Watch this:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=iUjCgE7JN90

When you get to about a minute into it, Lang Lang gets 'a look' from his partner; what do you think she's saying to him with her eyes?

And again at the end of the first piece - about a minute and a half?

I think we got away with it so far. Keep your mouth shut, you're catching flies...

Please stop moving like that, it doesn't make a difference and it's making me sea sick!

Those looks sure didn't look 100% friendly, albeit the smiles

Lang Lang is really .... how should I say it ... provocative He is a good pianist, but he makes the act of playing the piano look... ehh... strange.

I'm going to see him at the Barbican in April - can't wait

What a contrast between the 2 performers, right down to hand position, or maybe I should say finger position.

And what a lot of other things to see. At first I thought the page turner was preventing the keyboard "lid" from falling on to their fingers (at about 2 minutes), when all she's doing is steadying herself. And what's that scrunched up hanky or piece of paper doing on the end of the piano?

There's a much bigger "we've got away with it" look at about 4 minutes I think - more a "phew, that one's over".

I didn't last that long myself! Must take a look.

There's something wrong in a world where a showboater like Bang Bang gets a namecheck, while one of the greatest pianists of the last 50 years (Martha Argerich) is reduced to being "his" partner.

I thought it one of the worst professional videos I've ever heard - .

Edward

I agree, it was awful. Just can't stand the conceited prat !

Lang Lang? Waste of (huge) talent. No artistic integrity.

Argerich is a goddess.

Ah, but Lang Lang is still young and unlike a lot of precociously talented teenagers he is maturing well. Whilst I agree his early stuff is very much "the Drama Queen incarnate", more recently he has been turning on the fireworks less and bringing out the real art a lot more. As for artistic integrity, his agenda and his interpretations may not be what we would wish them to be but I'm not sure I would call that lack of integrity. His mannerisms may annoy, but who cares?

Mind! I was born in Argentina like Marta Argerich .... would that give me any hopes of becoming a God, too?
I agree she's the nearest thing to perfection.

At about 6'07 I noticed how high up the keyboard Lang Lang had his fingers - his knuckles were practically touching the backboard (? correct term ?). This wasn't to keep out of the way of his partner as he was playing at "his" end of the keyboard at the time. Is it normal to hit the keys right at the top end - my teacher has told me to try and play a bit higher up but I find it quite awkward and very much more difficult.


PS. He is irritating to watch, isn't he!!!

It was his mannerisms that stopped me from watching the video any further, though. I tried to look away and just listen, but those around me kept coming out with snorts and exclamations, so 'just listening' was impossible. I know there wouldn't be snorting in my ear at a live concert - one hopes - but the music here just seems secondary to wondering whether he's going to stay on the stool. How Martha Argerich is able to focus on the music is beyond me. Maybe this type of thing might make Lang Lang think a little (I wonder if he reads these forums at all....he might if he gets a copy of Libretto... ); I can't believe that she wouldn't point out to him at some stage that his movements are somewhat offputting, to put it mildly. What he does when playing solo is probably up to him, if people are happy to go and see it, but I think to behave like this and grab the limelight for something other than the music, when only one of a partnership is actually quite rude.

I hope Lang Lang, sometimes known as Bang Bang and recently Bling Bling by a French critic ,does'nt read International Piano as recent reviews of him have not been excactly favourable. Apparently Lang Lang says he wants to be the ''best'' like Tiger Woods is at Golf, and some athlete is at sprinting(forget the sprinters name)which is really and unfortunate and misguided aspiration... and not one that applies to music in the same way as it does in sport. His one time teacher Gary Graffman went tried to explain to him that Mozart was not a sportsman. Technically he is very gifted, but you feel the music he is performing is more about his ego than the music itself.

This is probably a quote from Lang Lang's autobiography, and he was 14 when he said it; I'm sure he no longer feels like this. It was just a young lad's expression of a desire to play his best, and Gary Graffman set him right.

I'm not a great Lang Lang fan, but he does seem to have had a very pressured upbringing with his pushy father (a bit like Mozart?), and he has certainly practised tirelessly for most of his life, so deserves some success. In the current climate, anyone "different" catches the imagination, and I think that's why he is popular with audiences. At the end of the day, he pulls in the crowds, and that's what concert organisers want. Most concert goers don't read "International Piano" either!!

I think he has a slot to fill. If he gets bums on seats in concert halls that wouldn't otherwise be there, then good. And maybe those people will then look at other interpretations of what they've heard. If not - well... o well! Curry aficionados may know the best place to get the best curry, but there will always be that restaurant that caters for the uninitiated and sets them on the way. I hope I'm not being too insulting to Lang Lang, but I know I'd usually choose to listen to somebody else. But then if I wanted to take somebody to their first ever piano concert... well, maybe!