Lang Lang

Presenter0:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young. Thank you for downloading this podcast of Desert Island Discs from BBC Radio 4. For rights reasons the music choices are shorter than in the radio broadcast.

Presenter0:10

For more information about the programme, please visit bbc.co.uk/slash radio four.

Presenter0:34

My castaway this week is the pianist Lang Lang.

Presenter0:37

A child prodigy and classical music phenomenon, his talent and showmanship have earned him worldwide renown.

Presenter0:44

Playing for presidents, royalty, and a global audience of four and a half billion at the opening of the Beijing Olympics.

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The drama he brings to the concert stage is matched by the story of his early life in China.

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amid the grim, stinking slums of the country's capital.

Presenter1:01

His father demanded a punishing degree of dedication from his only child, determined he would be the number one pianist in China.

Presenter1:10

Lang Lang says I was bold.

Presenter1:12

Even at the age of five, the determination to win was in my blood it shaped my dreams at night and drove my discipline during the day.

Presenter1:21

You've now, Lang Lang, reached the grand old age of twenty eight. How's your competitive spirit these days?

Lang Lang1:28

I think my competitor i is actually myself. And if the focus is on the music, then I think everything will come. But obviously when I was five I thought

Lang Lang1:42

There is a world number one in piano playing.

Lang Lang1:46

But then I realise.

Lang Lang1:49

There's a fairy tale.

Presenter1:50

I see. Um, can you give me a snapshot of typically how many performances you would give in a year?

Lang Lang1:57

Yeah. I actually gave a hundred twenty five concerts plus fifteen charity concerts a year. So overall I'm I'm playing around hundred forty.

Presenter2:09

Um how much time do you spend in airports?

Lang Lang2:11

Mm, every second day, I would say. Yeah, for me airport is like a bus station, you know. I mean, people take a bus to work and I take a plane to work. It's the same thing. And I'm used to this kind of life, so for me it's all right. Or talking to my mom, uh, she's actually traveling with me, so.

Speaker 42:19

Cool.

Presenter2:26

Yeah.

Presenter2:31

Um I heard you say of your performance at the two thousand eight Pejing Olympics opening ceremony, that sitting there in the middle of the bird's nest at your piano was like um you used this wonderful phrase. You said it was like being in the universe. Yes. Explain a little bit more of that to me.

Lang Lang2:47

I it was a real special night. Twenty thousand performers that night, you know, performing. And I remember I need to babysit the little girl who's playing next to me. Yeah, and she's so cute and and she was how old? She's like five years old. And and she asked me, When can I go home? Uh can I get off the bench? Uh can I dance a little bit? I said no, no, no, no, no Your job is to sit with me, unfortunately, but sit with me and playing some some music. I need to come her down.

Presenter3:18

I mean, a global audience of four point five billion. The massed ranks of not just the politicians from your own country but all around the world, the pressure to get it right could never have been greater. How did you feel at that moment?

Lang Lang3:34

I actually didn't really uh think about four billion people when I was when I was performing.

Presenter3:38

That was one hour.

Lang Lang3:40

But I remember the first rehearsal.

Lang Lang3:44

I had a total, you know, goosebumps. I was so overwhelmed. And um it's a city, the Beijing, which I I kind of grew up.

Lang Lang3:55

And I had a lot of uh good memories and also a lot of uh disappointment memories. So so it's a it's a place that I have a lot of emotion for. And to go on to this stage is actually the biggest stage ever for me. So it's it's just really, really quite special.

Presenter4:15

We will talk a lot about those memories, I hope, a little bit later. Let's start with some music then, Lang Lang. Tell me about the first disc that we're going to hear today and why you've chosen it.

Lang Lang4:23

I'm actually choosing my childhood musical icon, Michael Jackson, and uh his biggest hit, Suller. It's quite interesting. It's really

Lang Lang4:34

the most exciting track I ever know. But in the same time, this track is actually uh happened in nineteen eighty two, which is the year I I was born.

Presenter4:45

You're Making Us All Feel Old. Let's Read It Thriller by Michael Jackson.

Presenter5:18

That was Michael Jackson, of course, and Thriller. I I was wondering, Lang Lang, you were you were talking before about this that piece of music being released the very year you were born, nineteen eighty two. Did you did you hear that when you were a little boy in China? Did you

Lang Lang5:26

1980.

Lang Lang5:29

I did listen at elementary school because all my classmates are are quite crazy about Michael Jackson. When did you first sit down at a piano and play?

Lang Lang5:39

Um, I sit down at the piano just for fun, I mean, when I was two and a half, you know, but it doesn't mean anything, I just sit down and

Lang Lang5:47

And then there was a piano at home, wasn't there? Yes, my parents bought one.

Lang Lang5:51

They loved it and during the Cultural Revolution there's no chance to study classical music. So right after the revolution um my parents married in the very beginning of the eighties the first thing they bought was a piano.

Presenter6:06

Uh

Lang Lang6:07

Yeah. They told me that they spent six months of their salary to to buy the first uh piano.

Presenter6:12

And by the time you were, let's say, you know, five, six, uh, you were playing properly?

Lang Lang6:17

Yes, I actually started r study when I was three and a half.

Presenter6:22

To s

Lang Lang6:22

Study. Yeah, to a study.

Presenter6:22

Yeah.

Presenter6:23

Studying meant what at three and a half.

Lang Lang6:25

Um study Bach, study the exercise book and scales and yeah.

Presenter6:31

Have your parents spoken to you I imagine they must surely have about realizing that this was not just an ordinary little three and a half year old tinkling away at the piano that here was a three and a half year old who was able to to express himself in such an extraordinary way?

Lang Lang6:46

I mean in the beginning probably they just thought that I'm um

Lang Lang6:50

you know, play for fun, but then

Lang Lang6:52

At five I played my first recital, and

Lang Lang6:55

At that moment I I think uh my parents are also the teacher.

Lang Lang7:00

People realize that I have something special to share on stage. How many

Presenter7:04

What people were you playing to then?

Lang Lang7:06

Eight hundred, it was a uh it's like kind of a young pioneers uh concert hall, you know, because that time is still uh qu quite early stage into uh Chinese system.

Presenter7:17

This is only a matter of maybe even just a decade after the end of the Cultural Revolution.

Lang Lang7:22

Yeah, this is just, let's say, Cultural Revolution ended in 76. So this is like.

Lang Lang7:28

A bit over ten years.

Presenter7:30

Um given that most parents of of five year olds, six year olds have have trouble getting them even to putting their hanging their coat up, how did your parents get you to actually sit down and practise? Were were you resistant to that? Or did they have to encourage you?

Lang Lang7:37

I'm hiking.

Lang Lang7:43

Yeah.

Lang Lang7:44

They don't really need to push me so hard because because in the beginning I thought piano is like a toy, and also in the beginning

Lang Lang7:50

You know, your parents not pushing you to practice so much in the beginning. In the beginning. Later, yes, but in the beginning it's like, you know, kind of like play a toy, play Transformers, play games, and play piano, almost like that.

Presenter8:04

When you are five, h how many hours a day? Would it have been an hour a day you would have been playing piano more more than?

Lang Lang8:09

No, one was five. Um three hours, I would say, three three hours practice.

Lang Lang8:15

Yeah.

Presenter8:16

I said in the introduction that there was this idea that was uh you were to be the number one pianist in China. Can you remember what age you were when that phrase was first used?

Lang Lang8:26

Uh

Presenter8:26

Uh

Lang Lang8:26

Mm-hmm.

Presenter8:26

Uh

Lang Lang8:27

After the recital I played.

Lang Lang8:29

Who said that to you? Uh my parents, particularly my father, actually.

Presenter8:34

Uh

Lang Lang8:34

Yeah.

Presenter8:35

Much more to come. For now, though, let's hear some beautiful piano music. Tell us what we're going to hear next.

Lang Lang8:40

Yeah, we're going to uh hear Chopin's vaults uh in D flat major. This is played by the great Arthur Ruminstein. This is one of the most uh famous vaults and this is the one that actually I played uh in the first recital.

Presenter9:53

Chopin's waltz in D-flat major, known of course as the minute waltz played there by Arthur Rubenstein. You were saying Lang Lang that that memorably was uh your first recital, that was one of the pieces that you played, um and you said that you and your father uh talked about this idea of being uh the number one pianist in China. It was it was an intense relationship from the beginning, was it? In the very beginning it was okay, actually.

Lang Lang10:17

The relationship became pretty tough when my mom stayed at home and my father quit his job to be with me in Beijing to prepare to take audition to the best conservatory in China. At that time we became very intensive.

Presenter10:32

Very.

Presenter10:33

Your parents were artistic people themselves, your father being the leader of the local orchestra. What about your mother?

Lang Lang10:40

My mom actually loves music. When she was very young, yeah, she wanted to be a musician, but of course, I mean, in the end, she uh turns to a

Lang Lang10:48

To have a decent job, but it's nothing exciting and n-nothing musical.

Presenter10:52

Um did you get a sense that that uh in a way you were sort of expressing their artistic passions, that these were two people who very much had had to more than knuckle down? You know, they absolutely had their paths worked out for them by the community and the time that they lived in, but you could express yourself musically and and artistically.

Lang Lang11:09

Yeah, I mean my parents had a huge dream, but uh that generation of people, I think many of them just achieve their dream in a halfway, you know, because the the revolution really, you know, that that's disturbed. Yes. After the reforms time, which is after seventy nine, we are actually only allowed to have one kid.

Presenter11:21

Yeah.

Lang Lang11:29

So, only in child generation. So, so, therefore, I mean, I felt.

Presenter11:29

So hold on.

Lang Lang11:34

In my generation that the the parents put a lot of pressure on the kid, because first of all many of them didn't achieve their dream, and then now they have a a chance, but only one chance one kid only. So so you can imagine it's a it's a very unusual time.

Lang Lang11:52

But in in the other hand, if I have a like, let's say four siblings like my mom, or like five siblings like my father, then I don't think I will have the chance to study piano, because that's involved with a lot of money and efforts and education and uh focus. So in in a way i i it worked for me.

Presenter12:13

I w I certainly did. I want to ask you a little bit more later about your journey to Beijing and leaving your mother. That happened when you were around about nine. Um there's something now in China, I understand, called the Lang Lang effect, which is that there are estimated to be more than thirty-five million young Chinese piano players. Uh how are you treated by those young piano players when you go home? Are you able to walk down the streets?

Lang Lang12:14

Yeah.

Lang Lang12:19

Yeah.

Lang Lang12:37

I mean, seriously, uh, piano become some real phenomenon in China. I don't know whether it's to do with me or not, but

Lang Lang12:45

piano be became the number one instrument. Of course I can I can't walk through the street without security, but I mean I got a lot of pictures taken. So that's that's actually nice.

Presenter12:53

Right.

Lang Lang12:56

when I go out for a coffee or something, people stop and then take a picture or asking for autograph and sometimes uh I got mobbed. But it's all feel good because if classical musicians can also be loved by the general public, it it's a great thing.

Presenter13:12

Okay, let's have some more music then. We're on disc number three now. What are we gonna hear?

Lang Lang13:13

That's how

Lang Lang13:16

Now we're going to listen to my favorite singer, Luciano Pavarati and uh his most famous song, Solomia. This one really inspired me to start listening to classical operas. And Pavarati w is the first classical tenor to reach out to millions of people.

Speaker 313:38

Quepellatos an ayurna desol.

Speaker 313:45

Nara Serena no pona vesta Naria Freshka barejana festa.

Lang Lang13:55

It's one of it.

Speaker 313:59

Quebella Cosana Urma Pesf.

Lang Lang13:59

Well luck was on a Uranus.

Speaker 314:06

One night to soul will be lost.

Speaker 314:16

Oh, sorry, oh, sign of helpful.

Speaker 314:29

Sign from Tat Saint Frontier.

Presenter14:38

Liuciano Pavarotti and Osora Mio, my son. So, Lang Lang, you say you were nine then when you moved from the family home in Shenyang, that's just northeast of Beijing, to Beijing itself. You moved with your father, and the purpose there was to get you into the conservatory.

Lang Lang14:55

Yes. I remember the first day I I got so depressed because we moved into a real small and very poor and dirty neighborhood. I think six families share one toilet.

Presenter15:11

Is it true that your father would get up at five in the morning and go to this communal toilet area and lock himself in?

Presenter15:18

In order that when you woke a couple of hours later, you didn't have to queue to use the bathroom. Is that a true story?

Lang Lang15:23

Is that a true story? Yeah, not every morning, but sometimes, yes, it is. Most uh neighbors understood, but some neighbors hate it, you know.

Presenter15:32

This was to do then about the management of your time. That you could not spend an hour queuing because that was time that you could be practicing. Was that? Right, right. I mean, there are things that I've read that sometimes seem difficult to believe. Did he also, when you were practicing, because the flat that you lived in was so cold? Is it true that he got into bed to warm your bed? Yes, yes. That's true.

Lang Lang15:34

But you could

Lang Lang15:39

Right, right.

Lang Lang15:48

Right.

Lang Lang15:52

Uh

Presenter15:52

Uh

Presenter15:53

What do you make of that?

Lang Lang15:55

I think that that's father's love. I think that's um that really shows his love for me and his support, you know, as a father. I got very emotional when when I remember those things. But in the same time my father was very tough, you know, so it was like real love and hate relationship.

Presenter16:14

This is a very close and difficult thing, isn't it? Because on the one hand there is this terrific sacrifice by both of your parents because your mother is kissing goodbye her only child, only nine years old, and your father is living in this dump in Beijing that's... Yeah, and quit his good jobs and yet at the same time the pressure he's placing on you is immense. That's a complex mixture.

Lang Lang16:18

What is this?

Lang Lang16:22

Yeah.

Lang Lang16:24

Yeah.

Lang Lang16:27

Yeah, and quid

Lang Lang16:29

Mm-hmm.

Lang Lang16:34

Yeah.

Presenter16:36

How did you deal with I mean, now, of course, you you're more mature, you're twenty eight, you have this soaring career, you can see it with a degree of perspective. At the time, when you were a nine, ten year old boy, how did it feel?

Lang Lang16:42

Have this.

Lang Lang16:51

In the beginning it was very bad. I mean, in the beginning I I started missing home, missing all my friends, especially m my mother. That that's the really painful part. I mean so that's why, you know, I I think now these days I I need my mom all the time, you know, to be with me. It's just because I my heart it was really hurting when I was uh separated from my mom.

Lang Lang17:16

And at uh school it was not easy also, you know, people looking down at me from the countryside and pretty poor and and kind of practice piano all the time, kind of a weird, weird. Really the worst was not those things. The worst was uh I had a piano teacher

Lang Lang17:34

But every class basically she said that

Lang Lang17:37

You shouldn't play piano because you're not good. You're simply no talent.

Lang Lang17:42

I mean, you will never make it And then after six months she totally uh kicked me out. Um What did your father do?

Lang Lang17:50

He went crazy, went nuts, of course, and

Presenter17:53

Nots at you or nuts at her?

Lang Lang17:54

Not really to her, because he knows that she's a professor at Conservatory. If he's too hard on her, that will damage my future. So so he was hard on me.

Presenter18:04

What form did that take? What did what did he do?

Lang Lang18:06

I mean, one day he got so mad and he asked me to to jump the building and to uh to not live anymore and and that was uh

Presenter18:13

To jump off of the balcony.

Lang Lang18:14

Yeah, we had this big fight.

Lang Lang18:17

And then I also went nuts, I started, you know, trying to destroy my own hands, you know, on the walls and and somehow we didn't talk for a long time.

Lang Lang18:25

You didn't talk and you didn't play? No, I d I stopped playing.

Presenter18:29

Because I hate it.

Lang Lang18:30

Yeah.

Presenter18:30

PR

Lang Lang18:30

Uh

Presenter18:30

I know that time.

Presenter18:32

To be beating the wall, to be destroying your own hands as a pianist is is the most self-destructive thing you can do.

Lang Lang18:38

Right. That's the the worst thing you can do I think. Yeah. Yeah, and I was nigh, I mean that was scary.

Presenter18:40

Yeah.

Lang Lang18:43

Seriously. Thank God I didn't really do it, you know. I mean, I did, but I mean, my father stopped me. I mean, thank God I didn't jump the building and thank God he stopped me, you know.

Presenter18:43

Sure.

Speaker 418:43

That's

Presenter18:44

Wait.

Lang Lang18:53

Is it true he gave you some pills? Yeah.

Presenter18:55

Yeah.

Lang Lang18:56

In the same time, so but I didn't do it.

Presenter18:58

This is such an extreme situation. I'm wondering, was your father's reaction? Was it out of anger? Was it out of shame? Shame, I will say. It was shame.

Lang Lang19:05

Shame, I'll say.

Presenter19:07

Yeah. That you that he had uprooted the family. Right. That you would have to go back home and say you didn't get into the Conservatory. Right. Right. Let's have some more music now, Lang, Lang. We we are on uh track number four now. Yes. What are we gonna hear?

Lang Lang19:07

Yeah.

Lang Lang19:09

Right.

Lang Lang19:12

Right.

Lang Lang19:20

This is uh one of the world's most beautiful piano concertos. It's the Chopin piano concerto, number one, a second movement, and this is played by the Boniform Muri Pariah with uh the Israel Feharmoni conducted by my favorite conductor, Subi Mehta.

Presenter20:35

Murray Pariah playing part of the second movement of Chopin's Piano Concerto No. One with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta. And you said going into that, Lang Lang, that Zubin Mehta is your f uh your favorite conductor. Why is that?

Lang Lang20:47

Why is that?

Lang Lang20:48

First of all, um I really admire his art, uh, but also the whole family I'm very close with, uh his son and his brother.

Lang Lang20:57

Actually his brother Diarmid was actually one of the persons who discovered me when I was studying in America.

Presenter21:03

When you say discovered, you explain that. What do you mean discovered you? How did that happen and what happened?

Lang Lang21:09

In order to have a career breaking ground you need to have some chance to play in a very important concert. And his brother, Zaharan, was the one who gave me the first chance to play

Lang Lang21:25

Together with the

Lang Lang21:27

Christoph Enchenbach at Chicago's Rominia Festival in nineteen ninety nine.

Lang Lang21:33

So it was really, really the moment.

Presenter21:36

And you stepped into that concert with just a matter of a few hours' notice. I mean, how did it actually happen? Take us through the series of events.

Lang Lang21:41

Right.

Lang Lang21:45

I was taking audition.

Lang Lang21:48

And then after I played the audition and Zahr and Mehta came to me and said

Lang Lang21:54

Do you have a a concerto that I you think you can play right away?

Lang Lang21:59

I said, Oh, maybe Tchaikovsky comes through and then

Lang Lang22:02

I'm back to

Lang Lang22:03

Philadelphia, where where I study.

Lang Lang22:07

The day after I in the morning I got a call from Ravinia Festival saying, Oh, come back, step in. Isaac's turn is waiting for you for your first rehearsal And you were how old? Uh, seventeen, just turned. So so that that was my lucky break.

Presenter22:21

And the concert that night it would be fair to say it went well.

Lang Lang22:24

It went more than well, it w it was really good one.

Presenter22:28

It was a

Lang Lang22:28

Yeah.

Presenter22:28

Big.

Lang Lang22:29

Yeah.

Presenter22:29

Well, I'm very interested in what happened after the concert, because you were then asked to give a a very private performance. Tell me about that.

Lang Lang22:35

Tell me about that. Right, and then afterward both Christophe and Zaren asked me, Oh, it seems like you're pretty high tonight. Do you have something else to play?

Lang Lang22:44

I got a little hyper than I, so it's like, oh, yeah, what do you want?

Lang Lang22:50

They say, Do you play Bach? I said, Yeah, I do play Bach. And they say, Come on, let's play some Goldberg variation. So

Lang Lang22:58

Um, I remember they came back to the concert hall after the party and

Lang Lang23:04

And I started play the whole night.

Presenter23:06

And let's just be clear about this. You're not sitting here with the sheet music in front of you. No, this is.

Lang Lang23:09

But it was I didn't prepare, so I just s just start playing. I I I don't know how well I played, I only remember a little bit, uh but um it was a special night, let's let's put this way. You say night, what time in the morning did you

Presenter23:20

Yeah.

Presenter23:22

You finish your performance.

Lang Lang23:23

Uh I think almost three thirty A. M.

Presenter23:26

I mean, this is this is the moment of a lifetime. This is the moment when everything changes for you, literally, in that twenty-four-hour period.

Lang Lang23:34

Right. Absolutely. That's that's like a life changing moment.

Presenter23:40

Yeah, I call it.

Lang Lang23:40

Uh

Presenter23:40

Yeah.

Lang Lang23:40

Yeah.

Presenter23:41

Was your father there?

Lang Lang23:42

Yeah.

Lang Lang23:43

What did he say to you at the end of it all?

Lang Lang23:45

He said you did a good job, he said.

Lang Lang23:49

He patted on my back. As usual, he said, Good job.

Lang Lang23:53

So tell me now uh

Presenter23:54

what we're going to hear appropriately.

Lang Lang23:56

Yeah, so now we're gonna hear the opening movement of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. one in B flam major and played by Van Clyburn. And somehow that that piece, the Tchaikovsky concerto, opens many great pianists' career, including also Horowitz, for example, when he played with uh Toscanini. And not only he played with Toscanini and then he also married Toscanini's daughter, so this piece became a kind of a bridge.

Presenter25:22

The opening of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto Number One in B flat major, played by Van Clyburn with the RCA Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kirill Kandarshin. Um when you were playing that, aged seventeen in Chicago on that momentous night, Lang Lang, is it true that as you sat down you were channelling the energies of uh Michael Jordan, the basketball player, and imagining him doing a perfect slam dunk?

Lang Lang25:45

Absolutely. Because Michael Jordan was a very inspirational figure. I got so much uh inspiration from his very creative playing and his signature movement. And uh and here we go, Chicago.

Presenter26:01

It's it's true, of course, when you say things like that, that you do shake things up and you do shake people up, because that's not what a classical musician is supposed to be thinking of.

Presenter26:12

He's supposed to be thinking of the great artistry in channelling the composer, is he not? He's not thinking about some guy doing a slam dung.

Lang Lang26:12

I suppose

Lang Lang26:18

Right, I mean that that's that's true. Um but when you're seventeen years old I think it it's it's it's pretty cool to to think a little bit about sports. Obviously we do um put ourselves most time into researching, analyzing, you know, behind the notes i i in the score and but we should bring other interests into music as well.

Presenter26:36

Right.

Presenter26:40

You are, then, of course, this world class musician. You are also, though, a global brand, too. Your your very name, Lang Lang, is is trademarked, is that right?

Lang Lang26:49

Right, yeah.

Presenter26:49

Yeah. Okay. And and you've got deals with I'm looking down the list here, Adidas, Versace and they go on and on and on. I mean, that is very much in the mold of uh the sports the sports stars of our age. Is Versace still dressing you?

Lang Lang27:01

Is what

Lang Lang27:03

Uh yes, they are. Um they are, yeah.

Presenter27:05

Do they dress you for day to day or they dress you just for concerts?

Lang Lang27:07

No, it's not full concert.

Presenter27:09

'Cause you look very sharp today. You're wearing what that's sort of blue silk shirt, a s shiny belt, a patent brogues, which I've never seen before. Do you dress do you dress yourself or do you have a stylist?

Lang Lang27:19

I mean, normally when I go to Milan, that's a very happy time, as you know.

Presenter27:23

Okay. Anyway, sorry, I'm not sure.

Lang Lang27:25

So the sponsorship. Yeah, the sponsorship. And to support our initiatives, like my foundations to helping children, you know, the providing scholarships to the very talented children. So I got uh very lucky with many sponsors that they are interested to inspire uh the next generation for music studies.

Presenter27:56

In these economic times, of course, artists like everybody else have to be realistic about the economic situation. And if private funding can be brought into the arts, then most people would say that's a good thing. Do you worry, though, about the criticism that might come from the more traditional areas of the artistic establishment who would say, well, y you know, you have to be

Lang Lang28:03

Uh

Speaker 428:03

Uh

Lang Lang28:03

But

Presenter28:17

You have to be mindful of not compromising your artistry or that you just become like a Formula One car, you know, a sort of walking billboard for all these brands.

Lang Lang28:26

In the end I am not a Formula One driver.

Lang Lang28:29

I am a classical musician, so that's why I'm not worried about it, because in the end I don't become a a pop star. I mean I am what I am, which is uh playing uh Beethoven and but you can't always depend on only support from government or only support from the concert hall. That resource is is wonderful but it's limited.

Presenter28:51

Let's have some more music now, Lang, Lang. What what are we going to hear next?

Lang Lang28:55

Talking about dreams, we should listen to the first inspiration from the Tom and Jerry cartoon, uh, The Cat's Concerto. This is the great Vladimir Harvest version, playing part of the List Hungarian Rhapsody, number two.

Presenter30:09

Vladimir Horowitz playing part of the Hungarian Rhapsody number two by List. You should explain, Lang Lang, that going into that, you said the Tom and Jerry music. What what did you mean, the Tom and Jerry music?

Lang Lang30:18

Yeah, it's a very famous episode. Tom and Jerry is playing together uh on this piece. It was the first inspiration for me to start loving classical music and that's the the moment. But at that time I didn't know who Harvest or who List was, but obviously I know who Tom was.

Presenter30:38

It was great to watch you listening to that piece of music. At one point you put your head in your hands there and you said, Oh my God, every time I listen to that I hear new notes. How did he do that? How did he do that?

Lang Lang30:48

Yeah, I mean Harvitt is just a piano god.

Lang Lang30:52

And every time you you you hear what he does it's just it's just fabulous.

Presenter30:57

There are, of course, along with your many fans I don't know if you if you read the critics, but there have been critics who've said, you know, there there's too much of the pounding from you, that there's too much of of the histrionics. Do do you take note of your critics, or is that for other people to judge?

Lang Lang31:11

It's actually quite nice that people writing about me, whether it's good review or bad reviews, the intention is good, you know.

Lang Lang31:20

I'm still quite young and there are a lot of things that I'm trying to to work out and to to improve.

Presenter31:25

Can I ask you about that? Because I've read that that there are times when uh we know about your schedule, you've told us about that, the the amount of performances you give. There are times when you choose to to retreat, even if it's just for a matter of a few days at a time. You you go to Berlin, is that right? And you study with Baron Boyne and tell me about those times.

Lang Lang31:30

A map?

Lang Lang31:33

If

Lang Lang31:40

Yeah, he's

Lang Lang31:43

So tell me about

Lang Lang31:45

So it's very important to cool down and to have a a real concentrated time to learn new symphonies, new operas and how I'm going to develop as a musician.

Presenter31:58

That was an intriguing little phrase you used there. You said to cool down. Do do you worry about that? Do you think that that for you particularly as a player it's important that sometimes you just take a breath?

Lang Lang32:01

Mm-hmm.

Lang Lang32:10

Absolutely, and this summer I I took first ever.

Lang Lang32:14

Summer holiday.

Presenter32:15

Ever.

Lang Lang32:16

Yeah, I realize life is not just working and playing concert, but also to have some uh free time and to be with family and friends and for example, I I'm in my home town, Shenyang, and I met my grandmother and she's now eighty six, but I haven't seen her in five years.

Presenter32:35

Right.

Lang Lang32:36

So it it was for me it was uh very very emotional.

Presenter32:38

Sometimes it's easier to stay on the hamster wheel than it is to get off it, because when you get off it suddenly everything's a bit disorientated.

Lang Lang32:46

No, that's fine.

Presenter32:47

It was fine.

Lang Lang32:51

In order to be a a normal human being, we can't always on the spotlight every day. We just can't do that.

Lang Lang32:59

Yeah.

Presenter32:59

Uh

Lang Lang32:59

More music Uh

Presenter32:59

But what's your um An ultimate track.

Lang Lang33:02

I like to bring everyone to China a little bit and for Chinese this is the even more famous than the national anthem. It's called the Yellow River Cantata and what you're gonna hear is a movement played actually by me. I really enjoyed the beginning of the bamboo flute songs. It's really beautiful.

Presenter34:23

From the Yellow River piano concerto that was the Yellow River in Ross played by Mike Astaway with the China Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Long Yoo.

Presenter34:31

I wanted to ask you, Lang, we've heard about your early life in in China and and how close y you were and are to your parents, and indeed visiting your grandmother only a little while ago.

Lang Lang34:40

Mm-hmm.

Presenter34:42

But you live in New York. You you're a a global citizen.

Presenter34:46

Do you feel sometimes that you're not one thing or the other? That you're not quite settled in Western culture and yet you're not entirely steeped in in China and the way that the people there live now?

Lang Lang34:57

Yeah, I mean, in a way I like it because for me there are a lot of incredible things in Western culture that China doesn't have. And in the same time there are many great Chinese traditions, great philosophy and the most beautiful poems nobody knows in the West. So in a way that, you know, if you combine Shakespeare to Confucius,

Lang Lang35:21

There something happens, there something new comes out.

Lang Lang35:25

For me it's a good advantage that I can learn lot of uh great things from different culture.

Presenter35:31

Well, we maybe find out more about that in a second. For now, though, you can tell me about the final uh disc that we're going to hear today. What is it?

Lang Lang35:38

Yeah, the final disc is um George Gershman's Rap Sudden Blue. And why have you chosen this? My second part of um my studies was actually in in America and now I live in New York and also Leonard Bernstein was it's also an absolute musical idol for me. And so here is he he's actually playing and conduct.

Lang Lang35:59

He's a a real genius and Gertrude is a also a real genius. So two two geniuses combined, they are the best representative of uh American uh classical music.

Presenter37:09

George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, played by Leonard Bernstein with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra. So, Lang Lang, we come to the point where, before I cast you away, I'm going to give you the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare, and you may take a book of your own. What would you like to take to the island?

Lang Lang37:24

Um if I only take one, I will take the analects of Confucius.

Presenter37:30

Right, you may have that. And you you're allowed a luxury. What's your luxury gonna be?

Lang Lang37:36

I will bring a nice pillow.

Presenter37:38

Okay. Nice big feather feather pillow. Right. Okay. I'll even give you two pillows then. Uh I I am amazed that you will live without a piano. Will you manage to live without a piano?

Lang Lang37:49

Um I probably will draw a keyboard on the sand and practice with my brain.

Presenter37:55

Okay. And if you had to choose just one piece of music, which which one disc would you choose?

Lang Lang38:01

That is a very, very hard choice, but I will take the piano god, Vladimir Horowitz. It's yours.

Presenter38:09

Mr Lang Lang, thank you very much for letting us hear your desert island discs.

Lang Lang38:12

Thank you so much, Christine.

Presenter38:59

You've been listening to a download from the BBC. You'll find more information on the Radio Four website bbc. co dot uk slash radio four.