In Thursday’s (10/20) Philadelphia Inquirer, David Patrick Stearns writes about pianist Lang Lang, who is set to perform with Charles Dutoit and the Philadelphia Orchestra for its Liszt concerts Thursday through Saturday, with the final concert scheduled to be broadcast live into movie theaters through a partnership with NCM Fathom. “Titled Lang Lang Live on Franz Liszt’s 200th Birthday, the Saturday simulcast, to be repeated Monday, will feature him in Verizon Hall for Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1,” writes Stearns. “But instead of showing the full program with Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10, the simulcast will feature Lang Lang in a prerecorded solo recital…. The event might also be a first step in a relationship with NCM Fathom, a communications network that had discussions with the orchestra in 2008, and that handles the big-screen presentations of the Metropolitan Opera and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Also, the simulcast is entirely underwritten by Sony Classical—probably in the vicinity of $500,000.” Stearns writes that Lang Lang’s “current preoccupation with Liszt may well feed into his image of being unduly flamboyant—years ago he was nicknamed Bang Bang—though there’s nothing new about that. ‘I know what I’m trying to achieve in art, so there are no worries,’ he says. ‘If I was only flamboyant, I would be worried!’ His Friday Philadelphia concert has him playing Beethoven’s more restrained Piano Concerto No. 2, which will be repeated Tuesday at Carnegie Hall.”
Posted October 20, 2011
