Is Lang Lang about to ditch the diamante, jettison the hair gel, and come over all sophisticated?
Not only is he guest editor of super-designery Wallpaper* magazine this month, he's also collaborated with artsy Bob 'Einstein on the Beach' Wilson in the posh booze promotion above and below.
What's next, Wigmore Hall?
This was the sight greeting visitors to the Vienna Opera Ball earlier tonight. "Our opera house is not a bunga-bungalow" says the one at the front - a reference to grizzled millionaire Richard Lugner's escort (in every possible sense), Ruby.
Here are the pair, raising Austria's cultural profile with Lugner's other guest - yes it's JR himself, Larry Hagman:
Raising the tone considerably were Anna Netrebko, Erwin Schrott, and Erwin's daughter Iara, guests of the Staatsoper's new director, Dominique Meyer:
The face that says "my shoes hurt":
On stage for a couple of numbers was the scrubbed-up Elina Garanca:
And guess who turned up on a whim, just because he happened to be in the area?
Hmmm. Are you surprised Lang Lang's been keeping this particular corner of his promotional endorsement activities low profile?
The real mystery though is why, presented with the puntastic opportunity of a lifetime, advertisers LangLangham Hotels plumped instead for the less predictable shortsighted-butterfly-raping-a-bow-tie shot.
The New York Times claims that Lang Lang's forthcoming Haiti benefit concert in Carnegie Hall will raise next to nothing for the earthquake victims, even if all $189,793 worth of tickets sell out.
No criticism can attach to Lang Lang and his fellow artistes, who have waived their fees. But the concert promoter CAMI Music estimates that expenses will total $181,590, which will leave little profit.
Costs include hall rent of $13,785, $6,315 for ushers, $2,300 for security and $42,535 for "stagehand labor" (aka unionised piano-shifters on $500K a year).
Ironically the biggest expense itemised in the article is a massive $52,000 for advertising the event - in the New York Times.
Fortunately an added $60,000 in promotional sponsorship from Montblanc and CAMI should ensure the Haitians receive some cold hard cash.
Prom 56: Sachsische Staatskapelle Dresden / Luisi / Lang Lang - Royal Albert Hall, 27 August 2009
This is what the Proms are best at. Modestly-scaled works may be cruelly exposed by the troublesome acoustic, but the army demanded by Strauss's Alpine Symphony - 100+ musicians, a vast battery of percussion and of course the mighty organ - filled the Royal Albert Hall where others fail. The Staatskapelle Dresden's agile, propulsive performance was not without blemish. But Fabio Luisi balanced his forces beautifully, and telling details like pizzicato raindrops were perfectly framed against an unsentimentally-wrought landscape.
Inspired programming paired it with traces by Rebecca Saunders. Strauss takes us up the mountain and down again; Rebecca Saunders circles round it, contemplating from all angles. Monumental blocks of sound materialise and evanesce, shape and colour changing with each appearance. The leering, jagged crux warns this is not cosy mood music. It's hypnotic yet unsettling.
Too many of the 'contemporary' slots in this year's Proms have been given over to John Adams and his warm baths in post-modernist cliche. This formed a rare and essential diversion.
Too bad a toddler's wails pierced through the quieter sections. I'm all for welcoming kids, but there are limits - a concert hall is not a creche.
And then on bounced the Saviour of Classical Music himself, Lang Lang. His hair was gelled to attention, his head tossed back, his face scrunched in ecstatic agony - it was impossible to watch him without wincing - but his usual exuberance at the keyboard was reined in. Chopin's second piano concerto was all restraint, not a note was hammered. He listened to the orchestra, they listened to him. Questionably, he sacrificed his usual brilliant articulation for a more smudged, impressionistic tone.
There was little that seemed spontaneous, but nothing garish or vulgar either. It wasn't a brilliant performance or one that will stick in my mind forever by any means, but it's further evidence that Lang Lang is at last exploiting his exceptional talent more wisely. Even his encore, a Chopin étude, was thoughtful and delicate. Has Lang Lang grown up?
Recent Comments