Let’s have a quick flashback to a happier time, when all of us thought 2008 would be a simple year full of celebration. Below is the Chinese piano prodigy Lang Lang, performing the Yellow River Piano Concerto on Tiananmen Square. The date is 08/08/07, one full year before the start of the Beijing Olympics.
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S. says
Hate the “Dong Fang Hong” bit in the ending part but love The Internationale.
AC says
Great performance! I had a chance to go to one of Lang Lang’s rehearsals last year. Unlike formal performances, you get to see how he interacts with other performers, and you can get a feel of his personality. He didn’t behave like a big star at all, real nice kid. I had a brief chat with him during the break, it turned out his childhood piano teacher and my mom were acquaintances. When I shook his hand, I suddenly realized I was holding something special. It didn’t feel like a normal person’s hand, it’s really hard to describe it. Those hands are definitely a gift from God.
Nimrod says
AC, Lang Lang definitely behaves like a kid sometimes, when he has fun with his music!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b85hn8rJvgw
Anon says
I have mixed feeling towards Lang Lang’s performance. He is undoubtedly a gifted guy, but what he does with his talents leaves me cold. He works very hard at being super-bombastic and eccentric, but there is no range in his performance or to the feelings he expresses. It is meant to look cool and impressive and to make people feel proud of him, but is it good music? I once went to one of his concerts, and it was fun for half an hour or so, but the turgid, inflated style of performance becomes quite unbearable after a while. In classical music, sometimes “less is more.” As a point of reference of what you can do with a piano, take a look at one of the greater masters of the 20th century, Arturo Michelangeli:
http://tinyurl.com/3j8ydx
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