Chinese pianist Lang Lang: biography, personal life. Pianist Lang Lang - the finest poetry in music Lang biography

Watch video Chinese pianist Lang Lang opened the Lebanese festival with the music of Rachmaninoff (news) in good quality | One of the most famous pianists of our time, the Chinese performer Lang Lang, presented Rachmaninov's second piano concerto to the audience at the opening of the International Festival in Byblos, in the ancient Lebanese city.

Thousands of classical music fans gathered in the ancient Phoenician port of Byblos for one of the main open-air music festivals.

It was opened by the famous Chinese pianist Lang Lang. This 32-year-old musician achieved success by popularizing the classics - he brought a dose of glamor to it.

LANG LANG, PIANIST:

“This music is like the great literature of the past, which everyone still reads, and new films are made based on it. It's the same with classical music. Although it came to us a long time ago, it continues to live and evoke passion.”

Today, many call him the greatest pianist of our time. Last year, Time magazine named Lang one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Together with the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra, Lang performed Rachmaninov's second piano concerto.

This was followed by almost an hour of Chopin's music. But even this was not enough for the listeners.

JOHNNY KOURI, DOCTOR FROM LEBANON:

“The show was great but too short, I wish he had played more. The atmosphere of Byblos was wonderful: the waves could be heard in the background of the orchestra and Lang Lang playing, it made the evening special.”

Lang himself was inspired to start playing the piano at the age of three by Liszt’s music performed by the cat in the cartoon “Tom and Jerry.”

The Byblos International Festival is considered one of the largest and most popular in Lebanon, along with festivals in Baalbek and Beiteddine. They introduce the Lebanese public to the best Western works and performers. In the past, Russian artists from the Mariinsky and Bolshoi theaters, as well as world stars Placido Domingo, Luciano Povarotti and Elton John, performed there. The book that shocked the world. He will never be the same again!

This book changed the thinking of millions of Chinese. Since the publication of the Nine Commentaries in 2004
200 million Chinese around the world left the ranks of the Chinese Communist Party. And this number continues to grow!

Lang Lang is a well-known figure in China and abroad, playing the piano and performing works by famous classical music composers.

Lang Lang was born on June 14, 1982 in Shenyang, which is one of the largest cities in eastern China with a population of about 8 million people. Lang is considered one of the popular pianists of the People's Republic of China.

Lang Kozhen is Lang's father, he is also a musician and plays the erhu. In general, who doesn’t know the erhu is an ancient Chinese bowed string instrument, a kind of violin with two strings.

When the boy was about 2 years old, the cartoon Tom and Jerry was shown on TV, probably everyone saw this cartoon, and so the music of Franz Liszt was playing there - Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2. Lang later said that after listening to this Western melody, he had a desire to study music, namely to play the piano. I wonder what other desires a two-year-old child might have.

Lang Lang - 74 virtuoso seconds (live)

At the age of three, his parents sent their boy to study music to a famous person in this direction, Professor Zhu Ya-Fen. Two years later, at the Shenyang Piano Competition in Shenyang, Lang managed to beat all competitors and take an honorable first place. It was at this event that the first solo concert of our young musician took place.

At the age of 9, Lang decided to try his hand at entering the Beijing Conservatory. The exams there were quite serious and the young guy did not succeed. The desire to study music was so great that Lang’s parents hired music professor Zhao Ping-Guo as their son’s teacher and mentor. Having studied diligently for several years, the boy finally entered this conservatory and continued his studies. Lang's parents were probably wealthy people, since they hired famous people and music professors as teachers for their child.

Competitions and performances

In 1993, Lang won the Xing Hai Cup Piano Competition. A year later, in Germany, at the fourth international competition for young pianists, he performed well and was noted as a talented musician, thereby probably opening the door to his international recognition.

At the age of fourteen, the young pianist was already performing in front of his president. After this, he decides to go to Philadelphia and enter the Curtis Institute.

In 1999, at the Gala of the Century concert, Lang already played Tchaikovsky, the audience was simply delighted and expressed their emotions with thunderous applause. Music connoisseurs and various critics have called Lang Lang a bright and outstanding representative of piano playing among young musicians.

Contributions to music and art

Lang founded his own international music foundation of the same name. He considers it his mission to make classical music popular throughout the world, thereby emphasizing the education of young children and young musicians. In New York, the Lang Lang International Music Foundation began its work in 2008, in the opening of which UNICEF and Grammy took part.

Lang Lang - La campanella (Live)

This foundation was specifically created for the development of children's lives, in which the main goal is the pleasure and deep understanding of listening to classical music, thereby inspiring today's youth to study music, invest their strength and financial resources there for subsequent generations of musicians.

Not a bad idea - agree with me. It’s better to let young people make music, and not hang around in doorways and gateways with alcohol, cigarettes, drugs and similar destructive, harmful things.

In the spring of 2009, Lang and three students from his international foundation - Anna Larsen, Charlie Lee and Derek Wang, all aged eight to ten - all appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Prizes and awards

In 2004, Langa was chosen as an international UNICEF ambassador. In 2008, the US National Academy of Arts and Sciences made Lang one of their cultural ambassadors to China.

In 2009, the famous Time magazine included our young pianist in the TOP 100 - a list of the hundred most influential people of that year.

liveinternet.ru

Hello everyone, the first month of summer is almost over, time flies. I haven’t written anything about classical music for a long time, today I decided to correct this matter and publish a post about a Chinese musician.

Lang Lang is a well-known figure in China and abroad, mainly playing the piano and performing works by famous classical music artists. If you like romantic music, I recommend listening to the Greek singer.

Lang Lang

Lang Kozhen is Lang's father, he is also a musician and plays the erhu. In general, who doesn’t know the erhu is an ancient Chinese bowed string instrument, a kind of violin with two strings.

Lang Lang - 74 virtuoso seconds (live)

Having studied diligently for several years, the boy finally entered this conservatory and continued his studies. Lang's parents were probably wealthy people, since they hired famous people and music professors as teachers for their child.

Competitions and performances

At the age of fourteen, the young pianist was already performing in front of his president. After this, he decides to go to Philadelphia and enter the Curtis Institute.

Lang Lang recently took part in the Berlin Philharmonic and performed his live concert there. People's opinions were divided, some liked it, some not so much, some considered his performance raw and heavy. There were even those who believed that a Chinese musician was better able to perform the music of classical composers.

After this performance, our young musician was still named one of the brightest performers of our time. He was also honored at the Music Performing Arts Center.

Contributions to music and art

Lang Lang - La campanella (Live)

Not a bad idea - agree with me. It’s better to let young people make music, and not hang around in doorways and gateways with alcohol, cigarettes, drugs and similar destructive, harmful things.

In the spring of 2009, Lang and three students from his international foundation, Anna Larsen, Charlie Lee and Derek Wang, all aged eight to ten, all appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Prizes and awards

In 2004, Langa was chosen as an international UNICEF ambassador. In 2008, the US National Academy of Arts and Sciences made Lang one of their cultural ambassadors to China.

In 2009, the famous Time magazine included our young pianist in the TOP 100 - a list of the hundred most influential people of that year.

In custody

This article was dedicated to the Chinese pianist Lang Lang. We learned a little about the life of this musician, how his acquaintance with music began, where and with whom he studied. We also learned that Lang Lang has opened its international classical music fund for future generations. If you have children, they like classical music and want to study it further, then encourage them in these endeavors.

Thank you for reading me on

On March 31, 2017, in one of the most magnificent historical rooms in Prague - the Spanish Hall of Prague Castle - a concert was held by the virtuoso Chinese pianist Lang Lang.

The concert concluded the Dvorak Praha festival when the winner of the Antonin Dvorak Prize, one of the most prestigious Czech music awards, which is awarded for significant contributions to the development and popularization of Czech classical music in the Czech Republic and abroad, was announced at the gala evening.

Since the project is under the protection of the President, the guests of the evening were greeted by the First Lady of the Czech Republic, Livija Klausova. She, together with entrepreneur Karl Komárek, the sponsor of the prize, as well as the chairman of the board of the Academy of Classical Music, Vladimir Daryanin, presented the prize to the winner.

This year it was the magnificent soprano Lyudmila Dvorzhakova, one of the world's best performers of Wagner and Strauss. However, I am not afraid to say that both the distinguished guests and the honored laureate were eclipsed this time by the Chinese virtuoso, who was invited to grace the significant evening with his performance.

Lang Lang is a paradoxical figure, causing eternal controversy, enthusiastic applause and discontent. He is not typical for our time - a pianist with the popularity of a rock or movie star.

Everything causes controversy, starting with his name. It’s good for the Czechs who don’t think about the English transcription of hieroglyphs they adopted. But the Russian musical community often breaks spears in debates - whether the musician’s name should be correctly written as Lan-Lan or even Lan Lan. However, the disputes do not end there and become especially acute.

Some say that Lang Lang communicates with the public, conveys the subtlest emotions, that the secret of his success is not in technique, but in poetry. Others, on the contrary, insist that in his error-free playing one can feel the mechanicalness of a machine that never makes mistakes, characteristic of Chinese performance of classical European music.

Still others write that recently, at the beginning of his world fame, he looked like the reincarnation of the great Horowitz, but later became too commercial, and his “beautiful sounds” are devoid of true content.

However, many music critics note that Lang manages to convey new ideas and the true beauty of music to the listener, and he is not at all narcissistic.

Lang tried to emphasize his “growing up” at the press conference before answering questions. He asked me not to remember such “jokes” as Chopin’s etude performed with an orange or “Flight of the Bumblebee,” which he played at a concert in San Francisco on an iPad. So some questions died on my lips. However, many other questions remain.

— You are playing in the evening at the final concert, at the presentation of the Antonin Dvorak Prize. How do you feel about this composer, do you play his works?

— Dvorak is one of my favorite authors. I have not played his piano works yet, but I hope that I will learn a lot about him from my Czech colleagues, and in the future I will definitely begin to play him. European classics are a great culture that removes barriers between peoples. I love performing it: it makes me a better person.

— The Times magazine named you one of the hundred most influential people in the world. How do you use this influence?

— Of course, playing the piano itself is very important to me, but from a certain point on, musical projects and foundations play a big role in my life. It started in 2004, when I became a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. I went to Tanzania and was touched by the fact that the children there had never seen a piano or heard classical music, but when I started playing, they were able to feel the music.

Some of them had AIDS or malaria, but music gave them hope. And I decided that my mission is to transfer music into the hands of the younger generation.

— How do you help instill a musical culture in children?

— In 2008, with the support of Grammy and Unicef, I opened a foundation in New York (Lang Lang Music Foundation), and there, as well as in San Francisco and Chicago, schools appeared where children study music more deeply. It took root, and then we tried to continue the project in Europe, and this year I opened a school in China.

I try to give Chinese children an international music education and bring good teachers from abroad, because we don't have enough of them.

— What do you achieve in these projects?

— The problem today is that there are not enough music classes in schools. In China, in my childhood, in an ordinary school, we listened a lot and constantly to the classics, Schubert, Beethoven, Dvorak. These are wonderful memories, this is where my love for music begins.

But now in many countries and many children do not have this, and how do they know that such great music exists? We are trying to start studying it in at least a few schools in each country, to show how music can influence children, and we hope that other schools will follow suit.

— You yourself have been playing since early childhood. Your whole life is connected with the instrument. How did you perceive it?

— When I was one and a half years old, my parents bought me a piano and a transformable toy. Then I first decided that the piano was also a toy, only a very big one. In general, I must say that everyone in my circle played various musical instruments, both classical and Chinese music.

It's very good for a musician to grow up in such an atmosphere. It's like learning the language your parents speak. However, after two years it became clear that to play the piano you need to practice very hard, and that it is not a toy.

— Do you work out a lot now?

— Now two hours a day is enough for me.

Before arriving in Prague, Lang Lang asked for a hotel room with an instrument so that he could practice in a relaxed environment. It turned out that very few Prague hotels could meet two criteria: offering a room so spacious and at the same time so isolated from the rest that the pianist's exercises would not disturb other guests.

It all ended with the fact that the piano was not brought to the room, and the musician was content with training in another place, but this played a role in the final choice of the hotel.

— A grand piano will be delivered from the Prague Philharmonic “Rudolfinum” especially for your performance at Prague Castle SteinwayNo. 3. Do you sometimes play a different brand of instrument?

— I’ve been playing Steinway for quite a long time, I’m used to it, I know its nuances and it’s very convenient for me, and when you feel comfortable and good, you usually don’t want to change anything.

— How do you keep yourself in shape?

— I try not to eat in the evening, which is actually not easy at all - most musicians want to go to a good dinner after a concert. A good suit is also very important to hide all the flaws.

— What kind of music do you like to listen to besides your professional interests?

— Jazz. I really love improvisation, which plays a major role in it. This is the talent I wish I had.

— Which music school do you prefer?

— I grew up in a Russian school, because all the teachers themselves studied in the Soviet Union at one time. When I came to the USA, I also had a teacher there with a Russian school. But later in Europe I became acquainted with German, Italian, and other schools.

I believe that it is very good to be able to play Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev using the methodology of the Russian school, and Beethoven using the German one.

But the most important thing is to give all of yourself to music, to connect it with your own heart. I am trying to instill this in those children who are now studying music with my help. They have their own teachers who give them good technique, and this is very important, but I try to make them understand that it is not enough to just play music, you need to put thoughts and emotions into it.

And this is exactly what Lang Lang managed to demonstrate perfectly at Saturday's concert. The Chinese musician has once again proven that he is the best contemporary pianist on a global scale. The sound was not only stunning in beauty, but full of power and emotion, true lyricism and poetry.

He was especially shocked by his performance of Schubert's Sonata B major D 960 - the change of moods, pain and emerging hope, and the lightest pianissimo, at which the audience froze, holding their breath. All this, together with the magnificent performance of Bach in the first movement and the most virtuosic etudes by Chopin in the second, brought the audience to their feet at the end of the concert, and with long and loud applause they expressed all their admiration for the concert.

Lang Lang was born in China in 1982 into a family of pianists and therefore studied music from a very early age. At the age of five, Lang Lang won a competition for young pianists in his hometown of Shenyang, and at the age of 9 he was accepted into the Beijing Central Conservatory of Music. Another 4 years later, Lang Lang won the First International Youth Competition in Japan and was honored to debut with the National Symphony Orchestra of China.

Lang Lang continued his further musical education at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. In 2004, Lang Lang was selected as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. And four years later, as China's cultural ambassador to the United States, he founded the International Foundation to attract new talent to music. The Wall Street Journal named the pianist one of the “20 Greatest Young People in the World.”

Lang Lang has many victories in various competitions and hundreds of performances with the best orchestras in prestigious halls around the world. There are never “extra tickets” for his concerts. Every performance of his is an event, and every concert is a sell-out.

Chinese pianist Lang Lang. The most sensual pianist of our time

You can hear many opinions about Lang Lang. And the opinions are mixed.

Everything about him is contradictory. Starting from the spelling of the name (somewhere we read Lang Lang, somewhere it is written Lan Lan and even Lan Lan can be seen) and ending with the manner of playing.

He is young, handsome, talented, extravagant. On stage he sometimes behaves like a child.

So funny, sincere and sometimes even humorous.

The good news is that the pianist is involved in charity work and has also opened a music school, where 150 young talents are already studying.

Most of the students are from poor families in the Chinese provinces.

Chinese pianist Lang Lang.

A little biography

Lang Lang was born in 1982 in China, into a classical Chinese family. His parents, relatives and everyone around him played different musical instruments, so he absorbed the sounds of music like his native language, learned to “speak” in it and express his thoughts.

At the age of two, he saw the cartoon “Tom and Jerry”, during which “Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2” by Franz Liszt was played. It was this episode that awakened his desire to touch music.

Lang Lang won his first competition at the age of 5, at 9 he entered the Beijing Conservatory (just think about his age!), and at the age of 14 he played in front of the Chairman of the People's Republic of China himself.

He studied with the best pianists in China, Russia and America, taking a little from each school, resulting in a magnificent symbiosis of cultures.

Lang Lang - Franz Liszt. Consolation No. 3

What amazing music, it seems that it is simply impossible to write something more brilliant.

And this is how the Chinese pianist performs this piece.

After listening and watching his performance once, you will never confuse him with anyone else.

Everything is amazing, right? It is precisely the soaring and enjoyment of every sound, every phrase that sets Lang Lang apart from many musicians. A kind of “floating” technique.

If you look closely, it seems that he is practically not touching the piano keys. It seems that he raises his hands to them, and they magically begin to play themselves. A truly mesmerizing sight.

The great modern pianist is distinguished not only by his musical gift, but also by his enviable perseverance. Some call it “the Chinese car that never makes mistakes,” but it is very difficult to earn such a title.

Honing his skills, he devoted 6-8 hours a day to his studies. But this is also very understandable. The work of a musician is always special.

Lang Lang - Franz Liszt. Sketch "Campanella"

Classical music performed by Lang Lang sounds in a new way. He hears it differently and tries to convey his vision of the work to the audience. According to Lang Lang, classical music always remains modern; it evokes the finest emotions in the souls of people of all ages and generations.

His merit is that he popularizes classical music.

His performances are often similar to modern shows. New ideas, filigree technique, as well as youth and mischief, help Lang Lang to conduct a dialogue with the listener.

One gets the impression that the sounds envelop and lift us up in a whirlwind, take us away from everything vain, bringing harmony and peace.

Lang Lang - Frederic Chopin. Etude op.10 No.3

Chopin is never easy to play. What is needed here is extraordinary subtlety, sincerity, and sensitivity.

The pianist has all this. Sounds seem to pass through the fingertips and can be touched.

Chopin, you are like a sea of cried tears,

Circling, turning and playing over the wave

Airy butterflies, swift dragonflies.

Dream, love, enchant, lull, calm.

Marcel Proust.

There is no sadness in Lang Lang's game. No matter how sad the work is, you can always feel, even if far away, a note of optimism, tenderness and joy.

This is largely possible thanks to the character of the pianist himself. He does not lose heart, he is always cheerful and cheerful. You can feel the excitement and youthful mischief in his performances and demeanor.

Once, he played one of Chopin’s etudes not with his hand, but... with an orange.

It turns out that this happens...

Lang Lang and the younger generation

Lang Lang devotes a lot of time and attention to educating the younger generation. He even founded his own foundation to support young musicians. Once, at one of the concerts in Vancouver, the pianist was a soloist along with a hundred young and talented students of music schools and colleges, who played fifty pianos with four hands.

The show was called “101 Pianist”.

Lang Lang became a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.

In an interview, he admitted that he was deeply amazed when he arrived in Tanzania and saw that the children had never heard classical music. It was then, according to him, that he understood the purpose of his life and his work - to introduce people to music and give them joy.

Lang Lang and his student Mark Y. Schubert.

Fantasy for piano four hands, part 1

Let's listen to how amazingly the pianist and his student perform this work by Schubert. Everything is very whole and organic. They seem to feel the music so much the same and how they move in unison. One gets the impression that they take one breath for two.

Lang Lang - Ave Maria Schubert-Liszt

Here is another wonderful and well-known work - Ave Maria.

Music has properties such as

Taking feelings to the zenith.

Quiet! Do you hear? - "Ave Maria!"

The euphonious height will captivate you.

A stern tune flows out,

It takes it with it to the skies,

Touching hidden strings.

The sounds are reverent, soulful,

They enveloped the hall like a veil.

And suddenly they become frank

Someone's dreams in bottomless eyes

And the soul with that strict prayer

Flying away, winged, up...

And hope, and pain, and anxiety

The song merged in a wondrous chord.

The world was filled with living sounds -

It's like a mountain spring gurgling.

The spell "Ave Maria!"

It sounds majestic and gentle...

Lang Lang - Schubert. Serenade

Schubert's serenade performed by Lang Lang makes the heart flutter. Sadness, sadness, tears welling up in the eyes. .

Lang Lang lives every note. And now it soars again, it seems that it is rising above the ground, and the languor of the soul and despondency are replaced by hope.

My song flies with prayer

Quiet at night.

Into the grove with a light foot

Come, my friend.

In the moonlight they make a sad noise

Leaves at late hour

And no one, oh my dear friend,

He won't hear us.

Do you hear the sound in the grove?

Songs of the nightingale,

Their sounds are full of sadness,

They pray for me.

All the languor in them is clear,

All the longing of love,

And they make you smile

On the soul they

Give access to their calling

You are your soul

And on a secret date

Come quickly!

Very beautiful and delicate execution. And on the video we will see more elements of the show with lighting and effects. Everything is amazing...

And in conclusion, listen to an interview with Lang Lang.

Very interesting material about the pianist.