本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛Mar. 17, 2005. 12:35 AM



Yes, yes — Lang Lang has claim to greatness


WILLIAM LITTLER

Having failed to bring a stopwatch to Roy Thomson Hall last night, I can't swear to having heard a world record broken in the performance of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakoff's Flight of the Bumble Bee, but if Lang Lang didn't out-buzz Vladimir Horowitz he must have come pretty close.

The piano probably can't be played much faster than he played it on this occasion, his fingers barely touching the keys as he sped frantically to the double bar line. As a demonstration of Harry Potter-worthy keyboard wizardry, this bee-flight performance easily won the 22-year-old Chinese virtuoso his third ovation of the evening.

And this was only for his second encore. His Rachmaninov and his Liszt had already brought a near-capacity audience to its collective feet.

Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini was not an encore but the evening's major keyboard event, with the China Philharmonic Orchestra making its Canadian debut as Lang Lang's accompanist.

Critics haven't been universally enthusiastic about his Rachmaninov of late, or about his interpretations in general, in the wake of a notorious review by Anthony Tommasini in the New York Times accusing his recent playing of being "often incoherent, self-indulgent and slam-bang crass."

I didn't hear those qualities in last night's performances. I heard virtuosity of a breathtaking level, to be sure, but exhibited within appropriate musical parameters given the bravura nature of the music being performed.

The tempi chosen for the Rhapsody admittedly worked better for the piano than for the orchestra, which sometimes sounded a bit scrappy, trying to keep up. But the variations were individually characterized, the famous 18th variation was not milked for sentimental effect and the playing overall sounded musically on target.

As it happens, Rachmaninov was the first composer I heard this prodigiously talented young man play. It was the summer of 2000, he was still a teenager and his performance of the Russian composer's Third Piano Concerto turned an entire Chicago Symphony audience at the Ravinia Festival into a cheering chorus.

I felt at that time that I had heard one of the great keyboard talents of the present generation. My opinion has not changed. His return to Roy Thomson Hall this fall to play Chopin's E minor Concerto with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra promises to be one of the musical events of the coming season.

As for the China Philharmonic Orchestra, at the precocious age of five it offered impressive testimony in support of the rising musical standards now being achieved in the world's most populous nation.

Back in the late 1970s, when the Toronto Symphony Orchestra visited the People's Republic, even Beijing's well-known Central Philharmonic sounded like a local institution. This new orchestra played with a high level of discipline and a clear right to be heard internationally.

Long Yu, its founding artistic director and a musician of considerable European experience, may have opted for square-cut rhythms in Rimsky Korsakov's Overture to The Tsar's Bride and a fast and loud approach to Arnold Schoenberg's orchestration of Brahms' Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Major, but he seems to be a good orchestral trainer, with an ability to draw out and shape large volumes of sound.

Those hoping for a burnished sound in the Brahms may have felt somewhat disappointed. His orchestra sounded bright, tense and rather hard-toned, eager to play with maximum physical impact.

Then again, it can't be relaxing, keeping company with Lang Lang.
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