Lang Lang (Chinese: 郎朗; pinyin: Láng Lǎng; born 14 June 1982) is a Chinese pianist who has performed with major orchestras around the world and appeared at many leading concert halls. Active since the 1990s, he was the first Chinese pianist to be engaged by the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic and many of the top American orchestras.[1] In 2000, a Chicago Tribune music critic called him "the biggest, most exciting young keyboard talent I have encountered in many a year of attending piano recitals."[2]
Early life and education
Lang Lang was born in Shenyang, China, in 1982 to a family of the ManchuNiohuru clan. His father Lang Guoren is a musician, playing the erhu.[3] Both his father and mother, also a musician, were displaced to work on rice farms in the country during the Cultural Revolution, before Lang was born.[4]
The Tom and Jerry episode The Cat Concerto, which features Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2., motivated two-year-old Lang to learn the piano.[5][6] He started lessons with Zhu Yafen at age three, won first place at the Shenyang Piano Competition and performed his first public recital when he was five.[7]
When Lang was nine, he was expelled from his piano tutor's studio for "lack of talent".[8][4] Lang has stated that upon learning of this, his father flew into a rage and told Lang that he "shouldn't live any more", ordering him to jump off the balcony of their 11th floor family apartment.[9][10] Another music teacher at his state school noticed Lang and asked him to play the second movement of Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 10, which reminded Lang of his love for the instrument.[8] Lang later studied under Zhao Ping-Guo at Beijing's Central Conservatory of Music.[11]
Lang has been noted by musicians and critics around the world—the conductor Jahja Ling remarked: "Lang Lang is special because of his total mastery of the piano... He has the flair and great communicative power."[14]National Public Radio's Morning Edition remarked: "Lang Lang has conquered the classical world with dazzling technique and charisma."[15] It is often noted that Lang successfully straddles two worlds—classical prodigy and rock-like "superstar", a phenomenon summed up by The Times (London) journalist Emma Pomfret, who wrote, "I can think of no other classical artist who has achieved Lang Lang's broad appeal without dumbing down."[16]
Lang's performance style was controversial when he stormed into the classical music scene in 1999. At that time, pianist Earl Wild called him "the J. Lo of the piano."[17] Others have described him as immature, but admitted that his ability to "conquer crowds with youthful bravado" is phenomenal among classical musicians.[18] His maturity in subsequent years was reported by The New Yorker: "The ebullient Lang Lang is maturing as an artist."[18] In April 2009, when Time magazine included Lang in its list of the 100 most influential people, Herbie Hancock described his playing as "so sensitive and so deeply human", commenting: "You hear him play, and he never ceases to touch your heart."[19]
In 2001, after a Carnegie Hall debut with Yuri Temirkanov, he traveled to Beijing with the Philadelphia Orchestra on a tour celebrating its 100th anniversary, during which he performed to an audience of 8,000 at the Great Hall of the People.[20] The same year, he made his BBC Proms debut, prompting a music critic of the British newspaper The Times to write, "Lang Lang took a sold-out Royal Albert Hall by storm... This could well be history in the making".[20] In 2003, he returned to the BBC Proms for the First Night concert with Leonard Slatkin. After his recital debut with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Berliner Zeitung wrote: "Lang Lang is a superb musical performer whose artistic touch is always in service of the music".[21] In 2004, Lang was featured in Radio Television Hong Kong's TV documentary Outstanding Young Chinese Musicians.However, recent reviews have been mixed. Lately, a plethora of music critics have protested against too much showmanship; not enough care; not enough sensitivity. But audiences continue to adore him. Lang has become one of those artists whose career prospers outside the boundaries of critical approval. The pianist is bemused by the backlash: "You get many good reviews from the beginning", he says, "and then the critics start criticising you. It's strange. The things they liked you for first—unique, fresh—they say is great. And then later they say you're too fresh, too unique. But they're the same thing!"[22]
He cancelled performances from March to July 2017, after injuring his left arm.[30][31]
White House state dinner
At the White House state dinner in honour of President of China Hu Jintao on 19 January 2011, one of the tunes Lang played was the song "My Motherland" from the movie Battle on Shangganling Mountain, a film about a Chinese victory in the Korean War. The song's lyrics include the line "We deal with wolves with guns", which in the film referred indirectly to the United States Army.[32][33] Although the tune is popular and has lost much of its political and historical significance in China,[34] the performance was interpreted by American conservatives as insulting the US.[35]
In response to the controversy, Lang denied that he intended to insult the United States.[36] He later released a statement stating that he "selected this song because it has been a favorite of mine since I was a child. It was selected for no other reason but for the beauty of its melody."[36] White House spokesperson Tommy Vietor also responded by saying "My Motherland" is "widely known and popular in China for its melody. Lang played the song without lyrics or reference to any political theme... any suggestion that this was an insult to the United States is just flat wrong."[37]
In July 2007, he played at a concert from the Teatro del Silenzio, Lajatico, Italy, hosted by Andrea Bocelli. He performed "Io ci sarò" with Bocelli, and Liszt's "Hungarian Rhapsody". The performance is available on a DVD entitled Vivere Live in Tuscany.[40]
In December 2007, Lang performed at the Nobel Prize concert in Stockholm.[39] Collaborating with Seiji Ozawa, he appeared at the New Year's Eve gala opening for the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing.[23] He also participated in the opening concert at Munich's Olympic Stadium with Mariss Jansons, marking the commencement of the 2006 FIFA World Cup,[41] and, in a celebratory concert held the night before the last match of the 2008 Euro Cup finals, Lang played with the Vienna Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta in front of Schönbrunn Palace.[42]
In 2008, an audience estimated at between one and four billion people saw Lang's performance in Beijing's opening ceremony for the 2008 Summer Olympics where he was promoted as a symbol of the youth and future of China.[43] During these games, he was also featured on the German TV network ZDF and made several appearances on NBC's The Today Show Summer Olympics broadcasts. In the opening ceremony, he performed a melody from the Yellow River Cantata with five-year-old Li Muzi.[44] Lang also collaborated with a German band, Schiller, to record "Time for Dreams", used to promote some coverage of the 2008 Olympics broadcast in Germany.
In 2009, he performed at Carnegie Hall accompanied by Marc Yu, a 10-year-old pianist and musical child prodigy from Pasadena, California, who made his Carnegie Hall debut at the event.[50]
Lang was featured in the award-winning German-Austrian documentary Pianomania,[51] which was directed by Lilian Franck and Robert Cibis. The film premiered theatrically in North America, Asia and throughout Europe, and is a part of the Goethe-Institut catalogue.[52]
In 2010, he was featured at the Carnegie Hall's China Festival and performed with the New York Philharmonic on New Year's Eve at Avery Fisher Hall.[53][54]
Lang's autobiography, Journey of a Thousand Miles, published by Random House in 8 languages, was released in the summer of 2008.[citation needed]Delacorte Press also released a version of the autobiography specifically for younger readers, entitled Playing with Flying Keys.
The Financial Times reported that Lang is "evangelical in his efforts to spread the popularity of classical music."[66] In October 2008, he launched the Lang International Music Foundation in New York with the support of the Grammys and UNICEF.[67][68] In May 2009, Lang and his three chosen scholars from the foundation—Charlie Liu, Anna Larsen, and Derek Wang, aged between eight and 10 years old—performed together on The Oprah Winfrey Show.[69]
In June 2011, Lang was engaged by Telefónica to make appearances concerning culture, technology, education and social commitment.[70]
On 28 October 2013, Lang was chosen by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to be a United Nations Messenger of Peace—a role he says is more important than his music because it can help improve the lives of children around the world through education.[72]
His Chopin Album on Sony Classical received the 2013 Echo Klassik Award.[73]
Lang has endorsed multiple P2P platforms, including those accused of peer-to-peer lending and illegal fundraising, such as 88 Wealth[74] and Solarbao.[75][76] These P2P platforms have been accused of illegal absorption of public deposits, fictitious investment projects, high-interest lending, and liquidity crises.[77][78][79] Lang has not promptly made public explanations or responses to the issues concerning these platforms, at the same time his company penalised administratively as he failed to publish required annual reports for three consecutive years.[74][80]
Personal life
Lang lives in Paris, France, where he married German-Korean[81] pianist Gina Alice Redlinger [de] in June 2019.[82][83] She gave birth to their first child in January 2021.[84]
^West, Philip; Levine, Steven I.; Hiltz, Jackie (1998), America's Wars in Asia: a Cultural Approach to History and Memory, Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe, p. 193, ISBN0-7656-0237-7
^Lang, Lang. 感谢各位亲朋好友来参加我的婚礼 [Thank you all for coming to my wedding]. Weibo (in Chinese (China)). Archived from the original on 3 December 2019. Retrieved 3 June 2019.
Hung, Eric (Winter–Spring 2009). "Performing "Chineseness" on the Western Concert Stage: The Case of Lang Lang". Asian Music. 40 (1): 141–148. doi:10.1353/amu.0.0019. JSTOR25501604.
Lang, Lang: "Lang Lang: playing with flying keys", Lang Lang with Michael French, introduction by Daniel Barenboim, New York: Delacorte Press, 2008, 215 p. ISBN978-0-385-73578-0
Pezzella, Patrizia: Una psicologa ascolta Lang Lang e incontra la musica classica, Milan, Archivio Dedalus Edizioni, 2015, ISBN9788897602170