Last night, the Chinese pianist Lang Lang came to Vancouver for a sold-out one-night-only performance at the Orpheum Theatre. After watching a documentary detailing the life of his somewhat-rival Yundi Li, I was excited to finally see Lang Lang's talents. It's true, he had a short stint in the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony, but that wasn't nearly enough stage time to form an accurate opinion.
Battling through traffic to get to the concert (we had to contend with all the Madonna fans), we reached the theatre with enough time to read through the program and get settled in our seats. The audience welcomed Lang to the spotlight with warm applause, and without a word, he began playing the first movement of Schubert's Piano Sonata No. 20.
I was unpleasantly surprised by his choice of repertoire. I suppose he performed the sonata well, but I'm willing to bet that quite a few listeners were lulled to slumber during the piece. Yes, he was very showy with his body movements, but that wasn't able to capture attention due to the often-agonizingly-slow pace and grey melodies. It just wasn't a piece that was easy for the audience to connect with, unfortunately. Of course, it didn't help that the new Steinway wasn't projecting for whatever reason.
A brief intermission followed - and I bet that's when some people were drowsily getting out of their seats to refresh themselves for the rest of the night. When the bells tolled, we braced ourselves for the second half.
Now, I must confess that I'm not a fan of Bartok, but that doesn't mean that I cannot appreciate his music. Lang's next piece was Bartok's Sonata Sz. 80 and the moment I saw them bring in the shelf, my disappointment took over. In all my years of competitions and recitals, I had never before witnessed a professional soloist performing while reading the score. It was almost insulting - as if he hadn't prepared himself, or was caught off-guard out-of-practice. At this point, I hoped he would be able to somehow redeem himself before he left the stage, and I guarantee I wasn't the only one who was praying for a miracle.
Thankfully, he decided to close with Debussy and Chopin - crowd favourites. He chose a few preludes from Book I and II, including Minstrels (which noticeably drew smiles on a lot of faces) and La fille aux cheveux de lin. He alternated between darker selections (La cathédrale engloutie) and more cheery ones (Bruyères), so it was much easier to forge that spark of interest. His brush-like movements across the keys fitted the impressionistic harmonies, but he really gave his all in the last piece...
Lang Lang's best decision of the night was putting Chopin's "Heroic" Polonaise last. Everyone was brought to their feet as the majestic melody filled the theatre, painting glorious images with an essentially perfect performance. The standing ovation was a unanimous exclamation of "Finally! More please!"
And he didn't disappoint, electrifying the audience with two encores that, in hindsight, would have been excellent substitutions for the Schubert. Oh well, maybe next time. I wish I knew the names of the encore pieces, but the latter was written by a Chinese composer (with decidedly European influences) and probably not very well known outside of China.
Battling through traffic to get to the concert (we had to contend with all the Madonna fans), we reached the theatre with enough time to read through the program and get settled in our seats. The audience welcomed Lang to the spotlight with warm applause, and without a word, he began playing the first movement of Schubert's Piano Sonata No. 20.
I was unpleasantly surprised by his choice of repertoire. I suppose he performed the sonata well, but I'm willing to bet that quite a few listeners were lulled to slumber during the piece. Yes, he was very showy with his body movements, but that wasn't able to capture attention due to the often-agonizingly-slow pace and grey melodies. It just wasn't a piece that was easy for the audience to connect with, unfortunately. Of course, it didn't help that the new Steinway wasn't projecting for whatever reason.
A brief intermission followed - and I bet that's when some people were drowsily getting out of their seats to refresh themselves for the rest of the night. When the bells tolled, we braced ourselves for the second half.
Now, I must confess that I'm not a fan of Bartok, but that doesn't mean that I cannot appreciate his music. Lang's next piece was Bartok's Sonata Sz. 80 and the moment I saw them bring in the shelf, my disappointment took over. In all my years of competitions and recitals, I had never before witnessed a professional soloist performing while reading the score. It was almost insulting - as if he hadn't prepared himself, or was caught off-guard out-of-practice. At this point, I hoped he would be able to somehow redeem himself before he left the stage, and I guarantee I wasn't the only one who was praying for a miracle.
Thankfully, he decided to close with Debussy and Chopin - crowd favourites. He chose a few preludes from Book I and II, including Minstrels (which noticeably drew smiles on a lot of faces) and La fille aux cheveux de lin. He alternated between darker selections (La cathédrale engloutie) and more cheery ones (Bruyères), so it was much easier to forge that spark of interest. His brush-like movements across the keys fitted the impressionistic harmonies, but he really gave his all in the last piece...
Lang Lang's best decision of the night was putting Chopin's "Heroic" Polonaise last. Everyone was brought to their feet as the majestic melody filled the theatre, painting glorious images with an essentially perfect performance. The standing ovation was a unanimous exclamation of "Finally! More please!"
And he didn't disappoint, electrifying the audience with two encores that, in hindsight, would have been excellent substitutions for the Schubert. Oh well, maybe next time. I wish I knew the names of the encore pieces, but the latter was written by a Chinese composer (with decidedly European influences) and probably not very well known outside of China.
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