About a month ago i played this Concerto, [by Engerer / Krivine, [11th February 2013], and after a long freeze i felt the thing was opening up to me, a great thaw was occurring, and now here's another version, and he cements the feelings i've had about this work, it does have its vulgar moments, and it does sound like it's cobbled together like a patchwork quilt, but maybe that's the point that Tchaikovsky was trying to make, and if you go in with ears attuned to this structure, i feel it can begin to make more sense, this is only the second time i've tried this disc, and the first Blog appearance of it, whatever you feel about Lang Lang, and yes he is a showman, and he is a crowd drawer, but i feel he's maturing and getting better, getting away from his initial image, i hope he continues to improve.
Lang Lang is originally from China, he's now 30, not so young anymore, he made this recording in 2003 when he was barely in his twenties, the front cover photo [by Andrew Eccles] is a great full length shot of Lang leaning up against the piano, and if you take the opposite side of the back insert when the plastic case is closed, a full width shot of the piano also, what makes it nicely unique is the angle of the camera, almost low down floor shot, so you can see the underside of the piano, a glorious shiny instrument, and a smile on his face, the lettering also is in different colours, nicely laid out, i like the whole thing.
And again it was the first movement that i found to be the centre of the whole work, and like i've said before, it lasts roughly 50% longer than the other two movements put together, so it's huge, making it similar to the Brahms Violin Concerto timewise, of course it starts off with its memorable and phenomenal calling card tune, which lasts almost 4 minutes, a tune which could easily stand up as a solo virtuoso piece, but if Tchaikovsky showed this opening to anyone, they would never guess what would come next, after a horn fanfare, Lang Lang plays thunderous chords rather than a tune, that's left to the orchestra [0:00-0:59], and then he plays the tune, in almost the same heavy handed style, and after a short 'cadenza', the whole thing explodes back into life as at the beginning [2:42+], but this time the Pianist plays more complex chords, plus the orchestra is more violin orientated toward a higher manic sound, and Tchaikovsky fulfills a sort of denouement solution of having the return more glorious than the first, no wonder what comes next can seem like an anticlimax, and i guess a similar experience can be found in Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra, the glorious 'Sunrise' then plunges down into 'Of The Backworldsmen',
Here's Lang Lang playing the first movement on YouTube.
Lang Lang is originally from China, he's now 30, not so young anymore, he made this recording in 2003 when he was barely in his twenties, the front cover photo [by Andrew Eccles] is a great full length shot of Lang leaning up against the piano, and if you take the opposite side of the back insert when the plastic case is closed, a full width shot of the piano also, what makes it nicely unique is the angle of the camera, almost low down floor shot, so you can see the underside of the piano, a glorious shiny instrument, and a smile on his face, the lettering also is in different colours, nicely laid out, i like the whole thing.
And again it was the first movement that i found to be the centre of the whole work, and like i've said before, it lasts roughly 50% longer than the other two movements put together, so it's huge, making it similar to the Brahms Violin Concerto timewise, of course it starts off with its memorable and phenomenal calling card tune, which lasts almost 4 minutes, a tune which could easily stand up as a solo virtuoso piece, but if Tchaikovsky showed this opening to anyone, they would never guess what would come next, after a horn fanfare, Lang Lang plays thunderous chords rather than a tune, that's left to the orchestra [0:00-0:59], and then he plays the tune, in almost the same heavy handed style, and after a short 'cadenza', the whole thing explodes back into life as at the beginning [2:42+], but this time the Pianist plays more complex chords, plus the orchestra is more violin orientated toward a higher manic sound, and Tchaikovsky fulfills a sort of denouement solution of having the return more glorious than the first, no wonder what comes next can seem like an anticlimax, and i guess a similar experience can be found in Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra, the glorious 'Sunrise' then plunges down into 'Of The Backworldsmen',
Here's Lang Lang playing the first movement on YouTube.
