Lang Lang has become a global brand name

Sometime around his 25th birthday, Chinese piano sensation Lang Lang crossed the threshold to being Lang Lang Inc.

Since his last Toronto concert last summer at Massey Hall with jazz great Herbie Hancock, Lang has been feted by the world’s most influential people in Davos, Switzerland, played at the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony, organized and performed a benefit concert for victims of the Haiti earthquake with hip hop artist Wyclef Jean at Carnegie Hall, and launched his own line of upright and baby-grand pianos for students, designed by his sponsor, Steinway & Sons.

His website (www.langlang.com) is a case study in 21st century cross-marketing, offering merchandise, music and a variety of social-media connections to anyone who needs pianistic pizzazz in their lives.

Yet, miraculously, the 27-year-old global superstar still finds time to make serious music. He has not forgotten his roots.

On Tuesday, Lang arrives in Toronto for a concert at Roy Thomson Hall with the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra and its music director, veteran conductor, Christoph Eschenbach.

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Toronto gets the Mozart work, the Piano Concerto No. 17, in G-Major (K. 453), as well as Prokofiev’s “Classical” Symphony and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7.

This is the same programme Lang performed at Carnegie Hall on March 21. Steve Smith, reviewing for The New York Times, was impressed:

“Mr. Lang has been criticized for excessive flamboyance and lapses in taste, but in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 17 in G he was on his best behavior...Mr. Lang’s clean, tidy and stylish playing contributed to a successful performance.”

The megastar has no problem sharing the spotlight.

“I had lots of solo recitals in January and February, so it is a joy to work in collaboration so that I can recharge my batteries,” he says from a tour stop in Florida. “Now I can be pretty calm.”

Collaboration has figured prominently in Lang’s recent recordings, including a disc of deeply expressive Russian chamber music with Russian violinist Vadim Repin and cellist Mischa Maisky and an album of little-known vocal and piano works by opera composer Ruggero Leoncavallo with tenor Placido Domingo.

For Lang, working with others boils down to inspiration. “Not only do these artists play well and sing well, but they inspire people to get into their world,” he says. “I’m hoping I will inspire others to become musicians.”

His personal daily challenge is not managing his global musical empire, but trying to translate finger movements on a keyboard into something artistically meaningful.

“No matter what piece you play, you need to use all your imagination and your work,” Lang explains.

Of course, he says, shaping the music’s dynamics and architecture come first. “But how do you fit all those elements into your hand and connect to people’s ears? That needs a lot of thought.”

Lang looks for inspiration outside the practice studio. He talks of visiting museums and just talking to people in sidewalk cafés. “The other arts you experience will influence how you approach the keyboard,” he says.