Artists at Google: Lang Lang | "The Chopin Album"

The Chopin Album -- Lang Lang's third album for Sony Classical -- includes the second set of Chopin's Études (op. 25), the Andante spianato & Grande Polonaise and a selection of shorter works that he has long enjoyed performing, including three Nocturnes and the Waltz op. 64 no. 1, popularly known as the "Minute" Waltz.

Chopin "speaks with such a universal voice," Lang Lang says. "I genuinely believe he's a true ambassador for classical music among the great composers. He appeals to everyone."

Chopin has accompanied Lang Lang throughout his career. One of the first pieces he learnt was the Grande Valse brillante in E-flat major op. 18 (included on this album), and it was Chopin's music that also carried him through a number of career-changing competitions, including Ettlingen (Germany) in 1994 and the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians in Sendai (Japan) in 1995, when he took First Prize performing Chopin's Second Piano Concerto. And it was with the Chopin Études that Lang Lang made his now-renowned Beijing Concert Hall recital at age 14 -- a performance that led to his studying with Gary Graffman at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia.

"The reason that Chopin's Études hold such a special place for pianists", says Lang Lang, "is that they provide the training for so many different elements of technique. But they're not just studies, not just normal exercises -- not just for your fingers -- they help you develop how your mind works, and how you control the different layers of your emotional response."

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Artists at Google
Lang Lang The Chopin Album - Interview moderated by Jeff Spurgeon of WOXR
October 15th, 2012
[Applause]

[Lang Lang] Good morning. Thanks for being here.

I'm very happy to be here for the second time, but the first time, I wasn't on the stage.

I just - I was just visiting the office - a very cool office, I say.

And yes, I prepared some morning songs for you to wake up.

[laughter]

So, a few Chopin pieces. We'll start with one of them, a very beautiful Nocturne

and then, one or two Etudes, and then a Chopin waltz.

So hopefully, we will get really waked after 20 minutes of performance. Thank you.

[Applause]

[Chopin: Nocturne in E-flat major, opus 55 #2 (?)]

(6:44) [Etude - which?]

(8:11) [Etude ?]

(13:01) [Chopin: Waltz op 64 #1(?])

(16:42) [Applause]

[Jeff Spurgeon] Hello. I'm Jeff Spurgeon from WOXR, New York's classical station .......

You may not know, because nobody told you: this is Lang Lang.

He's a classical pianist, reasonably well-known all over the globe (17:12)

and it's quite a wonderful thing to hear you play.

Let me ask you: what was your warm up for this?

Just this morning: did you warm up this morning?

[Lang Lang] I - I'm sorry, I didn't warm up:

I woke up around 10:20 [laughter]

I mean I was running like crazy - speed - to get here

and I'm really grateful that I - I mean - you are here today, ...... for me. Thank you very much.

[Jeff Spurgeon] It's really wonderful
[Applause]

[Jeff Spurgeon] It's extraordinary to have all that music just in your head, just at your command,

but that's what you do.

[Lang Lang] Well, as Rubinstein said, you know, one of the greatest pianists,

and he's had, he has like 60 piano concertos in his head.

And basically doing - in his 70's or 80's he said:

"Just call me up, wake me up in the middle of the night, like, say, 4 am -

and I can play whatever piece you want - in concert level" Well, I mean that's -

[Spurgeon] I believe it but so can you - but so can you.

He's had - he had a little more practice than you so far,

but you'll be there.

In China, Lang Lang is credited with influencing some 40 million kids

to take up classical piano.

Now, I know that 40 million is not maybe a huge number at Google,

but still [audience laughs] it's a reasonably large number of people - [Lang Lang laughs]

to persuade to take up - and when you think about all the pianos that have to be made,

and all the music that has to be printed,

and all the lessons that have to be paid for,

I would say that you are, without question, classical music's greatest job creator.[laughter]

I don't think there's anybody who's going to do more than that than you are.

Lang Lang's new album on the Sony label is "The Chopin Album".

It contains at its heart the Opus 25 set of a dozen études, studies for piano,

that you have been studying since I think you were what?

Eight it was when you started to play those things?

[Lang Lang] Yeah, I started to play the Chopin études when I was 8, and -

[Spurgeon] Took them on the road when you were 12 or 13?

[Lang Lang] Yeah, I played the complete études when I was 13, right,

and it was very tiring to play those pieces [laughter].

I mean, it drives me nuts and it drives my neighbors nuts [laughter]

I really feel bad about it, you know.

And, as you know, recently I started practicing in my appartment here,

and I started practicing the Chopin études, you know [imitates a few notes]

and then my neighbor knocked at my door: "Can - could you stop?"

[Spurgeon] Really? You mean really?

[Lang Lang] Yeah. I mean, no no.

I mean there's one neighbor who knows who I am,

so she's always like, "Oh, that's really wonderful!"

But then, there's another neighbor, I think, living downstairs,

because I always like to practice after 11, you know,

to find inspiration [laughter]

And - and this lady, I think she hates me all the time.

So anyway, that's -

[Spurgeon] So you've been playing these since you were 8, playing them in public since you were 13.

Why record them now? Why not a little earlier?

Why not wait a couple more years? Maybe the wine will mellow a little more in the bottle.

Why decide to do these now?

[Lang Lang] I mean, since I'm 30, you know, I like to -

to do some more repertoire, which I played a lot when I was a kid,

and also, you know, putting on new pieces.

I actually thought to do the 24 études, the complete cycle,

but I actually - I thought maybe I should do something, not just technical pieces,

but also very artistic pieces combined for the Chopin first solo for me to record.

And also to hear - I was also actually watching the video that I did when I was 13,

playing the complete études, and I found (?) a few wrong notes, and I [makes dismayed sound]

but now, playing a few of those pieces like "The Winter Wind", "Ocean" études,

now I feel slightly easier - slightly.

So that seems like a good sign, you know.

17 years of practice and my technique is going somewhere [laughter]

And - but more importantly, is the musical sense that -

there are so many new things I'm trying to reinterpret in this album,

that I try to find different colors, like you have here, different levels of colors

and the combination of the ...... of Chopin,

you know, the Romantic period of répertoire,

and especially last year, I did Liszt.

So I thought this was a nice moment to do Chopin.

So next year will be very different. So -

[Spuregeon] What's next year?

[Lang Lang] Next year, I will do Prokofiev and Bartók.

[Spurgeon] Well! OK So it's very very different, totally different, truly...

There's some unusual pieces on this album.

The Andante Spianato (?) in Grande Polonaise, a big favorite of yours,

done with orchestra sometimes, but there is the solo version.

You've always liked this piece? (22:31)