Lang Lang, a superstar pianist, has received enormous compliments as well as critics on his performance. “Still, no fair-minded person can deny that Mr. Lang has stupendous technique and keen musical instincts.” commented Anthony Tommasini on Lang Lang performance of Bartok’s Piano Concerto No. 2, with Alan Gilbert conducting the New York Philharmonic . In the concert review on New York Times, Tommassini greatly praised Lang Lang techniques and musical talent, however in my comments, I’d like to focus on his exaggerated performing style with a discussion of how important appearance and performance is for a concert and a classical musician in modern society.
In the world of classical music, it seems most people go to concert to not only listen and but also to see the live performing. However, a large orchestral concert can have over 50 players and all of them sit in the same place wearing the same black color, so it’s hard for any of them to stand out. But still, from the marketing and media perspective, individual and group performance is crucial to increase publicity. It contributes to the popularity and the success of the concert.
The difference between going to a classical music concert and listening to a CD at home is that you can experience the musical atmosphere in a concert, of which the artist’s performances is a major part. The sound quality of the concert is more or less the same as a CD, so it’s the artist’s passionated and devoted performance that impresses you and draws you in. Also an audience will probably be happier and more likely to go to another concert if he/she sees comments on newspaper or TV about the concert he/she went last night. But since most concerts have good quality, having something more than playing good music catches more media’s attention, and give critics something to write about. So Lang Lang’s exaggerated performance adds some entertainment value to the concert that worths talking about.
From individual artist’s perspective, being stylish make he/she stands out from competitors. As classical music is not an easy art, few people can tell the difference between the Beethoven Piano Sonata played by he or she. In order to get people’s attention, and leave a deep impression, an artist need to use his/her appearance and performance to catch people’s eyeballs. So quite a few modern pianists are in this direction. Check out the following stylish pianists’ performance.
Yujia Wang in miniskirt.
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Nola Anstanova’s music video:
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So for Lang Lang, a lot of people criticize his over expressive performance, but I feel as long as he is natural and consistent with this persona he creates, it’s fine. As a Chinese pianist, I’ve paid a lot attention to him and, at first,felt his performance unnatural. However, after seeing his performance and interviews over these years, especially after I met him in person while working for his US label Sony Masterwokrs. I feel his sincerity and honesty about his style; it’s not faked. Also, I doubt Lang Lang would be the same successful as he is now, if he didn’t draw all those criticism on his performance. So being stylish is really necessary for a modern classical musician, because, unlike the ancient society where music is the main and maybe the only entertainment people could have, there’re many other interesting stuff for people to enjoy. If classical music still stay in its snobbish style, it will have less and less audiences. The appearance and performance style may not contribute to the actual quality of the sound of music. It definitely makes classical music more interesting and less intimidated to the mass.
