The Wall Street Journal-20080215-WEEKEND JOURNAL- Adviser -- Classical Music- Keys to Success- Pianist Lang Lang Weighs In on His New CD and U-S- Tour
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WEEKEND JOURNAL; Adviser -- Classical Music: Keys to Success; Pianist Lang Lang Weighs In on His New CD and U.S. Tour
Full Text (1577 words)With his spiky hairstyle, bold wardrobe and flashy playing, 25-year- old pianist Lang Lang sometimes seems more like a rock star than a classical musician. Since breaking into the classical scene almost a decade ago, Mr. Lang, who was born in China and is based in Beijing, has become a crossover star. He is one of the bestselling young artists in the genre, and is even working on a project with Adidas. His hectic schedule includes a U.S. concert tour next month, an autobiography, "Journey of a Thousand Miles: My Story," due out in July, and an appearance at the Summer Olympics in Beijing this August. He just released his latest CD, "The Magic of Lang Lang," and spoke with The Wall Street Journal from Los Angeles.
WSJ: Some people criticize you as a technical lightweight, and also something of a showboat.
Lang Lang: I have many things to improve, I know that. For a musician, the most important thing is technique; technique serves music. As for performing, if you have a personal style, that should stay, no matter whether it's dramatic or poetic, that's who you are. I think I will never change that.
Q: Are there other players you admire?
A: Vladimir Horowitz, Martha Argerich. I was very fortunate, my former teacher was Gary Graffman, a pupil of Horowitz. I got a lot of this great Russian tradition from him, learning the Rachmaninoff Third, the Rachmaninoff Second, Scriabin, Prokofiev, Shostakovich. He also showed me I can have a personal style. Martha Argerich: Her Chopin is great. I think Argerich has such a unique personality, she makes music always interesting, always different, always creative. This is the type of pianist I like: You listen to it, you know what their signatures are.
Q: At the Grammy awards, you played Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue." Do you like American music?
A: I love Gershwin. Gershwin was a very serious musician. I love Copland, I've heard lots of Duke Ellington, I really like American music. It has a different approach [from classical]. It's more natural. You can make more rubatos and have more freedom. Also the mood is normally quite simple, not so complicated.
Q: You accompany singer Andrea Bocelli on a song on your new record. Are there other singers you would consider working with as an accompanist?
A: Yesterday, I met Barbra Streisand. I would love to do a project with her. People like Norah Jones, Alicia Keys, I really like a lot. I just recorded with Placido Domingo. Our album is coming out in May in America. Later, I'm going to work with Cecilia Bartoli, the most inspirational female singer in the world, in my opinion.
Q: You have played some 20th-century music in concert. Do you have any favorite 20th-century composers?
A: Bartok is my favorite. Debussy, Rachmaninoff, Ravel I like -- Gershwin of course -- Ligeti, some of his pieces are cool, very sophisticated. And then also Messiaen. He has some really beautiful, magical stuff.
Q: Are there any Chinese composers who have expressed an interest in writing for you?
A: Tan Dun is writing a piano concerto for me. In April, we will have the world premiere at Lincoln Center.
Q: Tell us about a piece or two on the new album. Your style goes from Liszt to Rachmaninoff to Mozart and Haydn.
A: I wanted to do something here for a young generation. I do the Mozart "Piano Sonata in C Major." Mozart is the most delicate, most elegant composer I think I ever played. He has this incredible personality. He shows five or six different personalities in two bars. Like his opera, he's also very dramatic, in a very subtle way. It's not very obvious. You need to listen very carefully.
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Cover Me:
Moorer Follows in the Tracks
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Of Masters Patti, Joni, June
On her new album, "Mockingbird," out next Tuesday, singer-songwriter Allison Moorer performs songs written by women such as Patti Smith, Joni Mitchell and June Carter Cash. "It's really scary to do a project like this," Ms. Moorer says, "because you want to put your own stamp on things, while at the same time you don't want to bite off more than you can chew." Below, she speaks about several of the songs on the album.
-- Robert J. Hughes
Ring of Fire
Written by June Carter Cash/Merle Kilgore
"Not many people even know that June Carter wrote that song, it's identified with Johnny Cash so much. I thought I'd take a stab at it, and I didn't even know if it had been covered by a woman before. I wanted to bring out how pretty it is. It's simple but beautiful."
Both Sides Now
Written by Joni Mitchell
"I felt I had to do a Joni Mitchell song. She's influenced countless female singer-songwriters. I kept coming back to this song, the lyrics are so worldly and melodically it's stunning. It was a no-brainer."
Orphan Train
Written by Julie Miller
"I've been a huge Julie Miller fan for years and years, I think she's one of the best writers in the world. Even though her songs are so sad, they're filled with hope for me, this song in particular. She should be world famous."
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Cultural Figures:
Zombies Show
Life at Box Office
Zombie franchises can be as relentless as the monsters they feature. George A. Romero, director of 1968's "Night of the Living Dead," which was remade in 1990, is back with a new horror movie, "Diary of the Dead" (pictured above), opening nationwide today. Below, a look at the domestic box-office performance for several zombie movies made over the past 20 years.
-- Pet Sematary (1989); $57.5 million
-- Night of the Living Dead (1990); $6 million
-- 28 Days Later (2003); $45 million
-- Dawn of the Dead (2004); $59 million
-- I Am Legend (2007); $254 million
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Pages:
Reimagining a Revolutionary
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A Novelist Examines the Life of Frantz Fanon
Award-winning novelist John Edgar Wideman often writes books that focus on African-American life in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. His new work, "Fanon," has an international scope: It's a novel about the Caribbean writer, psychiatrist and revolutionary Frantz Fanon (1925- 1961).
Fanon was born of African descent in the French Caribbean island of Martinique, fought for France during World War II but then against it in Algeria's war for independence. He is the author of such nonfiction works as "The Wretched of the Earth" and "Black Skin, White Masks." Mr. Wideman, who was raised in Pittsburgh, says Fanon was always important to him, but it wasn't until he visited Martinique a few years ago that he decided to write a book about the man. "He grew up in a colonial society that was...divided into black and white," Mr Wideman says. "He suffered tremendously from that." Mr. Wideman's novel plays with points of view. The protagonist is named Thomas, a fictional African-American novelist who, like Mr. Wideman, is writing a book about Fanon. From there, "Fanon" freely blends fact and fiction. "I didn't want to write a biography or reconstruct his life in fictional form," Mr. Wideman says of Fanon.
Below, some excerpts.
-- Robert J. Hughes
Page 36
When Thomas writes his Fanon book he'll borrow many voices to disguise his voice, speak from behind masks the way Fanon composed Black Skin, White Masks. A simple plan like Fanon's plan for saving Algeria. As simple as Hannibal crossing the Alps with terrorizing elephants to surprise attack Rome's back door. Or an American president dropping a fleet of helicopters at night into the desert of a hostile country to rescue hostages. Or Columbus sailing west to go east. Or terrorists chopping off heads to liberate bodies. As simple as accepting a face in the mirror as real. Simple if you don't ask who is gazing into the glass or who's inside staring back . . .
Page 86
Never say die. Fanon to the rescue. I accepted the fact that fact had overtaken my fiction. Waylaid my story. Wasted it. On the other hand, Fanon's story remains relatively untouched, forgotten like novels on the bestseller list the year he died. Or a list from twenty years ago. Five years. Two years ago.
Page 158
On Martinique, part of a crowd lining a broad avenue in Fort-de- France, Fanon had watched a saint's day parade. Why did he cringe, lower his eyes. Why couldn't he just laugh out loud, shout, clap his hands, sway in place to the infectious rhythms thumping from drummers on a flat-bed truck, search out a familiar face in the swirl of old- school beke planters' white linen suits, straw hats, the long-spinning dresses . . .
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Datebook
Friday 15
The film "The Year My Parents Went on Vacation" opens in New York and Los Angeles, with other cities to follow. Set in 1970 in a Jewish- Italian neighborhood in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the story centers on a boy who is left to the care of a neighbor when his militant parents go into hiding.
Tuesday 19
Ray Davies, the front man for the rock band the Kinks, releases his second solo record, "Working Man's Cafe." Mr. Davies recorded much of the album in Tennessee, and co-produced it.
Also Tuesday, Sega is releasing "The Club," a new videogame about players who participate in a violent sport controlled by an elite group whose members bet on survivors.
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