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发表于 2009-04-29 01:42
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http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/d369adac-333c-11de-8f1b-00144feabdc0.htmlLang Lang, Barbican, LondonBy Richard Fairman
Published: April 27 2009 22:54 | Last updated: April 27 2009 22:54
First the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra spends an electrifying week on the South Bank, then pianist Lang Lang follows straight afterwards with a week’s residency at the Barbican. Audiences in London could be forgiven for staggering about frazzled, as if they had spent the past fortnight with their fingers plugged into an electric socket.
In terms of firing up young people, both delivered the goods. As well as several concerto appearances, Lang Lang’s week in the City included an all-day extravaganza for 100 aspiring pianists and an interview streamed over the internet, before concluding with this solo recital on Sunday.
After so much exertion, China’s star pianist might have been forgiven for letting his hair down with an evening of encores. That was clearly what the audience was hoping, but Lang Lang had other ideas. His programme was one of high seriousness – no glitzy jacket, no guest turn from his father, as is usual, just some rather challenging masterpieces from the piano repertory.
He started with Schubert’s big A Major Sonata, a late work that feels its way into some very dark corners. Lang Lang has tended to be at his least reliable in the music of the early German romantics, but there was a good deal to admire here whenever he found his most mollifying, seductive tone. Sometimes the manner was still too strident, though even that might be justified at the bleak end of the slow movement, where Schubert seems to reach the abyss and peer over. Whether the audience wanted to be taken there was another matter – they fidgeted and coughed all the way through.
Here is the real challenge for Lang Lang. He has won the biggest following of any living pianist, but when he tries to play them something serious, they do not want to listen. The audience was just as restless through the second half – Bartók’s Piano Sonata, played with wild aggression, and then a selection of Debussy’s Préludes, often magical – until he arrived at the evening’s only real showpiece, Chopin’s A Flat Polonaise. Maybe Lang Lang sensed their impatience and that was why he went so grotesquely over the top. Having the technique to play so loud and fast can be as much a curse as a blessing. ★★★☆☆
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Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
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