Press

Chinese concert pianist Lang Lang, conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra had New York heavyweights Tony Bennett, Candice Bergen, Barbara Walters, Mercedes Bass, Renée Fleming and Jessye Norman on their feet Wednesday at Carnegie Hall's opening night.

"You can not have a better orchestra than the Vienna Philharmonic," said Ms. Bass, wearing a black-and-red Oscar de la Renta creation.

"They have played at Carnegie Hall many times and this is their 101st anniversary. It is always a treat to have them."

Two pianists took the keyboard on Saturday night. Sitting side by side at a massive Steinway, Christoph Eschenbach, the new music director of the National Symphony Orchestra, and Lang Lang, the superstar pianist from China, played two movements from Debussy's "Petite Suite," the first one tender, the second antic, with leaps of finger and wrist that set the audience giggling.
The performance was an encore at the National Symphony Orchestra's season-opening gala at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. It signaled some new beginnings.

MATSUMOTO, Japan — The big news from Asia about Western classical music has been coming for a decade from China, where the surge in education and performance has been explosive. The brash and hugely gifted pianist Lang Lang has been an apt symbol of that explosion, though new star Chinese performers and composers seem to emerge by the month. The Chinese classical scene was amply represented in New York last season, alongside indigenous traditions, in a Carnegie Hall festival, Ancient Paths, Modern Voices, that prominently featured Lang Lang.

Live In Vienna

Lang Lang / Sony Classical

On Friday, August 13, 2010, Artistic Director Nolan Gasser spoke with piano phenomenon Lang Lang – whose initial recording on Sony Masterworks, Live in Vienna, was just released. In this fascinating Exclusive Interview, Lang Lang discusses his new, multi-format (CD, DVD, Blu-ray, 3-D, LP) release – recorded at Vienna’s famed Musikverein, and featuring a diverse recital of music by Beethoven, Albéniz, Prokofiev, and Chopin.

Lässig betritt er die Bühne, mit Lackschuhen, in Jeans und mit Wuschel-Frisur. Empfangen wird Lang Lang wie ein Rockstar, mit tosendem Applaus und begeistertem Gejohle. Dabei soll er eigentlich gar nicht so richtig im Mittelpunkt stehen, sondern die 1000 Finger ausgewählter Klavierschüler.

Only connect. That’s what pianist Lang Lang does — and much more. But watching the hip young man with the spiked, punk hairstyle high-five every bouquet-carrying kid who approached the Hill Auditorium stage following his spectacular performance of the 3rd Prokofiev piano concerto Wednesday evening, you see it’s charisma as much as technique that binds the audience to him.

As the world's best-known classical pianist - recognized by tens of millions in China alone - Lang Lang is capable of special merchandizing feats, such as selling out Roy Thomson Hall on a midweek evening with a student ensemble, as he did on Tuesday. But was the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra, even under the baton of an established conductor like Christoph Eschenbach, a fair match for the star soloist?

We hear some pieces of music so often — on our iPods, the car radio, while shopping — that it’s easy to start mistaking them for wallpaper. So it takes a very special kind of performer to make us sit up and really take notice again.

There was a stage-full of such special performers on Tuesday night at Roy Thomson Hall, as Chinese piano sensation Lang Lang, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra and conductor Christoph Eschenbach reintroduced us to the beauties of some well-worn classical masterpieces.