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Lang Lang (piano)
Piano Book
rec. 2018, National Centre for the Performing Arts, Beijing
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 479 7441 [72:32]

Lang Lang in impeccable white costume playing all those piano favourites in a recital that should be your only disc of this repertoire if you are on a tight budget – an enticing prospect no doubt, since he is the pianist everyone knows. But this is far from a mere top ten melodies ripped off in the stride, but a return to where he once started his illustrious career thirty years ago. The publicity shots and the general hullabaloo about the issue should not be taken at face value. This is in fact a very modest programme with some of the all-time gems – some of which he has never played in public before! – mixed with music by composers many of us haven’t even heard of before. All of it is highly accessible and could function very well as wallpaper background for some cosy conversation, but when concentrating on the music and the playing, one soon realises that here is artistic music making on the highest possible level. But it is the music that is in the foreground and not the personality of the artist.

Starting with the ubiquitous Prelude in C major from Das Wohltemperierte Clavier this is no plain finger exercise. It is played with a lot of sensitive dynamics that make you listen to the ebb and flow of the music. Beethoven’s Für Elise is likewise shaped with sensitive rubatos – the music breathes, one feels that it is humanly alive, it’s not a music box playing. This is one of the pieces he had never played in public before.

Several of the unknown pieces are by present day composers and the origin is often from soundtracks. Max Richter’s The Departure is one such – a nice little miniature to return to. Mendelssohn’s Spinning Song is swift and elegant – even more of a miniature in fact. But the piece that made the deepest impression was Debussy’s Clair de lune. I must have some two dozen recordings in a not too comprehensive collection of piano music, but this contemplative and – hesitant – reading in rather sombre colours was overwhelmingly magical. Even Walter Gieseking’s legendary recording, which hitherto has been my benchmark version, felt somewhat prosaic in comparison. Surprisingly perhaps he chooses Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum, the first piece from Children’s Corner instead of the concluding number from the suite, Golliwogg’s Cakewalk, which is more immediately catching. But his sensitive reading of Doctor Gradus may entice listeners to explore the whole suite, which of course is well worth the effort.

Chopin’s Raindrop prelude is another magical reading, Mozart’s Allegro from the C Major sonata K 545 is simple and elegant. This sonata was included in Lang Lang’s first ever recital programme when he was only five years old. Clementi and Czerny have long been relegated to providers of suitable music for piano exercises, but there is more about then only finger work and I believe inquisitive listeners, after hearing these two pieces, may be triggered to search out other works by them. Clementi’s Andante is a gem in all its simplicity. The Czerny Presto from The School of Velocity, is what it is supposed to be: A study in rapid finger work and over in 35 seconds.

I have to say that these soundtrack pieces are atmospheric and attractive. They all have imaginative titles and Lang Lang is keen to point out in the notes that “every piece has to have a story”. As a boy, he says, the story helped him to learn the music.

Of the remaining works Debussy’s Rêverie is again magical. It seems he has a special partiality for this composer’s tonal world. Sakamoto’s Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence is a quite substantial work and, I must admit, The Maiden’s Prayer has always been a favourite among the parlour pieces. Mozart’s well known Variations on “Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman” is also a work I return to with pleasure. Here I was particularly enthralled by the minor variation (tr. 28).

The encore is the G minor Minuet, previously attributed to J.S.Bach but composed by Christian Petzold. Again it is played with the utmost simplicity, a distinctive feature of Lang Lang’s playing. I have returned to this disc several times during the last few weeks and my positive impression from the first listening session remains: this is an utterly attractive recital.

Göran Forsling
 
Contents
Johann Sebastian BACH (1685 – 1750)
1. Prelude in C major BWV 846 (from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1) [2:19]
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770 – 1827)
2. Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor, “Für Elise” WoO 59 [3:26]
Max RICHTER (b. 1966)
3. The Departure [2:31]
Felix MENDELSSOHN (1809 – 1847)
4. Song Without Words in C major, “Spinning Song” Op. 67 No. 4 [1:49]
Claude DEBUSSY (1862 – 1918)
5. Clair de lune L. 75 No. 3 (from Suite bergamasque) [6:47]
6. Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum L. 113 No. 1 (from Children’s Corner) [2:48]
Frédéric CHOPIN (1810 – 1849)
7. Prélude in D flat major, “Raindrop” Op. 28 No. 15 [6:35]
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756 – 1791)
8. Allegro from Piano Sonata No. 16 in C major, “Sonata facile” K 545 [4:55]
Muzio CLEMENTI (1752 – 1832)
9. Andante (in F major) from Sonatina in C major Op. 36 No. 1 [1:32]
Carl CZERNY (1791 – 1857)
10. Presto Op. 299 No. 1 from The School of Velocity [0:35]
Yann TIERSEN (b. 1970)
11. La Valse d’Amélie from 6 Pieces for Piano Vol. 2 [2:50]
Claude DEBUSSY
12. Rêverie L. 68 [5:30]
Franz SCHUBERT (1797 – 1828)
13. Moment musical in F minor D 780 No. 3 [2:03]
Edvard GRIEG (1843 – 1907)
14. To Spring Op. 43 No. 6 from Lyric Pieces Book III [3:59]
Robert SCHUMANN (1810 – 1856)
15. Wilder Reiter Op. 68 No. 8 from Album für die Jugend [0:40]
Francis POULENC (1899 – 1963)
16. Staccato FP 65 No. 2, from Villageoises, Petits Pièces enfantines pour piano [0:44]
Hu-Wei HUANG (b. 1932)
17. The Merry Shepherd Boy [1:33]
Ryuichi SAKAMOTO (b. 1952)
18. Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence [5:36]
Tekla BADARZEWSKA-BARANOWSKA (1838 – 1861)
19. The Maiden’s Prayer Op. 4 [4:26]
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART
12 Piano Variations in C major on “Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman” K 265 (300e)
20. Thema [0:36]
21. Variation 1 [0:32]
22. Variation 2 [0:32]
23. Variation 3 [0:36]
24. Variation 4 [0:34]
25. Variation 5 [0:33]
26. Variation 6 [0:30]
27. Variation 7 [0:33]
28. Variation 8 [0:44]
29. Variation 9 [0:35]
30. Variation 10 [0:33]
31. Variation 11 [2:30]
32. Variation 12 [1:27]
Johann Sebastian BACH
33. Minuet in G major from Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach BWV Anh. 114 (App. D)
Composed by Christian Petzold (1677 – 1733)