Review: Lang Lang's Slimy, Slick and Sickly Saint-Saëns
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 มี.ค. 2024
- Saint-Saëns: The Carnival of the Animals, Piano Concerto No. 2, Various Solo Pieces by French Composers (incl. Women!). Lang Lang and Gina Alice (pianos), Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Andris Nelsons (cond.) DG
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I would love to see a photo book of Richter posing like this.
Or Gilels!
Speaking of Richter, his recordings of both 2nd and 5th Saint Saëns concertos are absolutely incredible, especially with the 5th I think that's the best recording of the concerto ever.
Oh yes, Richter Is superlative in all He have played... But for Saint- Saens ' Concertos we have also to remember the Great Ciccolini...
Videos like this are why I watch this channel. Thanks, Dave for honest opinions on music.
Man, I loved watching this review. If only I could say what so many Juilliard teachers say about this pianist. This review had me in stitches. Thank you!
What did they say 😂
One of your funniest, most intelligent and UNbiased reviews EVER. "If death could die this would be death dying" Please tell me that was an ad lib so I can be doubly impressed.
It was all an ad lib.
This is Lang Lang we’re talking about…of course it’s tasteless, as is everything he plays…
I have the feeling LL and GinaAlice were dubbed in subsequently. „Pianists“ is such a mess it’s unbelievable 😮This would explain the different acoustics of the pianos vs the orchestra.
I remember when a CD by Yuja Wang came out, and an American Record Guide critic basically said that after Lang Lang, it was nice to hear a young Asian pianist whom he actually liked, so people could stop accusing him of being a racist because he didn't like Lang Lang.
Yeah, Yuja has poetry and musical sensitivity.
Yes. Yuja actually did a brief imitation of him in a funny video. Tho' her dresses are flashy, her expressions are subtle and appropriate for her joy and inner emotion playing the actual music.
Another great example of the difference in taste and musical understanding between them: When chatting with Charles Dutoit about performing Liszt, he mentioned to her that a part of understanding the music would be understanding the milieu that influenced it in the period, and said she should read Goethe. And she did. Can't imagine Lang ever doing that...
Her Scarlatti is excellent!
@@mouisehay930 I absolutely concur! Masterly...
@@bloodgrssLang reads shit. There was a video about him introducing a Chinese dance and he pronounced the name of the dance incorrectly and said that was a dance of turtle while in fact it’s a festival type. 😢 this dude doesn’t not learn or read, just purely translating every note to a greasy meaningless crap
I went to Lang Lang’s first American concert when he was a teen. What’s happened to him afterward is just sad.
If you are referring to his Carnegie Hall debut then it might be one of the best recitals in the 21st century, but yeah, almost everything Lang Lang produces after that is second class at most.
You...are...simply...THE BEST!!!
A french Canadian crtitic called Lang Lang, Bang Bang
That seems to be why DG's marketing people keep posing him with flowers: to show that he is "sensitive."
I like Biang Biang Noodle.
Lots of racists in Quebec. It’s really not acceptable to be making fun of people’s names like that.
@@ER1CwCyes it is, I'm chinese and i love racist jokes. Grow some skin.
ok ,so here is one for you. There was a string trio with Josef Suk,Yo Yo Ma and Dong Suk Kang. They were the "Suk Ma Dong trio.@@papagen00
"A swan moving through a worm-hole". Vivid description...^^
His swan is a lame duck
I laughed at 1:21 when you talked about "Everything you can do with the flower". Your British viewers might remember the old comedy movie "Carry On Nurse", which featured Wilfrid Hyde-White's embarrassing encounter with a daffodil...
thanks for that flower
Precisely the thought that came to my mind. I suspect we both have vulgar minds, but - why the hell not? Better vulgar than saccharine sweet, sickly slick performances from artists who should know better than allow themselves to be seduced by the sinister approach of the marketing department.
The cover artist forgot to put the halo over Lang Lang.
Hahaha! Comment of the year!
The marketing people at DG/Universal who are behind this campaign should be fired immediately. What a discredit to Deutsche G and to Lang Lang, who, at times, is a very good pianist. His manager should be fired, too, by the way.
Respectfully disagree. Have pity on them. They're desperate to sell this album.
"If death could die this would be that dead". I wish DG would print this review on the release, it would greatly elevate it to a piece of art.
I knew nothing about this concerto so Iwent to YTube and pulled out a live version by Richter. What magical playing especially by a man in his 70s and what a captivating work! Thanks, Dave!
Finally someone who talks sense, I despair hearing him play, and those that laud him
Maybe the notes were written by chat GPT??😂 Saw Alexandre Kantorow do the Concerto in Amsterdam. One of the best performances of anything I've ever seen. Luckily he recorded it on BIS with his Dad conducting.
Wonderful pianist Kantorow!!
Lang Lang - is a prime example of presentation over substance - I saw him in recital once and left at the interval as I was annoyed by his posing & lack of ability to communicate his vision of the music as a coherent whole. I can stand perverse performance if delivered with conviction and a sense of style.
He can give good performances. I saw him play a great Strauss Burleske with Cleveland, preceded by a mannered version of Chopin Andante spianato with much grimacing. The Strauss kept him too busy to make faces.
@@poturbg8698 Yes, funny that also when he plays duets with others, the grimaces seem to go away too. Show over substance. But he does inspire fanatical devotion.
He has nothing to communicate, this man has no logic, hence his interpretation lacks substance.
In a rare moment of self-awareness, Lang Lang pulled the turtleneck over his nose because he couldn't stand the smell
That this unmusical, heavy-handed pianist has managed such success still stymies me.
He is a show-off who loves to show his technique at the expense of the music.
I'm not THAT familiar with his approach - is he always this bad? Is he the culprit, or the record label - though if he is always this bad, then the record label deserves censure for promoting him..
@@RobertJonesWightpaint Some folks like him. I am definitely not one of them. I've never heard him play in a way that didn't massacre the music, or ever had the sense that music is anything to him but a series of notes to be performed in the order they were written. (Not that it keeps him from writhing on stage in an effort to pretend he has some sort of deep connection to the sounds coming out of the keyboard he's currently pounding into submission.) It does not seem to have hampered his fame or bothered his core audience.
Lang Lang is just the worst. And shame on DG for issuing this. Have you heard that abomination of a Disney album? I did. It’s enough to make you heave.
@@richardtomasek Unfortunately, from the glimpses of the album I inflicted myself upon listening to this review, the technical aspect is quite subpar by today's standards. Mushy articulation, uncontrolled dynamics, rythm all over the place. I daresay he wouldn't even land a major conservatory first prize with that kind of performance, on technical merits alone.
I’ve been expecting a review like this, but pleasantly surprised at the expediency! Like Lang Lang, I love discovering Saint-Saëns for myself 😂
I like him too. It's just his playing that sucks. At least here...
Hello Dave, This has got to be the most hilarious, comedic and devastatingly honest review of yours and probably in the entire history of classical music reviews. You could easily give all those stand up comedians a run for their money. Thank you for this video. It made my day.
Ok, I had to listen to the Pavane pour une infante defunte after your review. It would make great background music for a schmaltzy restaurant!
with tasteless food and horrible wines
Dave, You have wonderful taste. London's Royal Academy of Music had Lang Lang give a master class. I had a terrible urge to return my diplomas.
Hilarious and so much to the point. And the courage it takes to listen to the guy's kitsch performances... Bravo.
This was PRICELESS! 🤣 Thank you! 😊
"If death could die, this could be that dead." His reviews are packed with more genius than the average great composer.
We didn't even need to listen to it to know it would be revolting.
You always have to listen to it.
@@DavesClassicalGuide Let us say you would have to convince me.
If you think this is bad, wait until the Blu-ray edition comes out.
I saw a little bit of the video and felt embarrassed just watching it..
You're so good at what you do, man.
Andris' contract with the Boston Symphony has been extended ad infinitum. I shudder at the thought of Bang Bang coming to Boston to play the Saint Saens Second Concerto. Oy vey....
Oh my 😅
your best most honest critique to date.
Great and honest review, Dave. I don't know what DG are trying to achieve with this sickly sugar-coated bilge marketing?
I so enjoyed your video. You talk with intelligence yet never patronise. I was in tears with laughter. The only problem is - now you made me curious and I want to hear that album. And what do you mean anything British related to food would not be appealing? Haha. Great stuff, thanks for this!
There's never any harm in listening--that's part of the fun.
This is what DGG has become. A glossy two CD set, yet they cannot bring themselves to release the Fabio Luisi Nielsen Concerti on actual CDs!
And couldn’t DG have given Kate Liu a chance to record a Chopin CD?
Look on the bright side: at least he didn't "discover" Alkan. Even on a French album. That would only have been half obvious. However it is the recording that I dread ever happening "Lang Lang plays Alkan." How bad would Festin be if he can't play a winner like Carnival of the Animals? It's not even amusing to speculate
I know air guitar but air piano (1:40) is at another level
liked and subscribed for being amazingly blunt & truthful & funny!
Thank you.
Thank you thank you thank you! Lang Lang’s affectations and over-the-top mannerisms must be called out by honest critics like you. The sad thing is how his super-stardom has influenced younger pianists, as well as musicians in general - how they emote with their contorted faces when they’re playing. True musicianship doesn’t need this kind of display (or distractions). And when it comes to musicianship, I’ve always find Lang superficial and “playing-for-effects.”
This review was stellar! 😂
When this popped up on my screen I though it might be amusing to watch, and I was in the mood for something to make me laugh. I was not disappointed.
After listening to this recording on streaming service, I start to believe it’s the beginning of the collapse of classic music.
Go woke, go broke 🤷♂️
That, and I fear you may be right, would be a tragedy the classical music industry has inflicted on itself - and on the rest of us. I hope it'll grow out of its self-destructive phase, but it's about money, populism, the assumption that our attention spans and emotional depth are so limited that all we want is superficial performance by celebrity performers. If they can do this to Saint-Saens, Ravel, Fauré, just imagine (or try not to) what they could do to Stravinsky, Rachmaninov, Debussy, and more modern composers. Sugar-coating Shostakovich could be difficult, but who would bet that they won't try to?
@@carlob95 Oh ffs. Do you think that dedicating disc space to woman composers is where this recording went wrong? :eyeroll:
ETA: David didn't help matters by referring to the second disc as the 'politically correct' one, as if recording woman composers was worthy of scorn. Lang Lang's playing is tasteless enough without the implication that including works by women makes a disc 'politically correct' or, in your words, 'woke'.
@@KevinVanOrd interresting! Maybe I see to much wokeness madness everywhere.😉
Classical music...
This one is a gem - suddenly, I feel at home. What else can I say but, thanks.
I love hearing you read through goofy CD booklets. To invoke that one anecdote you mentioned with the Scotsman construction contractor, the writing on them makes my (feeble) attempts at writing feel so...adequate.
As with many of Dave's reviews, this one prompted me to pull something out of my collection rather than purchase (or not!) for a listen. To wit, I played the Saint-Saens Piano Con. 2 by Rubinstein/Wallenstein/RCA from 1958. How lovely! What fun! Sincerely hope that Lang Lang can pull out of his current nose dive.
2:50 "Did we really need him to tell us this?" HaHa. No, we did not. Dave, you are on a roll with this video!
Nice rant!! Could you at some time talk about the career of Ivo Pogorelich that ranges from the astounding (e.g. Schumann Toccata, Gaspard) to the dreadful (e.g. deconstructed Skrjabin 4th sonata which is somewhere on youtube), combined with an eccentric bellicose personality?
Parents need to be warned, kids should not be exposed to this recording!
please we want more videos like that one
There's a great early '60s film starring Peter Sellers called "The World of Henry Orient". It centers around two pre-teen girls who are obsessed with a hack concert pianist--played by Peter Sellers, hilariously. (A plus factor is Angela Lansbury playing a slutty older woman; another is Elmer Berstein's score). I have a feeling that Lang Lang is turning into his generation's version of Henry Orient.
I thought DG over-promoted Karajan, but the words they used to describe him were like something from an instruction manual when compared to this.
"What does _that_ mean? One hesitates to speculate.." :-))
To my shame I looked some of this up on YT. That's two minutes of my life I won't get back....grim.
Find the Cortot/Munch recording. It'll return those two lost minutes and then some.
@@michaelstearnes1526 I will do, and thank you! Incidentally if you think the recording itself is sickly, the video performance is even worse.
@@michaelstearnes1526 Cortot played the 4rth concerto, not the 2nd. Or does Lang Lang play both nr 2 and 4?
@@willemboone7912 Cortot recorded only the 4th I believe. (nice transfer as I recall). I'm unclear about the Lang Lang. Not too certain whether I would risk purchasing this recording. Thanks for replying.
@@denisehill7769 Thanks for the warning Denise. I don't play the piano but I've a good collection of piano recordings with various artists. I strongly recommend the recordings of Francois Samson and Robert Casadesus in the French repertory. Many thanks for your reply.
"If death could die." 😅
Dear Dave. It seems you are the only voice of reason in the industry. Even CD booklets are going rapidly downhill. Thank you for all these warnings. It is a shame what a joke once prominent DG has become.
'It makes you want to scratch yourself....or take a shower...'😂😂😂...and
'How do you exagerate tedium...that's the question...well, they figured it out..'🤣🤣🤣
Enjoying this Dave's Faves series.
The worst Chopin performance I've ever heard of Chopin's Polonaise in A flat is his.
'Pavane pour une Infante Defunte' is that rare thing: a title that sounds better in English than in French. In French it sounds like a clapped-out old Renault with a flat tyre.
"Though the Philistines may jostle, you will rank as an apostle in the high aesthetic band, If you walk down Piccadilly with a poppy or a lily in your medieval hand.
And everyone will say,
as you walk your flowery way,
If he's content with a vegetable love which would certainly not suit me,
Why, what a most particularly pure young man this pure young man must be!" 😂
Sorry, but the photo irresistibly said Bunthorne to me.
I started to listen to it yesterday and could not take it anymore… I played the piano in the second piano concerto and I was vainly hoping for something interesting.
Also available on vinyl! I can’t imagine the price.
When I was a kid, DGG cultivated its image as a classy publisher. I won't say they necessarily were what they tried to seem, but at least they tried. What the Hell happened to them?
They call them Lang Lang's "cast" because he's now sponsored by Disney and these are the "cast members" like Mickey and Pluto and they will encore every Lang Lang CD with a rendition of "It's a Small Small World".
But I missed "Hello Friends" - from the opening notes of the review, this was going to be pure magic - it was.
This was hilarious get em Dave 😭😭
Thank you SO much for this. You win "King of the Adjectives" for the year. You nailed everything wrong, from the performance itself to the insipid arrogance of DGG.
😂😂 😂😂😂😂.. this guy is the quintessence of kitsch in classical music
Thanks, Dave. Ive heard Lang Lang a couple times, listened to several recordings and just could never put my finger on why i find his playing less than enthralling. I loved your comments about what is "fed" into students about standard repertoire performance. His Bartok recordings are equally appalling.
I remember that other guy doing the hand things. That video was hilarious.
Gosh...I have spent a few dollars for this record....I should first listen to you :))))
At least you can play it as an example of the very worst, so you can better appreciate the very best. Slender consolation I know, but - the best I could do.
@@RobertJonesWightpaintYes! That's the truth! Greetings from Poland!
@@RobertJonesWightpaintCannot agree more. Every time after I listened to Lang Lang, I ended up appreciating better versions more.
It seems clear DG is marketing these "discoveries" to young Chinese piano students, most of whom are girls. Hence, the flower, the emphasis on Lang Lang in the balance, the lack of dynamism. Their delicate sensibilities and Lang Lang-obsession require it. That is not me being racist, because I think these girls are underestimated: it's DG being racist, if anything, and condescending. We know he can be better than this, although he has never been a very interesting pianist: In 2013 he recorded a perfectly reasonable Prokofiev 3 and Bartók 2 - Bartók 2! No wonder he left Sony. .
Posing for photos sniffing flowers is a very Asian thing. My mother's Facebook feed is nothing but her sniffing flowers wherever she may travel. 😂
After watching this, pulled up his Egyptian concerto finale etude on streaming. So many wrong notes! How did he approve that tape?
Oh. The hand-stuff 😂
Are the flowers real in the pictures?
Still fairly new to Dave's channel, but was wondering, has he ever been more critical of an album then the evisceration he just gave Lang Lang's Saint-Saens album? Either way I sure did enjoy hearing him trash it.
Yes. There's plenty more where that came from.
@@DavesClassicalGuide Thanks Dave, I'll make sure to explore more of your past videos. Next let's hear all about somebody train-wrecking several beloved century-old Stravinskian masterworks. I love your caustic-as-caustic-can-be album reviews.
You should hear him on the anti-vibrato conductors like Roger Norrington. Not recommended for the overly sensitive!
Check out Dave's review of Makela's Sibelius cycle 😆
Norrington … 😮
This seems to me like a bad college term paper from a student that goes out of his/her way to make the binding as nice as possible. It's all about presentation, and nothing about substance.
It seems whomever is actually in charge of DG, has managed to drive the bus right over the cliff. Do they actually pay staff members to come up with this stuff? I think "a Swann going through a wormhole" was my favorite thought this week.
“There’s the hand stuff, because ya know, he plays the piano which is a ‘hands’ instrument”-that killed me. I’m sick of these albums that are so deeply convinced of their own profundity. What, I wonder, would Karajan think of being called a “cast member”, even a “stellar” one at that?
"Playing as if lost in traffic". Forgive me but this review at times made me reminiscent of some paroxystic moment of Louis de Funès. 😂
Lang Langs discs are always soulless, vanity projects. And Nelsons is faceless, again, huh? Sounds about right.
Warning ⚠️ this review carries an 18 rating .
"No subtlety, no wit". That describes the recent Lang Lang perfectly. He's wildly talented, but he's turned into a caricature of a virtuoso pianist. No subtlety, no wit, just a lot of notes. And it sounds like DG has poured gasoline on this bonfire of narcissism. I enjoyed your review, but I wish it hadn't shown up in my TH-cam suggestions. I have no reason to doubt anything you say, but now I feel a compulsion to listen to some of a disc of which I was happily unaware. I expect to suffer, but curiosity compels me to hear for myself how bad it can get.
Then you'll have a great time. Nothing to complain about.
@@DavesClassicalGuide After listening to a couple of tracks, I can't say that I had a good time, except that it felt good when it was over. I couldn't write a review as entertaining as yours. About all I can say is that there were a lot of notes, some of them played very quickly, most of them the right notes. But a dementor had sucked the joy out of them. And apparently out of Lang Lang. His expressions looked like 20-year-old CGI. Unsettling.
Domo arregato, Mr. Rhubato. (I know he's not Japanese, but I can'y resist a good pun).
WOW ! - Out of the PAN and into the Fire :)
What a thorough excoriation of the prime "cast" member!🤣🤣🤣🤣
Ha-ha-ha... Love it!
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Lang Lang represents the epitome of treacle-y cliched finger-bangin clunky insults to our ears. nice to know that some people noticed... what the hell is going on with DG?
Brutal takedown, but honestly very funny. Thx.
Albrecht Mayer does the same "air oboe" pose in his Venice album (I think). The playing is superb, however. Between him and Andreas Ottensamer, Polygram is really hitched to these marketing gimmicks.
I love your point. Lang Lang is most admirable for his outreach to young listeners in Asia, and he is a flamboyant rep for classical music, and a nice guy by all accounts. But he still would be if he actually played the music with intelligence and taste! He is a gifted pianist and showman of his type,; give us more substance. I agree he may be capable of it. But that would mean real study, and that is something (whatever one thinks of her performances) that his compatriot and fellow Gary Graffman pupil Yuja Wang does, while it seems he does not.
Unfortunately, he did a little good given such an outreach. All things are about showing-off and defrauding. He was expected to attract piano students in China but all he wanted was their money.
Lang Lang has made me uncomfortable ever since I saw him on TV playing the Second Hungarian Rhapsody as part of an ice skating exhibition. It was the glossiest, most mechanical reading I could imagine, maybe more than was imaginable.
I do have to take exception to making fun of La Bagel Delight. There's a restaurant down the street called Szechuan Delight. The "delight" is local and understandable. The "La" is obscure. There was a place on Smith Street next to the F train called F Train Bagels that the MTA sued for copyright infringement. Maybe, since F is La in solfege, La Bagel Delight's lawyers crafted it as a strategy to keep the MTA away. Or not. Try their carrot cake. It rocks.
My God, I have just heard some of this on Classic fm. It's horrible...
When you have to write an apologia as they do on the back cover, you already know that it's going to be a joke; there's no need to even listen to it.
Lang Lang is the most overrated pianist in history. He believes technique( being able to play anything) is more important than the way you play it. His interpretations and tone are awful and his mannerisms even worse. Sorry, I know millions love him but he is not going down as one of the great pianists in history.
We don't know that. It will not be up to us to decide.
I always wondered what Mr. Hurwitz would sound like if he were in "excoriate mode". Now I know! LOL!!!!!
It's very sad to see what has become of Deutsche Grammophon. I guess the only thing going for the Carnival is the absence of the Ogden Nash doggerel.
I wonder what Gary Graffman, Lang-Lang'sb teacher, things of it.
I remember the days when DG was fairly reliably very good, and boring. Dave, love your videos because you admire greatness, but keep in mind that many of us love takedowns.
I find it annoying that he gets so much attention when there are many other pianists of his generation, including plenty of Asian ethnicity, who are vastly better. The triumph of promotion over talent, I suppose.
A sommelier once suggested that the “Merlot craze” of the 80s/90s was due to its name: two syllables, easy to remember. I’d say the same about “Lang Lang.” I bet Leif Ove Andsnes would be 10x more popular if his name were something like, oh, “Magnus Carlsen.”