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Preview: Lang Lang @ Symphony Center

Chicago November 17, 2008 | 10:21 AM Categories: Classical, Live, Reviews

River Waltz - Lang Lang

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lang lang.jpgWith his youth, virtuosity, good looks, and dramatic flair, 26-year-old Chinese pianist Lang Lang is as big a star as the classical-music world produces these days. He's spending the weekend in Chicago and playing several concerts at Symphony Center, of which the most intriguing is perhaps on Saturday night: he'll perform material from his album Dragon Songs (Deutsche Grammophon, 2006), a sparkling collection of recent compositions from his homeland.

The center of the album is "Yellow River Piano Concerto," a somewhat overwrought piece based on a choral work by Xian Xinghai, who died in 1945. The rest of the album is better, with sweet, richly melodic solo turns and a few duets toward the end with musicians playing traditional Chinese instruments like pipa, guanzi, and guzheng--my favorite moments. Lang Lang will be joined for parts of tomorrow's program by Chicago's own Yang Wei on pipa (he's worked regularly over the past few years with Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project), Guo Gan on erhu, and DaXun Zhang on bass.

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