Lang Lang Takes Christmas Eve – And Talks Alicia Keys, Remixing Liszt and Snubbing the White House
It’s as if he’s pressing arteries instead of fingering keys – looking not for a melody but a pulse that drives the song. As Lang Lang flails and practically pants at the piano to resuscitate old concertos, fans say the Shenyang born virtuoso makes classical music look as compelling as it’s ever sounded – a sight that hundreds of fans will get a chance to glimpse during his Christmas Eve performance at the MasterCard Center. But in a telephone interview with The Beijinger Lang said his energetic performing isn’t meant to revive aged symphonies or make them fit for modern times. Below he answers our questions and reveals, among other things, why he couldn’t care less whether or not you care for classical music.
Why is your body language an important part of your performance, how does that help you make compositions by Beethoven and your hero Franz Liszt more accessible?
My goal is not to make classical music interesting. When I perform I don’t move my body just because the audience likes it. People find it more interesting when they watch, but when I was a kid I always played this way. It’s in my genes, it’s very natural.
As a boy, what part of your training was unnatural? I’ve read you had little time for sports, not only because of piano practice but because such games are considered dangerous for musicians’ hands.
That’s true, so when people played basketball with me they never gave me a hard time, they just let me be free. It was not competitive at all.
Was that condescending?
No it was fine because I’m not very good in sports anyway (laughs). A lot of my classmates were also musicians so they knew it was very important because, if you’re not careful, you may have an injury and can’t play piano for half a year.
That doesn’t sound like the boy I read about, who had to outperform other young piano players at the Conservatory.
Yeah, I was very competitive on the piano. But when you grow up you know that you just need to be better. I’m more competitive with myself now, more critical with myself.
How do you take criticism, like the pundits that said you snubbed America by performing the Korean War anti-U.S. anthem “My Motherland,” at the White House state dinner earlier this year?
I was angry, you shouldn’t be angry I guess, but obviously it was a total misunderstanding of what I was doing. I’m a musician, and for us playing is bringing everybody’s hearts together. We want to break the culture barriers down.
What musical barriers do you hope to break in the studio or onstage soon?
I’m doing an album with Herbie Hancock next. We are looking at having Alicia Keys and Jennifer Hudson sing on it, so we will have some really nice collaboration. The same thing will happen at the Christmas Eve concert in Beijing. When I perform Liszt’s concertos there will be crossover songs with my good friend (pop singer) JJ Lin (Jun Jie Lin). We will actually adapt some of the classical melodies to JJ’s songs.
You said making classical music accessible isn’t a priority, but how do these kinds of collaborations push its boundaries?
Herbie’s a master of improvisation. As classical musicians we need to learn those beautiful feelings. Of course we have great feelings too, but in a more set form, in a score we’ve already conquered. Before, I was scared of improvisation – with my strict classical training, I always had to memorize all the music. But when I stared to perform with Herbie, I started to learn those beautiful, amazing spiritual colors.
Catch Lang Lang's "amazing spiritual colors" at the MasterCard Center on Dec 24. For ticketing information call 6417 7845, 400 610 3721 or visit www.piao.com.cn.
