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| Lang Lang: Dragon Songs (Plus DVD) |
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List Price: $19.98
Our Price: $14.99
You Save: $ 4.99 (25%)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0028947765769
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
Number Of Discs: 2
Publisher: Deutsche Grammophon
Release Date: 2007-01-09
Studio: Deutsche Grammophon
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Editorial Reviews:
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Lang Lang has fascinated audiences all over the globe--now he takes them home to show them "his" China with Dragon Songs, a CD+DVD set with Chinese piano solo, chamber, and orchestral music. Discover the musical culture that forged one of the most acclaimed classical musicians of our day. The CD juxtaposes the Yellow River Concerto, a large-scale, highly virtuosic piano concerto with colorful sound scales, with miniature pieces for solo piano and with chamber pieces that combine the piano with traditional Chinese instruments. Most of the pieces merge tradional Chinese melodies and idioms with the Western classical music--the result is music of astonishing beauty and ease that will strongly appeal to a broad audience. The 130-minute DVD features a full-length documentary offering a fascinating and intimate look behind the scenes of Lang Lang's latest China tour. The DVD also includes a concert of the solo piano and chamber music pieces from the CD filmed during the Dragon Songs recording sessions in Beijing.
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| Spotlight customer reviews: |
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Album of Utter Finesse
Comment: Many claim Lang Lang to have dire interpretational problem.
What in fact is 'interpretational problem'? There is simply no standard answer, as the topic is pure subjectivity.
That said, for those (Chinese especially) who claim that Lang's "Yellow River Concerto" lacks in any thing at all, I would rebut by a direct answer - Lang's Yellow River is his OWN Yellow River; not the one in the 1970's, nor 1940's.
Lang Lang grew up under the direct influence of Chinese music - his father was member of a Chinese performing troupe and plays the Chinese instrument erhu, as many may have known already.
This album compiles many songs that Lang Lang has grown up with, and he has a very intimate and personal approach to those songs, transcribed to the pianoforte.
Some diehard Chinese music followers query the combination of traditional Chinese instruments with the pianoforte in this album. Again, such worries are unfounded. Lang's ability to 'sing' on the pianoforte is abundant, and the pieces flow demurely and elegantly throughout the various tracks.
Just sit back and enjoy. Do not forget the truth that music is about the senses, not the critical cerebrum.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Genocide Piano Concerto
Comment: If you are interested in the actual history of the Yellow River Concerto, check out the Wikipedia entry on this piece of music's sordid history. The concerto is the product of a People's Republic committee during the Mao regime (Mao's wife was in charge of the project). This is the same regime responsible for the deaths of millions of people during its reign.
The fact that Deutche Grammophon has released this work is particularly puzzling, since I doubt that they would record and release a work written during or about the Third Reich.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Thoroughly enjoyable!
Comment: Recorded in Bejing in 2006, this combination CD/DVD from Deutsche Grammophon offers a comfortable mix of East and West in fourteen musical selections that run the gamut from major compositions in China such as the 1939 "Yellow River Concerto," running 20 minutes in four major parts and moods [This writer's favorite would be "Ode to the Yellow River" with its rich base and cello introduction and melodic, flowing low-to-mid range piano melody] to the simpler traditional sound of "Dialogue in Song" piano solo. The blending of styles throughout is intriguing.. "Ode," for example, alluded to above, might sound like something straight out an American western, depicting in music the rolling rich prairie land of the American West, yet the music was written as a string choral cantata during the Japanese occupation of China in 1939 and, according to Lang, was a piece "that helped bring back our energy and self-confidence - a reminder that we would do great things." In other words, the piece is, at its foundation, distinctly Chinese in origin. But this two-for package contains something else; it contains a bonus DVD, widescreen, beautifully filmed and composed feature about the pianist, his journey back to China, his concerts and personal glimpses of his family life and teaching techniques to some amazing students. It is a wonderfully entertaining, National Geographic quality tour of Lang's homeland as well as an entertaining - almost hypnotic - biography of this talented pianist. It is a thoroughly enjoyable CD/DVD combination that is hugely successful in what it sets out to accomplish, both musically and visually. This review appeared at [..]
Customer Rating:
Summary: Total delight!
Comment: I can't praise this CD enough. Hearing this wonderful Chinese piano music, in Lang Lang's brilliant performances, is a total delight! Even the Yellow River Concerto, which could be considered kitsch, is given such a warm and sincere reading that it radiates a kind of "New World Symphony" energy. There are
guest artists playing Chinese instruments. And there's a bonus DVD about Lang Lang and his roots.
Pure joy!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Change of pace ... the 2 hour and change DVD alone worth the gander!
Comment: I agree with the reviewer Brian D. Kline [March, 2007] that the DVD itself is worth the cost but more than that, and some may have difficulty with this one, Lang Lang [or as some reviewers elsewhere at Amazon have referred to as "Bang-Bang"] seems to be settling down 'somewhat' from his earlier days but hey, what is expected, the almost 80 years performance seasoning [and demeanor] of a Claudio Arrau! The guy is still in his twenties although I will say and not deny for a moment that I was one who thought Lang Lang's facial muggings and bench contorsions went to the extreme along with apparent efforts to do a sort of very early Liszt, as it were, but only in terms of attempting to break those piano strings!
On the other hand, the DVD shows a more toned down Lang Lang and I do like the work he does with the young folks although it is ironic [for those who have seen the DVD] to see Lang Lang at the master classes in China telling the students to tone down their expressiveness [!] or, put bluntly, key banging which is a little like our friend GG [Glenn Gould] giving pontifications on the importance of posture [!] at the piano! That famous folding chair notwithstanding and which now is reposing at the GG museum in Canada. Under safety-glass no less!
It's hard not to like Lang Lang [or, as his people keep emphasizing, 'LAHNG-LAHNG' in pronunciation or, hey, try the word 'lawn' via a borrowed Boston accent [you know, 'kahhhh' for car sort of thing and simply add a 'g' ! ] and I think with some time he may mellow a bit although concurrently maintaininbg his enthusuiasm. But then hey, back to GG, and this from 'very' close amigos, to wit, and think the Big Apple CBS recording studio way back when a la, "Glenn, please, a 'vocalization diminuendo' to the extent possible, OK ... ." I don't know about you but the 'Tah-Tah-Tah-Tah-ing' ad infinitum grated after awhile!
Switching and noting that others have already commented on the presented music which I agree was well done and rather sedate where it had to be, between the DVD that exceeds 2 hours [131 minutes] and the CD of an hour an change, a rather nice package considering the $14.97 [as I type this anyway] price tag. Finally, 'what' Lang Lang has to say in the DVD and in terms of its substance appealed to me and I also think he is wise enough to know that he is 'not' another Liszt but then too he does make clear that he searches for his own identity which is always preferable to cloning the best of the lot, as it were, or, worse, such mixed bag cloning and then attempting to brag about it! Or, hey, various renditions of Lang-Lang at the piano in a sort of cross between Jerry Lee Lewis gone amuck and Stevie Wonder sans the shades!
Doc Tony
BTW, Lang Lang at Carnegie Hall [CH]. Worth the view! I recall certain purists getting all bent out of shape when Lang Lang in this his first CH recital introduces his father and they do the 'competing horses' thing with Dad on the 'R-U' [sp. ??] and son on the piano but as one can see, 'especially' if they know the CH audiences which can be akin to the UK Proms brethren from across the waters [in terms of sophistication] when they are happy versus when they are not , but the crowd seemed to love the duo! I admit at once that I did too! Interesting instrument that 'R-U', yes? Decidedly beats the "prepared piano" [! -- think about it!] thing tho' ... by a spoon! Ehhh, I mean a bolt ... a marble ... a mile! ;-)
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