Octo_Russ

Beethoven - Piano Concerto 4 [Lang/ Eschenbach-Orchestre De Paris] 

This is the first time playing this new disc, Lang Lang is quite a sensation, a superstar of the piano, and on this recording he's still not even 25, there's a flamboyance of character, and this translates into the performance as well, if there's one word i would sum up this disc, it's 'flamboyance'.

Lang Lang is Chinese, he will hit the big 3-0 in 9 days time, already a superstar, he recorded this in 2007, the front cover shows Lang Lang with a spiky haircut, and chequered trousers, coat, gloves, and scarf, with what looks like a shop shutter in the background [photo by Felix Broede], it's a stunning portrait, now tie in sight, and thankfully DG's ungainly logo isn't splashed all over the top third of the booklet, but a discrete smaller logo in the corner instead, the lettering is pleasing also.

It was the first movement which was riveting, the recording is very alive, the orchestra might sound a little bit too much in the bass, and the piano is very upfront, superbly recorded, but there's still a glow to the orchestra, how a greatly recorded disc can so enhance the performance, i find that Lang Lang is one of these Pianists that plays slightly slower in the slow passages, and slightly faster in the fast passages, and slightly louder in the loud passages, and slightly softer in the soft passages, creating a greater width of extremes, reminds me of Evgeny Kissin, i like the way he makes a lovely transition between staccato and legato [5:36-6:09], he hits the transition point at [5:58], that's magical, it's in little passages that you find a nice bit of magic, again a nice transition between staccato and legato [8:38-8:52], with the penultimate moment on [8:50], and yet again he does it, transitioning from a jerky high treble to more legato registers [12:40-13:07], with the lovely moment at [12:55], a thrilling interpretation of this Piano Concerto. 

Here's Mitsuko Uchida playing the first movement on YouTube, with Zubin Mehta conducting.