Lang Lang solo recital featuring romantic music

A music review by Shirley Politzer

More than 2,500 fans filled the Opera House Concert Hall for a memorable solo performance. Surrounded by his devoted fans in the “in-the-round” seating, Chinese piano virtuoso Lang Lang took to the stage with characteristic flair and sincerity, delivering a program that ranged from gentle quietness to tremendous drama.

The evening opened with Gabriel Fauré’s Pavane, Op. 50, a work often described as one of the most relaxing pieces of music ever written. In Lang Lang’s hands, the piece was like a meditation in tone and texture. The silky right-hand melody floated effortlessly above soft dissonant harmonies. The piece had a flowing, dreamlike quality, adding to the fluidity and unpredictability of the music.

Though Fauré himself liked a slightly faster tempo to reflect the dance origins of the 16th-century Spanish pavane, Lang Lang chose to take the music at a slower pace—and the result was mesmerizing. Lang Lang’s touch was precise yet poetic.

From the gentleness of Fauré, the evening plunged into the tormented music of Schumann’s Kreisleriana, Op. 16-a suite of eight musical fantasies with no specific story or programme. Here, Lang Lang channelled the dramatic schizophrenia of Schumann’s two alter egos, the outward-going, impulsive figure of Florestan and the moody and dreamy Eusebius.

Technically challenging and emotionally volatile, Kreisleriana is a work few pianists dare to tackle in public. Lang Lang not only dealt with its wild contrasts, both between movements and within them, but also made the music feel almost theatrical. The first movement is filled with anger and raw energy. From there, the next seven movements vary vastly in tempo, style and mood, but always require great virtuosity and control of emotional content.

The fourth movement is considered to be one of the most beautiful and famous movements in Schumann’s piano music, contrasting with the other movements in its restrained beauty. Despite the erratic character changes, Lang Lang was able to hold the eight movements together with finesse and structure.

After an interval and a freshly tuned piano, Lang Lang turned to the music of Frédéric Chopin, first performing selections from the composer’s 51 Mazurkas—short, spirited pieces drawn from Polish folk-dance traditions. The second piece performed, Op. 17 No. 1 in B-flat major is arguably Chopin’s most popular mazurka and was played with tender phrasing and dynamic control.

Each mazurka, a dance in triple time, showcased Lang Lang’s versatility—his ability to shift moods with agility while retaining the rhythmic character that defines this style. Emphasising the accent on the second or third beat, rather than the downbeat like in a waltz, he infused these miniatures with playfulness, nostalgia, and nationalist pride.

The Mazurkas were followed by Chopin’s well-known Polonaise in F sharp minor for solo piano, Op 44 (1841). It has been referred to as the ‘tragic’ polonaise and was dedicated to Ludmilla de Beauveau, a prominent member of the Polish community in Paris. Despite being called a polonaise, the piece is a composite work with a mazurka section in the middle and was thoroughly enjoyed by the audience.

Following the Polonaise, Lang Lang disappeared briefly, only to return to thunderous applause for a series of encores from which the audience became more and more excited. This culminated in several standing ovations and rapturous clapping as he shook hands with audience members and even patted the piano affectionately, like an old friend. In recognition of the large Asian community that attended the concert, Lang Lang played as his final encore a famous traditional piece called Jasmine Flower, which elicited an audible gasp of appreciation from the audience. This was a fitting culmination to an evening that had taken the audience through the deepest valleys and highest peaks of the Romantic piano tradition.

It was a spellbinding night from one of the world’s greatest performers.