LANG LANG PLAYS DISNEY / Review

 

LANG LANG PLAYS DISNEY

The Star Theatre

Saturday (14 June 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 16 June 2025 with the title "Lang Lang and Disney make for crowd-pleasing combination".

Anybody growing up watching Disney’s animated movies will have been enchanted by the catchy songs and melodies. Now imagine a Disney song-book creatively transcribed, sumptuously orchestrated and turned into a multi-movement piano concerto with solos aplenty. Lang Lang Plays Disney with the Orchestra of the Music Makers conducted by Joshua Tan ticked all the boxes.

Photo: Yong Junyi

The Chinese pianist has become such a universal piano icon that any departure from actual classical music would not be considered selling out but rather expanding his repertoire and reach, not to mention bank balance. And he has the charisma to convincingly pull off any music from Bach to Bartok, or from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) to Soul (2024), and pretty much everything in between.

His versatility in various popular musical styles were demonstrated in the solo transcriptions, including We Don’t Talk About Bruno (Encanto, 2021), The Bare Necessities (The Jungle Book, 1967), Feed The Birds (Mary Poppins, 1964), Who’s Afraid of Big Bad Wolf (Three Little Pigs, 1933) and It’s A Small World (1964). For these shorts, a Lisztian level of technical virtuosity was summoned and duly delivered.

Accompanied by orchestra were the concertante pieces, which worked like movements of a piano concerto, encompassing the songs Beauty and the Beast (1991), Can You Feel The Love Tonight (The Lion King, 1994) and Let It Go (Frozen, 2013).

Photo: Yong Junyi

In order for sound to traverse the capacious 5000-seat Star Theatre, both pianist and orchestra were amplified to jarringly uncomfortable levels of loudness. While this certainly would not have done for Beethoven, it seemed almost necessary for Disney.

Photo: Yong Junyi

For the sake of variety, guest musicians were invited and accompanied by Lang. Chinese erhu exponent Yimiao Chen starred in Reflection (Mulan, 1998) while guitarist Daryl Tay had a cameo in Remember Me (Coco, 2017). Vocalist Preston Lim touched hearts in You’ll Be In My Heart (Tarzan, 1999) and sang in idiomatic Spanish in Dos Oruguitas (Two Caterpillars, from Encanto). Also very impressive was jazz-singer Syakirah Noble who had the full measure of It’s All Right (Soul).

Photo: Yong Junyi

Most touching was seeing Lang partnering his wife of six years, German-Korean pianist Gina Alice Redlinger as she sang When You Wish Upon A Star (Pinocchio, 1940), after which she herself turned accompanist for Lim. In between instrumental and vocal numbers were orchestral suites featuring the young but very experienced orchestra, shining in medleys of favourite tunes from The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), Aladdin (1992) and Tangled (2010).

Photo: Yong Junyi

At the end, a birthday cake was wheeled onstage as this evening marked Lang’s 43rd birthday to the day. The two-and-a-half-hour concert concluded with three generous solo encores. This included Rainbow Connection (The Muppet Movie, 1979), and to show he had not forsaken his classical background, Franz Liszt’s Liebestraum No.3 and Manuel de Falla’s Ritual Fire Dance.

Miked and milked to the max, the last work was the last word in vulgarity, but when all are having a good time, nobody really cared.

Photo: Yong Junyi

CD Review (The Straits Times, September 2019)

PIANO BOOK
LANG LANG, Piano
Deutsche Grammophon 479 8109 1 / ***

In his latest album, Chinese piano phenom Lang Lang has gone back to basics, playing pieces he learnt as a child. There are some no-brainers which open this 72 minute anthology, such as J.S.Bach’s Prelude in C major from Book One of The Well-Tempered Clavier and Beethoven’s immortal Für Elise. He plays these easy pieces with simplicity and finesse.

However in the very familiar 1^st movement of Mozart’s Sonata Facile in C major (K.545), he attempts some ornamentations which get annoying on repeated listening. Debussy’s Clair de lune comes across as being just too slow, while Tekla  Bardazewska-Baranowska’s The Maiden’s Prayer sounds banal whoever is playing. Surely, Mozart’s Variations on Ah, vous dirai-je Maman (Twinkle Twinkle Little Star) is beyond the technique of piano beginners, as is Mendelssohn’s Spinning Song and Debussy’s Gradus Ad Parnassum (Children’s Corner Suite).

Surely he would not have known of pieces by Max Richter, Yann Tiersen or Ryuichi Sakamoto growing up in Shenyang, but the Japanese film composer’s Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence receives a grandstanding rendition.

The Super Deluxe edition of this album runs onto two discs and includes a handsome hardcover book of scores and personal insights, with some 29 pieces in all. This is not a terrible album, but one cannot help feel it could have been much better.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, November 2015)

CARTE BLANCHE

MARTHA ARGERICH (Piano) et al

Deutsche Grammophon 479 5096 (2 CDs) 
***** 

Concerts are one-in-a-lifetime events, but some linger long in the memory because of the sheer artistry and passion displayed by the artists involved. One such concert took place at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland on 27 July 2007, with Argentina-born pianist Martha Argerich holding court in all but four minutes of its two and a half hours. 

Here she had selected her partners and the works to be performed, essentially a “carte blanche” or blank cheque for the programme. And what a musical feast it proved to be! Her only solo was to be in Schumann's Kinderszenen (Scenes From Childhood), a speciality which she treats with much tenderness.

The spirit of chamber music reigns in Beethoven's Ghost Trio (Op.70 No.1) with violinist Julian Rachlin and cellist Mischa Maisky, a sizzling performance matched by the folk-inspired dissonance of Bartok's Violin Sonata No.1, with violinist Renaud Capucon, and Lutoslawski's Paganini Variations for 2 pianos, with an equally energised Gabriela Montero. 

Lyricism comes in Schubert's Arpeggione Sonata where Yuri Bashmet's viola replaces the customary cello, and Lang Lang in deferential good behaviour as piano partner to Argerich for Schubert's Grande Rondeau (D.951) and Ravel's Mother Goose Suite. The concert ends with Montero playing an improvised Happy Birthday to Maisky’s daughter Lily, much to the delight of the audience. This is a “wish you were there” kind of album that thrills and pleases. 

DECCA SOUND: THE MONO YEARS

Decca 478 7946 (53 CDs) / *****

Why do music-lovers still listen to monaural recordings when modern stereophonic and digital sound exists? Back in the 1940s, there were 78 rpm shellacs, which played for four and a half minutes per side. Then came long-playing 33 rpm long-playing records (or LPs) which were boon as one could hear an entire symphony by Mozart or Haydn uninterrupted. 

There were fewer orchestras and recording artists then, so that answer has to be the passionate performances themselves, which have never dimmed over the decades. This Decca retrospective of recordings from 1944 to 1956 pays tribute to its patented Full Frequency Range Recordings (ffrr), which still sound vivid to this day. The pre-1948 recordings are drawn from earlier 78s, which eventually gave way to the LP, whose era ended in the mid-1980s.

The roster of artists is stellar, including conductors Ernest Ansermet (Stravinsky's Petrushka), Erich Kleiber (Beethoven's Ninth Symphony) and the young Georg Solti (Bartok, Kodaly & Haydn), pianists Clifford Curzon (Brahms Piano Concerto No.1) and Friedrich Gulda (Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata) and Moura Lympany (Rachmaninov and Khachaturian concertos), violinists Alfredo Campoli, Christian Ferras and Ruggiero Ricci. 

The playing is at an exalted level. This wonderful collection could be listened to straight through or sampled piecemeal, either of which would be immensely rewarding.      

LANG LANG IN PARIS

Sony Classical 88875117582 / ****

So the Chinese phenomenon goes to Paris, but he does not play a single bar of French music in his latest album. Instead, this double disc set showcases Chopin's Four Scherzos and the twelve short pieces that make up Tchaikovsky's The Seasons. A looser interpretation of the title allows for the facts that the Polish Chopin had French ancestry and settled in France for good, and the Russian Tchaikovsky was a Francophone and Francophile.

Some bad habits which plagued Lang's performances of Chopin's four Ballades in Singapore linger, like banging, ear-catching accents and deliberate rubatos for their own sake. The First Scherzo suffers the most, but thankfully it improves with the other three. The Tchaikovsky pieces, each corresponding to the months of a calendar year, fares better. 

Each is well characterised, such as the popular Barcarolle (June), Autumn Song (October) and Troika (November). Even if certain liberties are taken to stretch out the music, these do not come across as crass. Devotees need not hesitate because like Horowitz, Lang Lang's marketing machinery and celebrity status has become a rule to his own. 

Photographs from SING50 CONCERT at the National Stadium

Has there been a bigger concert of Singapore music than the Sing50 Concert held on Friday 7 August 2015 at the National Stadium? Presented by The Straits Times and Business Times as a gift to the nation, a capacity audience was greeted by two and a half hours of Singaporean popular music, featuring hits performed by some of the most iconic local musicians past and present, and some well-heeled guests. 

It wasn't Woodstock, but attempts were made to connect Singaporeans with their particular brand and blend of music that ruled the airwaves and stages from the 1950s to the present. This historic concert could be summed in two words: bloody noisy.

A tribute to Malay pop music. 

Icons of yesteryear: Malay pop diva Rahimah Rahim
and indie rocker X'Ho (Chris Ho)

Music from the younger generation,
songsters and MICappella.

Jazz singers Melissa Tham & Jacinta
accompanied by Jeremy Monteiro.

Jazz divas Mel T, Ja & Rani Singham.

The ageless Tracy Huang with Feelings.
The audience lights up with their handphone lights.

A medley by the King of Musicals, Dick Lee.

Ravers on stage, whatever that was.

Mandopop star JJ Lin,
who was later paired with Lang Lang.

The "classical" highlight of the evening:
Kelly Tang's Three Movements for
51 pianos and Orchestra.

The infamous Red Steinway was commandeered
by Lang Lang, here partnered by the
Metropolitan Festival Orchestra.

The 2nd movement Elegy was dedicated to the memory of
Founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew
(the Singapore royal family pictured above).

The 50 Lang Lang Steinway baby grands
final get to see some action!

Lang Lang with conductor Chan Tze Law.

Singapore's highest grossing Mando-pop star
Stefanie Sun gets to sing with a full orchestra.
Its not the SSO but the MFO.

A melange of pop songs, remembering
the days of Talentime.

The Grand Finale.

The National Stadium's version of
an indoor fireworks display.

The National Anthem:
Majulah Singapura.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, January 2015)

ALL THE THINGS YOU ARE

LEON FLEISHER, Piano left hand

Bridge 9429 / ****1/2

For the most part of his later career, the American pianist Leon Fleisher was afflicted with focal dystonia which seriously curtailed the use of his right hand. Although he has now returned to performing the piano with both hands, this disc is a sample programme of his left handed repertoire, including new works dedicated to him. It opens with Brahms’s transcription of Bach’s Chaconne in D minor, a simpler and more faithful version of the original violin classic than the better-known Busoni conflation. Fleisher’s control and authority is immediately apparent, where the left hand’s ability of crafting both melody and harmony simultaneously gives the illusion of polyphony.

Written specially for him are Leon Kirchner’s L.H.(1995), George Perle’s three atonal Musical Offerings (1997-98, for his 70^th birthday) and Dina Koston’s Thoughts Of Evelyn (2000), which receive definitive readings. Less astringent are Federico Mompou’s Prelude No.6 and two transcriptions of popular songs. Earl Wild’s alternative take on Gershwin’s Embraceable You, conceived as a virtuoso étude, and Stephen Prutsman’s reworking of Jerome Kern’s All The Things You Are are bound to raise a smile in this hour-long anthology. Recommended for all committed pianophiles.

THE MOZART ALBUM

LANG LANG, Piano

Vienna Philharmonic / NIKOLAUS HARNONCOURT

Sony Classical 888430825321 (2CDs) / ***

After the unmitigated successes of his Liszt and Chopin albums, Lang Lang’s take on Mozart comes with a more qualified recommendation. It appears that Artur Schnabel’s adage that “Mozart is too simple for amateurs, and too difficult for professionals” applies here; the Chinese phenom does not always seem to know what to do with Mozart. In Piano Concerto No.24 in C minor (K.491), dawdling pacing inflates the work to about 33 minutes, but is redeemed by Piano Concerto No.17 in G major (K.453), which is free-flowing and cheery. Little wonder that veteran conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt is quoted in a Gramophone interview referring to Lang’s “very open spirit and unmoulded musicality”, probably an euphemism for “unformed musical mind”.

In three of Mozart’s sonatas, there are more extremes in dynamics. He is plodding in the 1^st movement of the E flat major Sonata (K.282) but speeds up the finale as if to compensate. He takes an epic view of the A minor Sonata (K.310), which means playing very loud, emphatically and clamping on the sustaining pedal. Only the G major Sonata (K.283) remains relatively unscathed. There are four short encores, crisply dispatched for the first three but a crude and aggressive Rondo Alla Turca sticks sorely in the mind long after the music has ended. Hold on to your Andras Schiff and Mitsuko Uchida recordings; this one is mostly for Lang Lang diehards. 

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, January 2014)

RACHMANINOV Symphony No.1

Piano Concerto No.1

YEVGENY SUDBIN, Piano

Singapore Symphony Orchestra / SHUI LAN

BIS 2012 / *****

       

With this album, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra completes its cycle of Rachmaninov’s three symphonies. This is also the finest of the three recordings as Shui Lan and his charges, having worked on the Russian romantic’s music over the years, have his early rough and ready style spot on. The First Symphony in D minor was abandoned by Rachmaninov after its disastrous premiere in 1897, but was rediscovered and pieced together after his death. A raw diamond, this is his most original utterance despite its apparent flaws. Its brooding Slavic temperament, built upon the “vengeance motif” and influences from the Russian Orthodox church also are most palpable here.

Its existence puts into perspective Rachmaninov’s final work Symphonic Dances, which now sounds like the epilogue of a journey which this work fitfully started. Listen to the music’s sheer vehemence, paradoxical tenderness and vulnerability, all captured in a broad sweep of its four movements by the SSO. The coupling is also excellent, with young Russian virtuoso Yevgeny Sudbin making his mark in the early and lyrical First Piano Concerto (revised in 1917), a recording comparable with the best in the catalogue.

PROKOFIEV Piano Concerto No.3

BARTOK Piano Concerto No.2

LANG LANG, Piano

Berlin Philharmonic / SIMON RATTLE

Sony Classical 88883732252 / ****1/2

       

This is Lang Lang’s first concerto disc for the Sony Classical label, and rare recorded excursion into music more modern than Rachmaninov. Both he and his famous partners have definite if not conventional ideas for the Prokofiev Third Piano Concerto. Running over half an hour, this is one of the slower versions of the work. Most play for about 28 minutes, while the composer himself clocked in under 25 minutes. This was achieved by deliberately slowing down certain sections in all movements while keeping the fast-paced pages up to speed. The grotesquery inherent in Prokofiev’s score invites latitude of interpretations, exploited here to the full without resorting to caricature.

If there is any pianist who could actually popularise Bartok’s Second Piano Concerto, the thorniest of the Hungarian composer’s trilogy, that might be Lang Lang. Their take is a tad leisurely at 30 minutes, but there is little sense of lagging behind. Instead the clarity of articulation in its neoclassical pages coupled with an overriding virtuosity is hard to ignore. The music’s primal rawness and aggressive edge is retained, but polished to a fine sheen in this recording. Who would have thought that Bartok could sound this friendly? It is imperative that these same forces get to bring out Prokofiev’s Second and Bartok’s Third piano concertos as well.

LANG LANG IN RECITAL / Review

LANG LANG IN RECITAL

Esplanade Concert Hall

Saturday (30 November 2013)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 2 December 2013 with the title "Lang Lang plays by his own rules".

Ever since his meteoric rise to fame and fortune over the last dozen years, Chinese pianist Lang Lang has polarised opinion among audiences and critics. One either adores or loathes him, but what is undeniable is his drawing power and ability to work a crowd.

Such was the gift of late classical superstars like pianist Vladimir Horowitz and tenor Luciano Pavarotti, who had their fair share of supporters and detractors. Lang’s solo recital, his second in Singapore, would provide more points of contention.

The many faces of Lang Lang.

The choice of three Mozart sonatas on a trot was unusual, and he was on his best behaviour. Well almost. In the early G major (K.283) and E flat major (K.282) sonatas, he coaxed a lovely cantabile aided by generous pedalling, which flowed like oil. By contrast, the dramatic A minor sonata (K.310) was driven with sheer single-mindedness, capped by a thrilling development to boot.

His tendency to linger in the slow movements and then race ahead in the finales highlighted extremes in contrasts. Exaggerating accents and phrases in unexpected places were ear-catching for certain, providing the twists and turns one would expect in a roller-coaster. At least these finales were well characterised, joyous in K.283, by turn comedic in K.282, and breathlessly urgent in K.310.

One marvelled at how relaxed and composed Lang was. He literally strolled on stage, raising his hands in acknowledgement of the audience, including those seated back in the choir gallery. He played seated far from the keyboard and leaned backwards a lot. His free hand would theatrically command a life of its own, as if conducting an imaginary orchestra in the air. Piano playing was without doubt another form of show business. 

Chopin’s Four Ballades was fertile ground for more show-boating. Ballade No.1 swung like a pendulum between dawdling protractedness and furious prestidigitation. His facility to do as he pleased was the most striking feature. Much better were the middle pieces, the contrasts in Ballade No.2 were perfectly judged while the inner voices of Ballade No.3 were wonderfully realised.

Ballade No.4, arguably Chopin’s greatest essay, was a mirror image of the first. However the slow and gradual build-up had a purpose; the coda unwound furiously like a coiled spring for a brilliant grandstanding close. The audience erupted in feverish frenzy and a standing ovation, no doubt further stoked by two encores, played ridiculously fast.

What a standing ovation looks like.

Sebastian Vettel has nothing on Lang’s Mozart Turkish Rondo, and has Chopin Grand Waltz (Op.18) ever sounded this scintillating or vulgar? Conservatory students who play like this will be ask to desist or risk failure, but Lang Lang has become a law to his own. By this token, he deserves the epithet once applied to the unforgettable Horowitz. That is “unique”.     

 

LL acknowledges the audience.
(Photo: S.Kol, Paris)

Time to say goodbye.

Photographs by the kind courtesy of Steinway Gallery Singapore, Singapore Symphonia Co.Ltd and S. Kol, Paris.