agree: something has happened over the last couple years, and he has transitioned from buffoon to artist. It didn't have to happen, but it looks like it did. fwiw, here is a link to a review I wrote of a piano recital of his back in November.

-Jason

+1

Perhaps his association with Daniel Barenboim has caused some positive vibes to rub off.

Looks like he may have missed his calling by about 9 feet. In other words, get up from the bench, walk 9 ft. past the end of the Steinway and get on the podium. Those faces at the piano I still cannot bear. But as a conductor, he really gets the orchestra off their butts - literally.

If he was conducting a major orchestra, I would like to watch. Especially multiple camera angles (one from the orchestra's point of view), would fit his faces with what's going on in the score in a less distracting manner.

As a conductor, it pays to have some kind of facial feature that stands out and can be seen all the way back to the percussion section. Lang Lang has it - those eyes! They can be sweet, sad, commanding, and terror-stricken all in the same passage. It would be fun to play in the orchestra under his baton. There might be snickers when it's break time, but he would get the orchestra to put in that extra amount of effort that will sell tickets.

It would be interesting to watch how he (and his many expressions) handles Mahler or Shostakovich 5 though.

Lang, will never change my opinion of him, because he's already done enough that goes against everything I believe in. I do hope his playing takes on new dimensions for the better, but it will be others who hear him.

your loss stores

Lang Lang has an expressivity (is that even a word?) none can touch coupled with a precision none can touch. he might look odd but i don't care.

who knows what his future holds?

and this, this phrase erichlof.... is wonderful..brilliant.

"Lang Lang has it - those eyes! They can be sweet, sad, commanding, and terror-stricken all in the same passage"

is so true

No shame there. If it is the case, it is a complement to Lang Lang.

I don't see how one can judge whether LL has changed his performance style based on a Mozart Concerto where there is little opportunity for over the top physical histrionics or crazy interpretive choices.

He might of ditched his stupid faces, but he still doesn't have the elegance for this piece.
La Campanella

For me he is still the same childish idiot on stage.

What a view!

I'm surprised I'm watching the same video as everyone else. I don't find it tasteful or elegant at all. The orchestra's great, but he's trampling all over them. It's Mozart - chamber music, a dialogue, not a Tchaikovskian cage match. I'll take Perahia, Andsnes, Uchida, or Pires over that self-indulgent mess any day.

(IMHO, of course!)

^ Thanks K, you saved me the time and trouble of watching it.

And I will add Anda -that most elegant of Mozartians- to your list.

fwiw, I didn't listen to the Mozart on this thread (and am running out the door now). All I can vouch for is the two recitals I have attended.

-J

He wrecks the very tempo he established for the orchstra from his very first solo passage. Then he keeps rushing it and rushing them. Yup, K, I gotta agree with ya.

delightful; thanks for posting cinstance.

loss shmoss.

Hmmm. . . I didn't see anyone describe it as tasteful or elegant (though if they had, that description would have been less weird than "Tchaikovskian cage match" ) Maybe you did see the same video as everyone else.

Is "tasteful" Mozart particularly rare or special? Conservatories produce that in large quantities, it seems. "Elegant" is trickier, if you mean cultured as opposed to simply possessing a refined sense of phrasing and balance. Much rarer is genuinely delightful Mozart, and this performance delighted me, though I did avert my eyes whenever the maestro was on camera. I heard the first movement, up to the beginning of the cadenza. Entertaining in the best sense of the word.

I don't like it... And I'm not even watching it... Just listening. It sounds like he's rushing all of it.

It didn't [censored] me off, but I wonder why there seems to be a thread every three to five months trying to rehabilitate his reputation. Is there some point to hoping this guy gets better? There are plenty of better pianists, why waste time with this guy?

Change "none" to "none living", and you might be a bit more accurate.



I kinda feel the same way. He may be good (and a lot better than me, I might add), but there are so many others who are far more worth listening to. Just a quick run through my interesting youtube videos thread turns up more than a few.

I actually watched him play this same concerto in Champaign, IL a few years ago, and it also gave me greater respect for him.

As a conductor, he looks like he's using the Force. Quite compelling actually.

I've always enjoyed Lang Lang--his enthusiasm, his boyishness and playfulness when he was younger, his incredible virtuosity, his touch, his stage presence.

By way of explanation, I don't necessarily value "maturity," as the opposite often seems more appropriate for younger artists, who often play their octaves too fast and in a show off manner. They do so because they're young and they can, and that's what young people do. It's their time to do it. They'll be old soon enough, and in the meantime, there are lots of older pianists to listen to and to enjoy.

I'm sometimes made uneasy by younger pianists who play very heavy and proper programs and finish with Messian as an encore. It seems as if their youth has been been hobbled by the constant hectoring of critics and the music intelligentsia. Everything has its season, and it seems to me that everyone should be allowed their season too.

With this outlook, I've appreciated and enjoyed Lang Lang over these past several years as he grew from a boy to a young man. I look forward to seeing and hearing him in the years to come.

Tomasino

I didn't like his "conducting" at all. Those guys are professionals and I felt he was underestimating their ability a little.

Every little phrase he played was shaped in some way. It got a little much actually.

Just to put my cards on the table - I can't stand performances that have no personality (and I'm wary of pianists who claim to put the composer first: Schnabel said that, but his playing was full of personality to the point of recklessness, while Cortot never even bothered to claim that he played Chopin as Chopin would have played ....): there's too much around that's already boring, and life's too short to spend time listening to boring pianists.

Which is why I like Lang Lang: he always plays as if he means every note, whether or not others share his opinion. His joie de vivre is life-enhancing, his occasional OTT and excesses (whether in ffff or pppp) being part of his ebullient personality, which is larger than life, and is part of the reason why he has single-handedly attracted more people (and I don't just mean the Chinese) to classical music and the piano than anyone else in living memory. Many professional pianists envy his technique (whether or not they say so publicly), and many world-class conductors and orchestras love to work with him. (He's embarking on the cycle of Beethoven concertos with Esa-Pekka Salonen very shortly).

I'll never forget watching him inspire so many children and teenagers last year during his week-long stint at the South Bank in London, when he played Beethoven's 5th (Symphony that is) along with 100 of them, after introducing and praising the young solo pianists who performed earlier: how many virtuosi in the world would act as a compere for child performers for an hour without once pushing himself forward as the 'star'? And how many would play an encore where the piano is merely part of the orchestra (not even an obbligato instrument) following a concerto performance with an unknown youth orchestra, just so that they got the ovation?

Oh, and I forgot to mention his superbly controlled and voiced Schubert D960 which he also played during that week.....

very well said.

what i don't get is the constant comparison and mutual exclusivity that seems to chronically permeate classical music. the whole 'there are so many other better ____' argument doesn't hunt in other art forms; you never hear that in jazz circles where each artist is judged (or not) on the merits of his or her particular performance. it's a big tent with lots of room for individuality and interpretation.

and i for one have seen this narrow mindedness picked up by friends who are peripheral listeners or concert goers as they feel a certain rigidity surrounding the music; that music isn't being performed and/or listened to for what it is, but rather held up against some mythical ideal that is nonetheless subjective and the product of others' mechanical - yes, mechanical - conditioning.

it would further this form of once great creativity if folks would stop being reductionist and start expanding their hearts and minds a little bit; might find you start enjoying things more instead of constantly listening to what's playing in your head during the performance.

I don't disagree with you, Entheo, Tomasino. You may know my default position is toward appreciation rather than criticism, comparative or otherwise... But with this guy, there is just something that really affects me in the negative, and in this particular performance, especially. Do you know that song, "Google Me Gently"? It's about that trail of stuff of yours that you've left behind on the internet that you wish you could take back. This performance gives me that ol' pathos feeling for Lang Lang, bless his heart, that, in a few years he's going to wish this weren't out there for all to see. To begin with, to say that he is conducting here is quite a stretch. Sometimes, the best thing you can do for a person is to say to them, "You know that thing you do? Don't do that."

i am always surprised by those who don't like him.. and many really don't like him. I must be really simple and I guess I am. I certainly don't have a doctorate, and am mostly self taught... you know, easy to please.

I see his incredible alacrity and am always impressed.. i don't see his bug eyes or theatrics, his fancy and fanciful faces. When i do watch him, i like his drama and delight in his own persona. i hear his precision even when he makes mistakes.. he makes them with precision.

he goes all out. his lack of reservation i find refreshing.

I could be wrong, but I think in a blind test, I could get you to always prefer a performance by someone else. Of course he plays all the notes accurately, that's the price of admission to even be considered top tier. I don't think he's a bad pianist, just extremely boring musically.