SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Mozart, Schumann, Traditional Chinese, Granados, Wagner/Liszt, Liszt:  Lang Lang (piano). Royal Festival Hall 26.11. 2007 (CC)

A glimmer of hope shone over the South Bank on this particular Monday evening. Ever since his early concertising days in London (usually at the Wigmore Hall), I have been tracking Lang Lang's career. The promise of these early recitals, plus an early Telarc disc, led me to suggest he was destined for great things as a pianist. 'As a pianist' being the important bit: not as a style icon, a GQ lad with spiky hair, but as a bona fide musician. Low points came in the shape of a Rachmaninov disc and a 2005 recital that I headed 'Whatever has happened to Lang Lang?'

The glitter on Lang Lang's jacket did not, I admit, bode well. As he sparkled his way to the piano, my heart sank. And yet most of his Mozart B flat Sonata, K333 implied something of a turnaround. Certainly, the first movement was rather romanticised (repeat included, though) and robbed of grandeur. But there was grace and charm to the Andante cantabile (Lang enjoyed the dissonances of the suspensions) and the finale had real wit and excellent control of touch. A shame he rushed the approach to the cadenza, but there was enough here to suggest a reconsideration might be in order. To invoke intimacy in a packd Festival Hall is no easy matter.

The Schumann Fantasie in C is one of the great challenges every pianist must face. The opening here was a wash of notes, yet not a mush of notes. Again, it was intimacy that was the performance's strong point (the reverse of expectations), yet here it was coupled with real structural integrity. Lang understood that the nature of this piece is implied freedom  under the control of a master composer, so that structure was always comprehensible. The bass end could have been richer toned, it is true, but on the plus side the quirkiness of the March was realised and the terrifying technical passage of leaps came off well. Lang Lang even stopped premature applause. A pity there was some over-projection in the finale, but not enough to mar a most enjoyable performance. Two things, though: this was an excellent account as long as one did not look at Lang. The showmanship has not as yet exited that part of his playing, and many gestires are superflous; secondly, the Schumann was expresively remarkably similar to the Mozart. Something amiss there, surely?

There was a non-announced rearrangement of pieces post-interval, with Lang introducing a group of six traditional Chinese works arranged for piano. Lang's devotion to the music of his own country is most laudable (his disc Dragon Songs, DG 477 6229, being just one example) and his love of this music came across strongly in performance. There was a French influence to 'The Moonlight reflection on the lake during Autumn', and a Bachian one to 'A boy with a flute' (which was announced as arguably the first Chinese piano composition!)  'Spring Dance' evinced a Central Asian influence, while the chase of 'A Man chased by Colourful Clouds' was graphic, almost cartoony. The final chirpy 'Happy Days' was an appropriately applause-generating way to close.

It was perhaps surprising to find Lang turning his hands to the headier climes of Spain in Granados' 'Los requiebros' , which similarly uses folk music (this time an Andalusian tonadilla). Lang's rendition had a nice swagger to it, an equally nice turn of phrase, delicacy and racy Lisztian tendencies towards the end. It would be good to hear more of his Granados.

Talking of Liszt, it was that very master who towered over the final pieces. The Wagner/Liszt Liebestod began with very hard-touched chording (the several chords Liszt adds before the Wagner proper begins). Lines were well shaped throughout, although there was some over-projection at what would have bene the line, 'Stern umstrahlet'. The climax was well timed, although the crescendo-diminuendo that reflects the World's breathing was unaccountably played down. I also remain unsure whether the final tremolandos were meant to sound like a cimbalom …

And finally, a Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody (No. 6) and with it a renaissance for the glitter on Lang's jacket, for this was Lang back to acting the showman forgetting that this is great music he was playing.  (To find out how it should be done, albeit with more wrong notes, try Mark Hambourg on APR7040). Lang's sound was not the huge variety required for this piece, for one thing, but much more disturbing was the descent of the music into Liberace territory. Curiously unexciting, this amounted to a ridicule of Liszt's genius and was a sad note (or lorryload of notes) on which to end a recital which, for the most part, pointed towards a reappraisal of this still young pianist.

Colin Clarke

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