suitespot

Peter Burwasser on Classical

There are certain aspects of the astonishing career of Philadelphia-based pianist Lang Lang that naturally arouse cynicism. His public relations juggernaut overflows with superlatives, and the sales-starved recording industry is ever-ready to hype the next big thing. Also, there is his seemingly insatiable appetite for public favor, manifested by a growing repertoire of fabulously showy music by Liszt, Godowsky and even Horowitz arrangements, played with borderline maniacal glee, replete with the sort of theatrical mannerisms that everyone thought died out half a century ago.

When Lang Lang sat down to play at a benefit recital for his alma mater, Curtis, last Tuesday evening, he opened with music designed to allay potential suspicions. He was immediately successful. His Schumann- and Haydn-playing was rich of tone, boldly phrased and emotionally self-assured. This music comes to life when realized with intellect, poise and musical instinct, and Lang Lang brought all of those qualities to bear to the maximum extent. If he played nothing more than these two composers this evening, it would be possible to conclude that Lang Lang is, at the age of 21, already a master musician.

But of course, there was also the showy stuff, chiefly the giddy Don Juan Fantasy of Liszt, and the Wanderer Fantasy of Schubert, the most overtly virtuosic work by this ethereal, cerebral composer. All was dispatched with phenomenal élan. Lang Lang's programming bears an uncanny resemblance to that of one of his heroes, Vladimir Horowitz, who also played masterful Schumann and even Haydn before proceeding to the fire-breathing material. This seems to be the sort of career that the young man aspires to, and there is a hungry public eager to take it all in. Is he the next Horowitz? Of course not. That mold is permanently broken. And who would wish the bedeviling neuroses of Horowitz on anybody? Still, for those of us with long enough memories, it was hard to miss the double homage delivered in Lang Lang's encore of Schumann's Trumerei, a Horowitz favorite, which he touchingly dedicated to his teacher, Gary Graffman, who was himself a student of Horowitz.

I interviewed Lang Lang in 2000 (for Fanfare Magazine) while he was still in school, then living in a modest Spruce Street walkup, but with a major recording contract already under his belt. He told me at that time that I was his first English-language interviewer. In retrospect, this seems like a self-important observation, which only an ambitious, even calculating, person would make. In the years since, it is clear that Lang Lang possesses no little skill for image-making and business practices. More power to him; it doesn't make him any less of an artist. From this vantage point, he has the potential to become one of the greatest performers of his generation.