lang lang concert recap

I think it would be safe to say that Lang Lang’s Portland Oregon Symphony debut was a triumph.  The roar that came from the sold-out crowd at the Schnitz at the conclusion of the Rachmaninoff Second Piano Concerto was well nigh deafening, such was the response from the audience.  I can’t say that I’ve ever heard such a thing in my 13 years with the OSO.

Some people describe Lang Lang as the 21st century Liberace, and I think that isn’t quite the case.  Rather than being a put on act, it seems as though Lang’s performing movements are grounded in the music, rather than in any sense of theatrics.

Lang’s sound on the Steinway is nothing short of amazing – I haven’t heard anything like it from my vantage point of 3 feet from the end of the paino before.  His sound has such fullness, roundness, and softness of attack – but it’s combined with a nearly endless amount of power that seems effortless for him to produce.  His ability to produce seamless crescendi on an instrument that only attacks and decays is incredible, recalling to my mind the uncanny control of sound that Leon Fleischer or Artur Rubenstein were able to command.

As for his interpretation of the Rachmaninoff, I’m sure that it would have offended some purists with its pretty extreme changes of tempo and often willful disregard of some of the tempo markings (such as the opening).  But I find that there are often two distinct types of artists, both of whom produce relevatory interpretations.

The first is in the vein of Rudolf Serkin: the servants of the composer.  They follow markings slavishly, trying to dig within the printed score to find what the composer intended to convey.  To them, the composer’s markings are paramount, and to ignore them is to do the composer a great disservice.  Words like Apollonian, crystalline, and steely are often applied to these artists.

The second type is the explorer.  They consider what the composer has written to be the jumping off point for further exploration.  Leonard Bernstein would be the prime example of the explorer.  How this type of performer departs from the written notes (in terms of tempo, dynamics, etc.) can often tell us a great deal about the composer’s original intentions, and remind us that, though the composer set down markings that are literally engraved in metal – his own interpretations of his own works would continue to change and grow through subsequent performances.

Lang Lang is definitely an explorer.  His opening of the concerto – much, much slower than normally played, and with interestingly voiced versions of the chords that we all know so well – was a revelation to me.  I had never really thought much about the opening of the concerto, and what it might mean in the context of the rest of the piece.  To me, that makes it a successful interpretive gambit, and worth repeating.

As an encore, Lang Lang played a lovely Chopin work (I did not find out the title) with grace, exquisite timing and that gorgeous sound with its glowing patina of warmth.

I hope we have him back again soon.