What do we think of Lang Lang?

Posted by: Nime on 09 June 2005

Danish Radio has been having a Chinese week and I've been enjoying the Chinese classical instruments and their music and Chinese-inspired classical and jazz music by Western composers and performers.

I caught Lang Lang's Rachmaninov Paganini Variations on the old ghetto-blaster in the workshop. A terrific hammer-blow of a performance. But his rhythm and phrasing seemed very odd at times. Completely at odds with the Chinese Symphony orchestra and certainly nothing like I remember of my old vinyl recordings of my youth.

I did some browsing and found some distinct polarity in the approval rating of Lang Lang's performances....