SA Symphony with Lang Lang, Lang-Lessing
An enfant terrible
matures nicely
January 14, 2010In a sold-out appearance with the San Antonio Symphony under music director Sebastian Lang-Lessing, the pianist Lang Lang fully matched his reputation for breathtaking technique and superstar charisma.
Just as happily, he did not match the less flattering assessment that some critics have given him in years past, when it was sometimes said he had more technique than he knew what to do with. In his account of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, Jan. 12 in the Majestic Theatre, Mr. Lang showed himself to be a musician of maturity, taste and conviction.
Mr. Lang’s massaging of the tempo in the first movement was generous but hardly self-indulgent or eccentric -- in this and other ways, his performance was not far from the composer’s own precedent, in a 1929 recording. Mr. Lang dashed off the finale’s flurries of brilliance with astonishing facility and speed, but the result was not so much showiness as total clarity. Although he exercised ample freedom in solo passages, he was attentive to Mr. Lang-Lessing’s direction and to the orchestra whenever teamwork was required.
Two characteristics trumped mere virtuosity in Mr. Lang’s performance. The first was the feeling of relaxation he brought even to the most difficult passages. The second was the ringing tone he elicited from the symphony’s Steinway: Several other pianists have gotten a beautiful sound from this instrument (and one or two have not), but no one has quite equalled the ping and clarity Mr. Lang attained, especially in the bass.
He offered two etudes by Frederic Chopin as encores. His account of Op. 25, No. 2 was fluid but firmly structured; the skittering Op. 10, No. 5, was an occasion or show-biz and eccentricity, but the performance did command attention.
Mr. Lang-Lessing showed great sympathy for Rachmaninoff’s opulent aesthetic, both in the concerto and in the Vocalise, which opened the concert and featued som very beautiful solo work by concertmaster Ertan Torgul.
In between came Beethoven’s jolly Symphony No. 4, in sunniest B-flat. The performance was first-class all the way, seamlessly organized and carefully balanced by Mr. Lang-Lessing and superbly played by the orchestra. The gentle swing the conductor brought to the second movement was particularly nice. The finale was bracingly fleet and cleanly played.
Mike
Greenberg
