1 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 (Talks/Authors/Brewmasters/Comedians/Green/Health/Innovators/Musicians/Artists/Filmmakers at Google) [Applause] 2 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Artists at Google Lang Lang The Chopin Album - Interview moderated by Jeff Spurgeon of WOXR October 15th, 2012 [Applause] 3 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Lang Lang] Good morning. Thanks for being here. 4 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I'm very happy to be here for the second time, but the first time, I wasn't on the stage. 5 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I just - I was just visiting the office - a very cool office, I say. 6 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And yes, I prepared some morning songs for you to wake up. 7 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [laughter] 8 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So, a few Chopin pieces. We'll start with one of them, a very beautiful Nocturne 9 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and then, one or two Etudes, and then a Chopin waltz. 10 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So hopefully, we will get really waked after 20 minutes of performance. Thank you. 11 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Applause] 12 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Chopin: Nocturne in E-flat major, opus 55 #2 (?)] 13 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 (6:44) [Etude - which?] 14 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 (8:11) [Etude ?] 15 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 (13:01) [Chopin: Waltz op 64 #1(?]) 16 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 (16:42) [Applause] 17 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Jeff Spurgeon] Hello. I'm Jeff Spurgeon from WOXR, New York's classical station ....... 18 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 You may not know, because nobody told you: this is Lang Lang. 19 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He's a classical pianist, reasonably well-known all over the globe (17:12) 20 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and it's quite a wonderful thing to hear you play. 21 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Let me ask you: what was your warm up for this? 22 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Just this morning: did you warm up this morning? 23 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Lang Lang] I - I'm sorry, I didn't warm up: 24 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I woke up around 10:20 [laughter] 25 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I mean I was running like crazy - speed - to get here 26 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and I'm really grateful that I - I mean - you are here today, ...... for me. Thank you very much. 27 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Jeff Spurgeon] It's really wonderful [Applause] 28 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Jeff Spurgeon] It's extraordinary to have all that music just in your head, just at your command, 29 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but that's what you do. 30 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Lang Lang] Well, as Rubinstein said, you know, one of the greatest pianists, 31 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and he's had, he has like 60 piano concertos in his head. 32 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And basically doing - in his 70's or 80's he said: 33 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "Just call me up, wake me up in the middle of the night, like, say, 4 am - 34 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and I can play whatever piece you want - in concert level" Well, I mean that's - 35 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Spurgeon] I believe it but so can you - but so can you. 36 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He's had - he had a little more practice than you so far, 37 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but you'll be there. 38 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 In China, Lang Lang is credited with influencing some 40 million kids 39 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to take up classical piano. 40 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Now, I know that 40 million is not maybe a huge number at Google, 41 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but still [audience laughs] it's a reasonably large number of people - [Lang Lang laughs] 42 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to persuade to take up - and when you think about all the pianos that have to be made, 43 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and all the music that has to be printed, 44 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and all the lessons that have to be paid for, 45 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I would say that you are, without question, classical music's greatest job creator.[laughter] 46 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I don't think there's anybody who's going to do more than that than you are. 47 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Lang Lang's new album on the Sony label is "The Chopin Album". 48 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It contains at its heart the Opus 25 set of a dozen études, studies for piano, 49 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that you have been studying since I think you were what? 50 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Eight it was when you started to play those things? 51 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Lang Lang] Yeah, I started to play the Chopin études when I was 8, and - 52 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Spurgeon] Took them on the road when you were 12 or 13? 53 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Lang Lang] Yeah, I played the complete études when I was 13, right, 54 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and it was very tiring to play those pieces [laughter]. 55 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I mean, it drives me nuts and it drives my neighbors nuts [laughter] 56 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I really feel bad about it, you know. 57 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And, as you know, recently I started practicing in my appartment here, 58 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and I started practicing the Chopin études, you know [imitates a few notes] 59 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and then my neighbor knocked at my door: "Can - could you stop?" 60 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Spurgeon] Really? You mean really? 61 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Lang Lang] Yeah. I mean, no no. 62 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I mean there's one neighbor who knows who I am, 63 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 so she's always like, "Oh, that's really wonderful!" 64 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 But then, there's another neighbor, I think, living downstairs, 65 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 because I always like to practice after 11, you know, 66 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to find inspiration [laughter] 67 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And - and this lady, I think she hates me all the time. 68 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So anyway, that's - 69 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Spurgeon] So you've been playing these since you were 8, playing them in public since you were 13. 70 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Why record them now? Why not a little earlier? 71 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Why not wait a couple more years? Maybe the wine will mellow a little more in the bottle. 72 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Why decide to do these now? 73 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Lang Lang] I mean, since I'm 30, you know, I like to - 74 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to do some more repertoire, which I played a lot when I was a kid, 75 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and also, you know, putting on new pieces. 76 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I actually thought to do the 24 études, the complete cycle, 77 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but I actually - I thought maybe I should do something, not just technical pieces, 78 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but also very artistic pieces combined for the Chopin first solo for me to record. 79 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And also to hear - I was also actually watching the video that I did when I was 13, 80 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 playing the complete études, and I found (?) a few wrong notes, and I [makes dismayed sound] 81 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but now, playing a few of those pieces like "The Winter Wind", "Ocean" études, 82 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 now I feel slightly easier - slightly. 83 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So that seems like a good sign, you know. 84 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 17 years of practice and my technique is going somewhere [laughter] 85 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And - but more importantly, is the musical sense that - 86 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 there are so many new things I'm trying to reinterpret in this album, 87 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that I try to find different colors, like you have here, different levels of colors 88 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and the combination of the ...... of Chopin, 89 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 you know, the Romantic period of répertoire, 90 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and especially last year, I did Liszt. 91 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So I thought this was a nice moment to do Chopin. 92 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So next year will be very different. So - 93 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Spuregeon] What's next year? 94 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Lang Lang] Next year, I will do Prokofiev and Bartók. 95 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Spurgeon] Well! OK So it's very very different, totally different, truly... 96 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 There's some unusual pieces on this album. 97 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The Andante Spianato (?) in Grande Polonaise, a big favorite of yours, 98 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 done with orchestra sometimes, but there is the solo version. 99 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 You've always liked this piece? (22:31)