Music Chat: Is Lang Lang Too Old For Today's Classical Music Record Industry?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 ม.ค. 2024
- Coming up on 42, Lang Lang is now a "mature" artist with a wife and child, and Deutsche Grammophon doesn't know what to do with him, especially given the other, younger and/or newer artists on their roster.
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Thanks, Dave! An informative and entertaining chat. Those hand signs are way too funny! You made my day.
Dave IS the professor. I can listen to him continuously and never get bored. And he knows everything. Great channel!
In China you regularly see Lang Lang image on huge advertising displays in Malls and Metro stations. He's done more to popularise classical and piano music across all generations than probably any musician anywhere. There will always be critics, but measured by brand awareness he has few equals.
McDonald's is the world's biggest restaurant chain. Probably followed by BK and KFC. Doesn't suddenly make their menu items good food.
I like Lang Lang (despite the American Record Guide critic who almost inevitably called him "Bang Bang") but it seems to me that he's become the modern-day Liberace. I remember seeing him on one of those big omnibus PBS concert specials doing three minutes of Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" and doing it well enough I'd have liked to hear him play it complete. Lang Lang is a victim of the major labels' attempt to sell classical music the way they sell pop, signing artists as much or more for their visual appeal as their musical skills, which is why we get all those albums of female violinists dressed in skin-tight designer gowns showing lots of cleavage.
Liberace never pretended to be a classical pianist. He was an entertainer who played the piano well.
@@DavesClassicalGuideLiberace did start out performing only classical with major orchestras. Not much money there though
The resume you cited for Lang Lang suggests that he is perfectly content being a musical celebrity who gives flawless performances of the basic repertoire and enjoys being popular. I think that's fine, I hope he enjoys spending time with his new son.
Last I checked, he works for Disney and is getting a little star on the pavement
Thought-provoking video. Might a major part of the problem be the sort-of permanence of the CD catalogue? My own habits are no doubt heavily influenced by my age--I'm order than you are, Dave--and the question keeps arising as to why I should invest in a new recording of a classic work by an artist I may have hardly heard of, when I have access to dozens of performances of the same work by a score of truly legendary performers? I am an avid CD collector, but even for me there is a limit as to how many different recordings I want of a single work. The recording labels' answer is to look for novelties--5-year-old violinists, or female musicians in wet T-shirts. The problem with making it big as a child prodigy or nubile six-symbol is the same problem facing television child-star actors. Once you're no longer a "prodigy" or sexy nymph, the appeal is gone.
If Lang Lang did take a break, I would like to see him make a statement by kicking off with Busoni's Piano Concerto.
That'd bore audiences to death. The Henselt concerto or the 2 by Giuseppe Martucci would be much more entertaning to listen to.
@classicallpvault8251 Well, of course, everyone has a right to like or dislike any piece of music, but the Busoni would not bore me..
Pollini did a wonderful live Schubert 18, and DG never bothered to have him record it. And all those Brahms solo pieces too. I agree with you Dave, what the heck are the people at DG even doing?
I really enjoy this type of format, where you calmly explain things in a relaxed mood. 👍 Your videos are such a treasure trove of knowledge and information.
You’re absolutely correct 👍. I think he deserves much better and possibly one way to save his artistry from the bad management and lack of knowledge of the labels’ executives could be young composers writing ✍️ piano concertos dedicated to him and of course him doing the premiere.
I have been thinking about this topic for awhile, and increasingly after Lang Lang did the Disney project which I couldn’t take seriously. Other than the Goldberg I’ve not been impressed by his performances since returning from his injury. I was wondering if he just wasn’t feeling confident in his skills thereafter. But maybe he’s just collecting the Benjamins for his family and doing whatever he gets paid the most and requires the least travel. He doesn’t seem to tour much of late.
Anyway, interesting talk and I’m glad you’re kind to Lang Lang. I’m not necessarily a fanboy but I sure enjoyed that old Rachmaninoff recording, which really helped me to better understand the structure and the humor in the P. variations. I’m very appreciative for that.
I'm actually a bit shocked by the mindlessness of so many of the comments on this subject, pro and con. Thank you for sharing a thoughtful perspective.
Lang lang is very busy being a celebrity in china. He wont take a break and he makes tons of money
This was a very interesting video. The first thing one has to deal with is the fact that the Classical Music Industry is an Industry and as such exists mainly to make money. One also has to question how much the individual artist pushes to record certain pieces that they feel they should record. Hilary Hahn is another DG artist. While she records some o the more popular concertos she manages to get DG to couple them with pieces by less popular or relatively new composers such as Schoenberg, Higdon and Rautavaara. She can make sales to those who want the warhorse that is the coupling and also sell to people who already have the warhorse but are interested in discovering newer music.
Let's be clear: none of us have a clue as to what the real economics are when it comes to any particular artist or release.
To be fair to Vikingur Olafsson, Bjork has probably caused the recording industry to expect/demand a certain amount of weirdness from Icelandic musicians.
By "a certain amount" we of course mean "a buttload."😁
This could be the problem of every musician of his rank. As you progress in your career, the audiences get used to your style, and it becomes commonplace. The excitement is gone, people's attention is drawn to new generation of performers who offer something fresh.
Similar to what they do to pianists, DG has long done the same with violinists. They dropped Shlomo Mintz for Gil Shaham, who was abruptly dropped for Ilya Gringolts(How did that work out?). They have kept Mutter and added Hahn within the last several years, but have made half-hearted stabs on behalf of Daniel Lozakovich and Maria Duenas. I'm certain they will be gone fairly soon also.
I believe that if Lang Lang himself wanted to record more, he would
Well I'm not a fan of Lang Lang, but to be fair to him, did he not have some kind of hand/arm injury which put him out of commission for a while? Perhaps he's finding it difficult to find a way back into music after that? Again, to give him credit, you don't learn the Goldbergs to have people fainting in the aisles: that at least speaks to a desire for a bit more musical credibility, doesn't it? You maybe don't have to like how he did it, but I applaud that he attempted it.
But I'd agree, the music business today is rough and short-term-ism rules. The notion of a label building a relationship with a performer seems long gone (and perhaps it's only dinosaurs like us that might expect it - perhaps young musicians today want to make their money quick and move on to something else?)
If I were him (which I am not - and not under any illusion that he'd remotely care for my opinion) I'd have started composing my own works years ago and relentlessly promoting them in my concerts alongside the standard repertoire. The man could have been the new Leopold Godowsky had he made different career choices.
Meanwhile he seems perfectly content with playing a relatively narrow selection of standard repertoire which has been recorded over and over and over again by star pianists and 2nd or even 3rd rate pianists already.
Like a mozart jazz fantasy from Fazil Say who says tht 30 years ago when he performed his own composition in New York he was kicked out from some young stars competition
DG is going the way of entertainment where images of "reality", but reality (i.e. Music), no longer matters. It's becoming fake. That's my impression watching this video. Thankfully there are tons of treasures to dis-cover with my ears, including some Lang Lang recordings. As for Lang Lang: why doesn't he start his own label and make decent and interesting recordings (sonata cycles, concerto cycles, etc.), and leave DG to their own dimwittitude?
This is the sort of thing that never occurs to me, but I wonder what you make of Igor Levit's career so far? He's a blazing talent with serious artistic commitment, but to a fault, perhaps? The collections are getting rather odd. The Mahler 10th Adagio is fine to play at home for oneself, but to record it and present it as a satisfying listening experience?
It seems to me that Sony is still giving some more room and independence to their artists in terms of what they want to record, compared to DG. If anything, Levit is the best example of that. All of his albums have his personal view as an artist very well printed on them. And he mostly records full cycles (thing that DG does not seem to know anymore). He has all Beethoven Sonatas, all Bach Partitas and Goldbergs, all Shostakovich Preludes and Fugues, a full set of Bach's Choral Preludes, and recently, all Medelssohn's LoW. Even with his more mixed collections, he has managed to put on record some repertoire that one very seldom finds recorded by big names on big labels. I do not recall similar projects by any single DG artist in recent years.
@@andresklavierraum You're absolutely right, certainly about the complete cycles, and I have actually admired Levit's thought-provoking programs. I hadn't heard about the Mendelssohn set, which is a surprise, to say the least, after the Tristan disc.
You've also reminded me I've been wanting to buy that Shostakovich set for some time.
@@dennischiapello7243 His LoW set was put together rather fast. It is his reaction to the recent events in Israel and Gaza. It has been available on streaming only since the end of December, but it is supposed to appear as a physical product at some point in the coming weeks (if it hasn't yet). He also released his "Fantasia" album after Tristan, which I liked as well (the Busoni is top notch). The Shostakovich is a great set! worth buying for sure :)
EDIT: I just realised that the LoW album is just a selection. My mistake
I am more of an opera person, so I haven’t followed his career closely. But isn’t he known for flashy, virtuosic music (as opposed to ‘profound’ music)? I saw him do Liszt 1 years ago, and it was pretty great. Beyond that, maybe his primary profile now is simply that of a celebrity-pianist, whose function is to ‘promote classical music’? That would explain the kids album he did of beginner and intermediate pieces.
Pianist in search of a Lang term project! 😁
On the mention of Lang Lang's involvement with Gran Turismo 5, have you had any interest in orchestral video game music. Not in the sense from the video game itself, but suites and compilation tracks as well with live orchestras playing the pieces. It's very similar to having film music for a movie.
I‘d say most of them are pretty dumb music for strings, brass (supported by strings) and piano with stiff percussion (or drum is enough) patterns, heavy bassline, minimal woodwinds and minimal wind solos. The relatively "classical" ones are few.
Makes me think of the final scene of Tár.
@@hyperaticism Yeah, but things like Uncharted, various Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest orchestras transcriptions are great exception to the matter.
@@ultradmann2367 Among the relatively small number of video game soundtracks I have listened to myself, I’d name NieR’s, Star War Jedi: Survivor’s, some titles of Genshin (lots, lots of woodwind solos) and some titles of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom as interesting video game soundtracks. I don’t play them myself as I’m not interested in video games in general except for racing games. A game-playing and anime-watching friend recommend most of them to me (while I recommend him classical music) and I’m grateful that his introduction includes some really appealing gems (and he also discovered some appealing classical pieces in exchange!)
@@hyperaticismJedi: Survivor has fabulous music.
So true , the recorded legacy is ugh
I have listened to much of his playing but I don't pick up anything profoundly musical from it. There is something plastic or synthetic about it; to me it's like imitation wood furniture .
Glad you have inferred the fact that if some pianists do 'popular' music, the rage by the pompous 'purists' is palpable! Shame on the great Earl Wild! And, as you have pointed out before, heaven forbid to some of those good folks if any artist wears anything other than tuxedos or properly covered dresses. Lang has suffered this as much as any.
I think DG is confused by all that; they like the flamboyance as great marketing, while worried about also satisfying the 'serious' musical lover who has prejudices toward that. And, perhaps, getting a younger demographic to buy may have something to do with it as well; Lang IS 42, Yuja Wang 36, Alice Sara Ott 36...the search for their next generation of money-making pianistic stars may be a factor in their confusion over Lang in their casting about for sensible decisions artistically?
Maybe the disappearance of Yundi Li has to do with the prostitution business he found himself entangled in.
Nah. That's a selling point.
He does not have a good reputation in terms of performance these years in China anyway. There are bunch of videos about his mistakes made in concerts.
@@hyperaticism Oh yeah Thanks to Lang lang who worked so hard promoting how terrible Yundi is
Would you be inclined to say the same about Yevgeny Kissin, whom I believe is now 50? It seems to me he's recording career has slowed down a lot. Maybe I'm mistaken.
I saw Lang Lang in his first American concert when he was a teen. He was a revelation at the time. But it seems that he or DG wanted a pop star, not a brilliant concert pianist.
How about him doing obscure Chinese piano music and piano concerti? Of course that's impossible🤭
@@Spo-Dee-O-Dee That’s the one of two most famous Chinese concerti though. At least we need more recordings of less famous ones that have been recorded by western niche labels (such as Du Mingxin’s PC1 which was even commissioned by Klaus Heymann, and Anlun Huang’s 2 PCs, the 1st released by Naxos, the 2nd is released by a label based in Hong-Kong though) by native Chinese labels, and promote them world-wide on streaming services to achieve maximum exposure! I always think that we Chinese ought to have a native version of CPO or something, though only a small group is really interested……
In short of my response is Yes
However he still use his fame for (too many) crossovers in his future.
Is it Marta Argerich and Daniel Barenboam to old for classical music?
You tell us.
I think you’re too kind to Lang Lang. He occupies a nearly unique niche in today’s classical industry, that of the artist who is so elite that he’s generally featured only in some extra-special concert like an annual gala. I remember seeing that at least three major American orchestras are starting their seasons with a Lang Lang gala this coming fall. He’s not doing much with that privilege (as opposed to Yo-Yo Ma, the only other artist I can think of in that category, who is always pursuing interesting projects or finding new things to say about standard repertoire like the Bach cello suites). Aside from the genuinely good work he seems to be doing with music education, I’ve never liked him as a pianist, even in his 20s when his technique was better.
So..he's Lang Lang in the tooth?
You're a brave man to go there.
LOL
It's a real shame with Lang Lang. His TH-cam Tchaikovsky 1 makes Yuja Wang's sound dull & routine, he is way more imaginative, daring & capricious. Yet she is the one forging ahead with a large & intrepid repertoire. How about Lang Lang doing Ligetti or Ginastera or Boulez?
Deutsche gramophone is a dead hippopotamus. You can see the feet in the air.
In some respects, Lang Lang's career mirrors Stephen Kovacevich's. The artistry is unquestionable, but where is the legacy?