Lang Lang: a little bit of stardust in Southam Hall

Lang Lang with Anita Pari

Like many National Arts Centre regulars, the idea of a Lang Lang concert sounded fantastic... except that for me the Gala tickets are rather too expensive. As a result the turnout for today's masterclass with young artists Anita Pari (Ottawa), Alexander Malikov (Calgary), and Tina Chong (Banff) in Southam Hall was pretty good.

No surprises that there were photographers and a TV camera all over the stage... so much so that during Lang's analysis of Malikov's rendition of Transcendental Étude No 8 'Wild Hunt' (Liszt), someone shouted at the cameraman to move. To my mind they seemed a little intrusive on the performances, but none of the artists seemed to take any notice.

Lang Lang with Tina Chong

Up first and for me the best performance was Anita Pari with the captivating Ballade No 1 by Chopin. In comparison, Malikov's performance did not have anywhere near as much projection. Final performer Tina Chong seemed to get the harshest criticism (all comments couched in very friendly tones) for her performance of Mozart's Sonata in D major, K311: from tempi to excessive pedalling. Nonetheless, all three responded really well to Lang's comments and I definitely learned quite a lot! When talking, as with playing, Lang communicates with his whole body - fully getting behind the point he is making with all limbs. It certainly gave away his enthusiasm for music, and for teaching. A few humourous asides helped to develop an atmosphere both light and intense - in particular his closing comment to Chong: 'you have a beautiful heart; just don't drive too fast'!

A short postscript - the Ottawa International Writers' Festival events for their autumn edition have now been announced. I recently had a look at their new online journal, Foment, which has a very wide selection of detailed book reviews (and more).

Comments

Anonymous said…

Great review! Thank you for your constructive input.
Alexander Malikov

6:38 am, September 22, 2012

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