When Lang Lang replaced the ailing Andre Watts at Chicago’s Ravinia Festival in 1999, the 17-year-old Chinese pianist knew before the final chord that the audience was his. Since then, he has bedazzled packed houses worldwide with his technical prowess and magnetic showmanship.
His second performance with the National Symphony Orchestra in as many months utilizes the bucolic setting of Wolf Trap to capture the influence of nature on Mozart’s Concerto No. 17 in G minor and the boundless Chinese landscape in the Yellow River Piano Concerto.
“I love playing outdoors because the entire program flows,” Lang says. “I like watching people enjoy themselves in a relaxed setting. The Mozart concerto is a really classy piece that’s always refreshing. The third movement is perfect for outdoors because Mozart was inspired by a crazy bird. See how it suits the atmosphere.”
Lang hums several measures to illustrate the bird’s gyrations before extolling the merits of his second choice for the evening, the Yellow River Piano Concerto, based on the Yellow River Cantata written by Xian Xinghai in 1939. “When I play Chinese music, it’s like the language I speak,” he says. “The great thing about this concerto is that it has a beautiful soul and brings people together because it’s so touching and emotional. It is to the Chinese as the ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ is to Americans because everyone knows it.”
According to Lang, the Yellow River Cantata was written during World War II, but in the 1960s, it was changed to a concerto. “The several composers who arranged it were Chinese, but — like Xinghai — they all graduated from the conservatory at Leningrad in the old Soviet Union,” he said. “For that reason, it has some of the flavor of Russian music.”
Lang epitomizes the definition of prodigy. From the age of 5, he performed professionally and won prestigious prizes. Instead of becoming homesick when he moved with his father to Philadelphia to study with Gary Grafman at Curtis Institute of Music, he thrived. “Gary was a great mentor and teacher,” Lang says. “We have much in common because he knows more about Chinese art that I do. It happened that he was in China when I was asked to play at Ravinia, and he called on the phone from there to encourage me. I was so happy in Philadelphia that I still have a home there and am now starting to teach master classes at Curtis.”
Lang is committed toencouraging young pianists in cities throughout the world by conducting outreach programs wherever he travels. His pride is evident as he talks about his appointment as a goodwill ambassador to UNICEF and the 20 million youngsters in his native China inspired by his example to study piano.
“The Chinese really get into the piano,” he said. “I performed in the People’s Great Hall in Beijing for the first time with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 2001. My greatest thrill was returning there in January of 2006 for the first piano recital ever in the history of the Great Hall. The acoustics aren’t the level of Carnegie Hall, but the honor is immense.”
IF YOU GO
Pianist Lang Lang joins the National Symphony Orchestra and conductor Long Yu
» Venue: Wolf Trap Filene Center
» Time: 8:15 p.m. Thursday
» Tickets: $30 to $42 in-house, $18 lawn; 1-877-965-3872, Tickets.com or wolftrap.org
» Information: 703-255-1893
