The most unforgettable songs from Disney’s iconic films, reimagined by the greatest living pianist, Lang Lang’s The Disney Book tells the story of a century of magical, joyous entertainment for all. Join Lang Lang on an uplifting, virtuosic journey to experience beloved songs from Disney films with collaborators from across the globe, including Andrea Bocelli, Sebastián Yatra & Jon Batiste, performing hits from Snow White, Encanto, Beauty and the Beast, Pinocchio and many more. Released in celebration of 100 years of The Walt Disney Company.

No less a star than Kermit the Frog sang “Rainbow Connection”, the first number in the 1979 musical The Muppet Movie. “When I was at school, I had pictures of Kermit on my pencil case,” recalls Lang Lang. “I didn’t know his story at the time – he was just this cute green frog who sometimes wore a prince’s crown. And then I discovered he was the star of The Muppet Show.”

Lang Lang and wife Gina Alice Redlinger welcomed their first child, a son, on January 28, 2021.

The Young People’s Chorus of New York City also made an appearance, along with the Lang Lang International Music Foundation Young Scholars and Junior Music Camp Music Ambassadors.

Join us, and discover the ways music has shaped the childhood and lives of our featured artists as they perform the songs that have impacted their lives, shaped their careers, and hold deep meaning and personal significance to them.

“These twin versions will open new doors to Bach’s sublimely coded mystery” – The Economist

“Deeply felt and two decades in the making” – New York Times

“Lang Lang indeed shows himself a mature and individual performer, fully engaged with Bach’s genius.” - The Times

4 September 2020 – “This is a very important dream-come-true moment”, says Lang Lang. The superstar pianist, who waited 20 years before playing Johann Sebastian Bach’s monumental composition in public, has finally achieved his goal of recording the Goldberg Variations. The result of two decades of deep study and personal reflection, his vision of Bach’s Aria and 30 Variations is out now on Deutsche Grammophon.

Also available from today is a super deluxe edition featuring not only Lang Lang’s studio recording but a performance captured live in concert at Leipzig’s Thomaskirche, where the composer worked and is buried. This coupling of studio and live recordings, a world first for the “Goldbergs”, offers fascinating insights into the art of interpretation. Lang Lang’s performances intensify the work’s breath-taking blend of contrapuntal complexity, diverse musical styles and life-affirming spontaneity.

Fuelled by a lifelong passion for one of the most challenging but rewarding compositions in the entire classical repertoire, Lang Lang’s latest album represents a major milestone in an already stellar career. “I would say performing and recording this concert leads me into the next level of piano playing,” he explains. “I’m now 38 and, while that’s not old, I think the time was right for a new stage in my artistic development,” he adds. “I’ve moved into new terrain with the Goldberg Variations and really immersed myself fully in this project. My goal as an artist is to keep becoming more self-aware and more knowledgeable, as well as to keep offering inspiration to others. It’s an ongoing process, but this project has taken me a little further along the path.”

Out now: Deutsche Grammophon’s super deluxe edition offers world-first coupling of studio recording and live performance at Leipzig’s Thomaskirche – Bach’s own church

“For 20 years, the superstar pianist resisted playing this towering work in public. Now he’s releasing not one recording of it, but two.”

The culmination of a 20-year journey and his most personal project yet

World-first coupling on new album with studio and live performance from the legendary Thomaskirche in Leipzig, where Bach is buried

Lang Lang has realised a lifelong dream by recording Johann Sebastian Bach’s monumental keyboard work, the Goldberg Variations, often described as “a musical Everest”. It will be released on Deutsche Grammophon on 4 September in two complementary performances given by the pianist: the first was recorded in a single take in concert at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, Bach’s workplace for almost 30 years and site of his grave; the second was made soon after in the seclusion of the studio. The two recordings can be purchased together as part of a super deluxe edition, a world first simultaneous live and studio album release.

“I’m now 38 and, while that’s not old, I think the time was right for a new stage in my artistic development,” comments Lang Lang. “I’ve moved into new terrain with the Goldberg Variations and really immersed myself fully in this project. My goal as an artist is to keep becoming more self-aware and more knowledgeable, as well as to keep offering inspiration to others. It’s an ongoing process, but this project has taken me a little further along the path.”

The pianist’s long journey into the soul of one of the greatest landmarks of world culture began with childhood lessons in Bach’s music in his native China. He was just 17 when he played the Goldberg Variations from memory for the conductor and pianist Christoph Eschenbach, an unforgettable experience for both musicians. Lang Lang subsequently sought expert advice from leading interpreters of the composer’s music, conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt and harpsichordist and early keyboard specialist Andreas Staier among them.

Having allowed his relationship with the work to evolve naturally over time, Lang Lang finally felt ready to record Bach’s great Aria and 30 variations. In early March 2020, shortly before beginning his studio sessions, he gave a poignant public performance of the work in Leipzig. “Playing in the Thomaskirche, where Bach is buried, was unbelievably emotional for me,” he recalls. “I’ve never felt as close to a composer as I did during that recital. The live version is very spontaneous, whereas in the studio version my playing is different – very considered and reflective. In a concert situation you experience the 100-minute work as a whole. In the studio you can focus on individual details and nuances, and of course that can affect the musical experience quite substantially.”

It’s believed that Bach wrote the Goldberg Variations for his pupil, a teenage harpsichord virtuoso named Johann Gottlieb Goldberg. The composer’s first biographer reported that the piece was commissioned by the Russian ambassador to the Dresden court, an insomniac, as a “soothing and cheerful” work for young Goldberg to play during the night. Published in late 1741, it demands total spiritual focus from the performer.

“This isn’t just the most exceptional and creative work in the keyboard repertoire, it’s also the most multidimensional,” observes Lang Lang. “It allows us to draw on everything we have within ourselves, but also makes us realise what’s missing and what we still have to learn.”

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It was a highly anticipated and emotional recital for Lang Lang, “Last night was a real ‘dream come true’ moment. After years of practice, preparation and reflection, I finally presented my version of the Goldberg Variations to the public.”

Photo credit: Ansgar Klostermann/Wiesbaden

Photo credit: Kevork Djansezian, Jon Kopaloff

Click here to stream and download the Piano Book Encore Edition.

Here is Lang Lang’s Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2 at the Concertgebouw recorded live on November 8 and broadcasted on NPO Radio on November 10, 2019.

2019’S BIGGEST SELLING CLASSICAL ALBUM WORLDWIDE

NEW ‘ENCORE EDITION’ TO BE RELEASED 15TH NOVEMBER

Global superstar pianist Lang Lang is launching a new super deluxe digital version of his chart-topping album Piano Book – the best-selling classical album worldwide released this year. The Encore Edition will be released on 15th November 2019 via Deutsche Grammophon featuring an additional six new tracks. Accompanying the release will be three performance videos and six short films in which Lang Lang talks about the pieces.

Lang Lang’s Piano Book has enjoyed huge success around the world since its release in March. It has topped the classical charts in the US, the UK, Germany, France, China and Japan and entered the pop charts in Austria, France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and the UK. His recording of Beethoven’s Für Elise reached No.4 in the official Chinese pop single charts. Piano Book is also Lang Lang’s biggest streaming debut, with 60 million streams so far. Lang Lang is one of the most influential classical musicians in the world, with more than 15 million followers across social media.

Piano Book – Encore Edition is a collection of 47 tracks, including brand-new recordings of ‘Sweet Dreams’ from Tchaikovsky’s Children’s Album, ‘Ivan Sings’ from Khachaturian’s Adventures of Ivan, Christian Petzold’s Minuet in G minor from J.S. Bach’s Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach and the three movements of Friedrich Kuhlau’s delightful Piano Sonatina in C major, Op.20 No.1. These are featured alongside favourites from the original album such as Beethoven’s Für Elise, Chopin’s ‘Raindrop’ Prélude and the C major Prelude from Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier.

Piano Book reflects Lang Lang’s determination to pass on what he’s learned to a new generation of music lovers. His work with the Lang Lang International Music Foundation, which has raised millions of dollars to support young musicians since it was set up over a decade ago, has given him a unique insight into music education. He has inspired 40 million children to learn the piano and developed hugely successful educational programmes, including Keys of Inspiration®, 101 Pianists®, Young Scholars and Play It Forward®. He has also opened his own music school, Lang Lang Music World, in Shenzhen, China. His partnership with independent British music publisher Faber Music has resulted in the Lang Lang Piano Academy series of piano books to inspire today’s young pianists, including the Piano Book ‘Score Box’ deluxe edition.

Everything Lang Lang does is underpinned by his belief that ‘music makes life better – it heals, unites and inspires, and it makes us better people’. With this new Encore Edition, Lang Lang hopes to encourage fans old and new to explore classical music.

‘Sweet Dreams’ from Tchaikovsky’s Children’s Album

Stream and Download #PianoBook Encore Edition here

The Opus Klassik award is the successor to the retired Echo award for classical music in Germany. This is Lang Lang’s 11th time receiving the award for which he was the recipient across several categories in the past, including instrumentalist of the year, concerto recording, chamber music recording, and bestselling album.

Lang Lang says Für Elise is a work that everyone can appreciate and enjoy playing, which makes it a perfect piece to send ideas and inspire others to listen to classical music.

A gala dinner followed the concert, attended by the likes of Bradley Cooper, Alec and Hilaria Baldwin, Joshua Bell and John Paulson. The evening and its co-chairs helped to raise $3.7 million which will go directly to the philharmonic.

(Photo credit: New York Philharmonic)

Two days later, Lang Lang performed at the opening concert of the Vaduz Classic in Liechtenstein.

The article was also featured on the front page of The New York Times International Edition on July 27, 2019, with the headline: Piano superstar makes a triumphant return

The BLACK DIAMOND LIMITED EDITION’s pristine silhouette and sonorous tonality is the perfect match for an incomparable pianist who musically expresses the inexpressible. Dakota Jackson, the award-winning designer of this Steinway Limited Edition, takes inspiration from the theory that black diamonds are extraterrestrial in origin — the result of an exploding supernova.

Jackson views the BLACK DIAMOND’s brilliance and rarity as simpatico with the genius and spirit of virtuoso STEINWAY ARTIST Lang Lang.