Profundity is unattainable by the young, an old cliche in music goes. The inner sanctum of mature compositions only reveals its secrets to the aged and experienced.
But Lang Lang, 21, has challenged the dictum with his sensitivity and virtuosity.
What he nurtured at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and honed at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia has developed into an immaculate, fearless technique.
Two years ago, the then teenage pianist showed skills - a full package of pyrotechnic bravura, lyricism and nuance - when he performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch to a packed Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
Then last year, Lang stormed the Fifth Beijing Music Festival through Rachmaninoff's popular "C-minor Concerto" with the famed New York Philharmonic under the baton of Lorin Maazel.
And on Saturday night, he will join the opening concert of the China Philharmonic Orchestra's 2003-04 season at the Poly Theatre in Beijing, performing his most requested repertoire, "Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No 1."
On Sunday night, he will give his fist recital in Beijing, again at the Poly Theatre.
The program for his recital is diverse, beginning with Schumann's early view of lyricism "Variations on the Name 'Abegg' for Piano in F" and concluding with Lizst's "Reminiscences de Don Juan."
He will also make excursions into Haydn, Rachmaninoff, Chopin and Chinese composer Tan Dun's "Eight Memories in Watercolor."
Lang said he selected the mixed bag of works because they embody many different characteristics, styles and techniques.
Liszt's "Reminiscences of Don Juan," drawn from the Mozart opera "Don Giovanni," "is one of the most difficult pieces in the entire piano literature," he said.
"It's kind of like you're taking a huge chocolate to try and produce a tiny chocolate. 'Don Giovanni' is three hours long (but) this piece is just 20 minutes. Liszt really knew how to make magic happen."
Classical music fans will no doubt expect much from his interpretation of Haydn's "Piano Sonata in C Major," since few pianists these days bother to investigate the richness of Haydn's prodigious talent.
"The Haydn Sonata is very charming. It has beautiful Baroque melodic lines with crystal sounding passages and very natural rhythms with contrasting dynamics," Lang said.
It may be a huge distance to travel along the keyboard from Haydn to Rachmaninoff, but Lang has confidence in his ability.
"The Rachmaninoff Second Sonata is an extraordinarily passionate piece where three movements are played without a break. The whole work has the feel of telling a big story with sadness, love themes, war and victory," he explained. "Even the weather is expressed differently on every day of this musical story as the composer uses varied color tones, especially in the second movement."
In contrast to Western classics, Tan's "Eight Memories in Watercolor," a mixture of Debussyan impressionism and Bartok-like folk song, is a recognition of the homeland of both the composer and pianist.
In spring, Lang premiered Tan's work at the Kennedy Center in Washington.
"The music feels very natural to me because it's so connected to my own roots and always reminds me of going home," he said.
Tan's music is definitely in the vein of modern music.
"It's very important to play something new, but you cannot just do it for the sake of playing a new piece," Lang said.
"Everything must be there: You totally understand that piece and you know the feelings."
A top teen
Whether Lang will "change the world" - as the US journal Teen People predicted in its April 2002 issue along with 19 other "Top Teens" - is an open question.
But what is clear right now is his capacity to rouse audiences, as he has done at many of the world's leading concert venues over the past few years. He started his journey after a dramatic and triumphant last-minute appearance at the Ravinia Festival in August 1999 when he was introduced by Isaac Stern to fill in for an ailing Andre Watts at short notice.
After the concert, the Chicago Tribune hailed: "He is the biggest, most exciting young keyboard talent...in many years."
In the following years, Lang made his sold-out Carnegie Hall debut and his London BBC Proms debut at Royal Albert Hall.
With natural charisma, a cherubic face, a huge heart and unusually rubbery fingers of indescribable fleetness and agility, Lang is considered an innate musician who delves to the very heart of the music he plays, uncovering new depths of emotion.
"Lang Lang is a deeply emotional, exuberant player," says Yu Long, artistic director of the China Philharmonic Orchestra. "He has the compelling features of youth, a kind of exuberance."
In February this year, Lang signed a five-year contract with Deutsche Grammophon, arguably the most prestigious classical label, and released his debut CD last month, which features his two works with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Daniel Barenboim.
Lang has achieved this against the backdrop of much-released favorites like the "First Piano Concertos" of Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn.
Lang demonstrates that even the most unabashedly familiar fare sometimes deserves to be heard anew from a younger talent.
Commenting on the signing, Christopher Roberts, president of Deutsche Grammophon and Universal Classics & Jazz International, said: "Lang Lang is one of classical music's truly bright young stars. He is a tireless performer of global stature who offers a unique combination of energy, talent and media savvy."
Nowadays, many people consider it difficult to interest younger generations in music by Mendelssohn or Tchaikovsky that dates back to the 19th century. But Lang does not believe it is really the case and says he is confident of leading them to classical music.
"This music is very old. But it's like Shakespeare, or the great novels, or the Bible, which people still read today. Some pop music is only famous for one or two years. But you can live with this kind of music forever," Lang said.
The young pianist is optimistic about the future of the musical genre that he loves.
"The piano is such a popular instrument around the world, to some degree, it's like basketball or football. I think classical music has a very bright future. But of course as performers, we must develop our next generation and help them to understand."
Early childhood
Born in Shenyang, capital of Northeast China's Liaoning Province, Lang was brought up in a dormitory building devoted to culture and art.
His father, Lang Guoren, is an erhu soloist with a local ensemble of folk music. Everybody in the building played an instrument or sang.
"The walls were very thin so you would hear an amazing mix of Chinese folk music and symphonic music coming from behind every door," Lang recalled.
His father gave him the second name Lang, which in Chinese means "bright" or "brilliant" and bought him a piano just before his third birthday.
He then studied the piano with Professor Zhu Yafen at the Shenyang Conservatory of Music. And six years later, he entered the Central Music Conservatory in Beijing.
At the age of five, he won his first contest, the "Shenyang Piano Competition," and when he was 11 year old, Lang won first prize in the "Fourth International Young Pianists Competition" in Germany.
After he won first place in the "Tchaikovsky International Competition for the Young Pianist" in Japan in 1995, a number of world famous conservatories wanted Lang.
An invitation from Gary Graffman of the Curtis Institute was irresistible. Graffman is a former pupil of Vladimir Horowitz, who was Lang's idol when he was very young.
"As a little boy, I watched Horowitz on television. I was stunned. It seemed like he was making magic."
Today, Lang has a packed schedule of more than 150 performances a year. Almost every day brings him another city.
During his time off, Lang has a lot of fun.
"If you do not have a relaxed life, you end up just playing notes. I've played a lot of video games and I love to play ping pong. I like watching Tiger Woods and of course I watch (basketballer) Yao Ming."
(China Daily August 30, 2003)
