Chopin: The Piano Concertos - Harry Potter 6 Books

Track Listing

1. I Allegro maestoso
2. II Romance: Larghetto
3. III Rondo: Vivace
4. I Maestoso
5. II Larghetto
6. III Allegro vivace

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4482 in Music
• Released on: 2008-09-09
• Number of discs: 1

Album Description
The long-awaited and highly anticipated recording of Lang Lang performing Chopin's Piano Concertos nos. 1 & 2 has arrived. Both concertos are among the most beloved in the repertoire and Lang Lang's many concert performances frequently receive the highest praise. Lang Lang is joined by Zubin Mehta and the Vienna Philharmonic in a brilliant pairing of talent and temperament. This is sure to become a benchmark recording of these beloved concertos. Lang Lang has sold over 100,000 CDs in the US alone and will be on tour September to November throughout the US, including many performances of the Chopin concertos.

The Washington Post
"Lang Lang is a phenomenon, no doubt about it."

Los Angeles Times
"Lang Lang went about the entire piece [Chopin Piano Concerto no. 1] in a gentle, velvety way, rippling beautiful chromatic passages with a liquid touch, rarely raising his voice above the level of mezzo-forte."

Customer Reviews

Soft and Willowy Chopin, with beautiful interludes
The teaming up of the illustrious Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Zubin Mehta and Lang Lang are nothing less than starry.
In terms of performance, it is quite another matter. The overall effect of these two works as recorded here is bass-heavy, gloomy and dreamy in turns, which has everything to do with accoustics, and without the requisite sense of direction, which has everything to do with the performers themselves.
One wonders what Lang Lang or Zubin Mehta was trying to say in these pieces, except that they are involved in making a jumble of beautiful sounds, and beautiful they indeed are, though the sounds are most of the time uninvolved and distant. Certain passages of cadenzas do shine out, though, but some how they seem more sporadic than bridging.
The No. 2 Concerto in particular suffers from this lack of direction and involvement. All too often it sounded like a classy display of pyro-technique by the soloist and orchestra in turn. At other times, it sounded like an elegant drawing-room piece, without doing any justification to the composer's style and his intentions.
Lang Lang did perform good Chopin before this recording - namely, with Lawrence Foster some years ago in a live performance available on Youtube. And I have been to a live performance of that work by him early this year.
Granted that Chopin is NOT his best choice; even so, he has said that Chopin is one of his favourite composers. One has only to hope that his love for Chopin would somehow bring him back home to the realisation that not all composers are to be played with the same style of interpretation, the same tone colour, and the same approach, however original and genuine that approach is.
What Lang Lang needs is not maturity - it is realisation of musical style. Clearly, he hasn't been taught much of that at conservatory. One could only hope that he picks it up in good time during his performance career.

stirring performance
I thought the interpretation was a stirring performance. May be a little too melodramatic for some.

great recording.
I had to buy the CD because I went his concert. Although it is not like alive concert, it bring back what I listened in Cleveland. Very happy.