Life and Leisure

Lang Lang scales new heights

By Chen Nan (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-09-03 16:43

At 28, pianist Lang Lang is playing sold-out performances around the world and topping the classical charts. As a young artist he reveals his flamboyant charisma when the occasion calls for it, as happened this summer when he played at the open-air Audi on Stage Summer Concert, at Beijing's Temple of Heaven.

Together with three American Broadway stars at the crossover musical concert, Lang gave a performance of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. He also played an impromptu piece with the China Philharmonic Orchestra.

Chinese pianist Lang Lang. Jiang Dong / China Daily

He has just returned from taking a month-long summer vacation. He has a new album and serial concerts lined up and he is enthusiastic about it all.

"Everything's going too well for me at the moment. Now it's time to get busy," he says cheerfully at the press conference in Beijing for the release of the Sony two-disc CD, Live in Vienna, of his performance at Vienna's Musikverein Concert Hall in February and March this year. This release is Lang Lang's second live recording after the best-selling Live at Carnegie Hall in 2004, which marked his international breakthrough as a recording artist.

"For me, there are few halls around the globe that have the same prestige as Carnegie Hall and the Musikverein. Of course there are other great halls, but I always feel these two have a unique place in people's hearts. So I felt that after Carnegie Hall, the Musikverein would be the place where I should do another live recording," he says.

The CD, together with a Blue-ray DVD, contains the pianist's rendition of 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 as well as Albniz's impressionistic Sketches of Spain in Book 1 of "Iberia", in addition to the dark material of Prokofiev's innovative Piano Sonata No 7 in B Flat Major. He says all the melodies have had an emotional impact on him.

Lang Lang started playing the piano at the age of 3 and first gained international attention when he was 17 playing a Tchaikovsky concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the "Gala of the Century".

Though he is an inspiration to young musicians everywhere now, Lang Lang says that he sees it as his personal mission to broaden the appeal of classical music to the widest possible audience.

To further his achievements, he will expand his musical range to include cutting-edge technologies such as electronic music and exploring opportunities for 3D video and Web-based music education initiatives.

"I enjoy the innovative and creative energy of classic music," he says. "Its place is not the library or museum. It needs to keep on progressing."

China Daily