Lang Lang at Tanglewood
Every summer we make a few trips through the vastly cultural Western Massachusetts area, visiting institutions such as Mass MoCA, Jacob’s Pillow, and most frequently Tanglewood.
Tanglewood Music Festival is a summer festival, started in 1937 and, besides many jazz concerts, folk concerts, food and wine events, has served as the summer home for the Boston Symphonic Orchestra since that time.
The Boston Symphonic Orchestra or BSO, now in its 132nd season, has always been a very avant-garde organization. Founded in 1881 by the Civil War veteran Henry Lee Higginson, the orchestra only has had 1 American born Music Director since then. This was the highly regarded James Levine from 2004 to 2011, whose health issues stopped him from having the finale that he deserved. Starting the 2014-15 season, BSO will enter in to a new chapter with the young Latvian conductor Andris Nelsons as it’s music director. BSO.org is the largest and most visited orchestral website in the United States.
Earlier this summer we attended a very interesting remake of West Side Story, where the movie was screened without music and the BSO played the score live. Like many, I was skeptical at first, but it turned out to be a great success, with record attendance. BSO has decided to perform this production a few times in Boston in the fall.
Last weekend we caught a concert, dedicated to the memory of the great French composer Henri Dutilleux, featuring Ravel and Beethoven. Charles Dutoit, who had a longstanding relationship with Dutilleux, was brought over to conduct an all-star cast, including Lang Lang.
Most of you may have seen Lang Lang play at the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but this was my first time seeing Lang Lang perform, live or otherwise, and my image of him was one of hype, showmanship and arrogance. This was not helped by my children’s piano teacher, who grew up with him, taking piano lessons together in China, and whose comments on his and his father’s character were never the most flattering.
He performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in C, Opus 15 and I was in awe. Yes, there are the poses, the hand waiving, the endless going off and coming back on the stage, but that man plays a mean piano. He builds cultural bridges between East and West, works with pop culture, playing part of the soundtrack of the video game Gran Turismo 5, and recently has increased his efforts of bringing music in to the lives of children, through his work with Unicef and his own Lang Lang International Music Foundation.
Steinway Pianos, for the first time, named a model after a single artist. The Lang Lang Piano is now available in China and is specially designed for education.
This was only Lang Lang’s second ever performance in Tanglewood, exactly 10 years after the first, and I feel very fortunate to have witnessed it. Because of the several large screens at the festival, there is no bad seat in the house and everyone could see his hands glide over the keys in such a way that they, and the fingers, seem totally detached from the person.
Never miss an opportunity to see this guy play!