Barnes & Noble
Lang Lang's abundant technical gifts and his youthfully impulsive personality have quickly won over the classical music world, but the solo performances featured on Memory reveal a side of this musician that's far more endearing. This recital, consisting of works the pianist associates with his youthful studies (hence the nostalgic title), makes relatively small demands on his technique, but that's what throws the sincerity and the intelligence of his interpretations into relief. Surely he had mastered the basics of Mozart's C Major Sonata (K. 330) as a nine-year-old prodigy, but the warmth and joy of this performance -- perceptible in the rhythmic delicacy, the careful details of articulation, and many other aspects -- demonstrate a mature understanding of the composer. Likewise, Schumann's Kinderszenen (Scenes of Childhood) finds Lang Lang viewing youthful days through grown-up eyes, and he beautifully crafts each of these miniatures as a fleeting poetic vision. Lang Lang devotes the heart of this recital to Chopin's Third Sonata, a work more obviously adult in its sensibilities, yet one that had already found a place in the teenaged pianist's repertoire. In the Sonata's Finale, Lang Lang's fingers finally get a workout, but the real pyrotechnics are saved for a bonus CD, featuring an encore performance of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in the thrilling Vladimir Horowitz arrangement. There you'll catch the dizzyingly talented Lang Lang we already knew, but don't be surprised if you find yourself preferring the sensitive and emotive artist who emerges in the main program. Scott Paulin
All Music Guide
The initial burst of hype surrounding the appealing young Chinese pianist Lang Lang was followed by an equally strong backlash alleging that he was a pure product of panicked major-label marketing. Perhaps with this disc it will be possible to get beyond these rather instinctive reactions. Despite its thematic-sounding title, it's a very mainstream piano recital with its Mozart curtain-raiser, big Chopin sonata, and Schumann "Kinderszenen," with the Liszt "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in C sharp minor" as an encore on an enclosed second disc. (The "Memory" referred to in the title is that of having played these pieces as a child.) The arrangement of the Liszt is by Vladimir Horowitz, of whom Lang Lang seems to be seeking to become a kind of avatar.
It won't do to claim, as his detractors do, that Lang Lang's talents are in any way average; the piano is a big, intimidating machine, and Lang Lang is among the few pianists who seem to be in complete control of all its parts. Sections of all these works call for one kind of sheer technical mastery or another, and Lang Lang shines in these. His light touch in the first movement of the Mozart is unmatched. His perfectly controlled use of the pedal in the first movement of the Chopin makes the piano seem to breathe; his Chopin scherzo, a fleet little piece to wow the crowds in Chopin's Paris, is very sharp indeed. Nor is it feasible to claim that the young pianist has reached some plane of perfection that one would have to describe using notions of the Kantian sublime. The balance he intends with his Mozart slow movement is murky. The rather strangely accompanied but undeniably present bel canto melodies in the Chopin don't sing quite like they should.
In the end there's an X factor that makes this disc a good one for those who've heard about Lang Lang and want to check out his music. The program hangs together as a whole, and it does have an elusive quality of childhood music-making remembered. There are any number of other readings of Schumann's "Kinderszenen" that do more with one piece or another in the set than Lang Lang offers here, but there is a curiously dreamy, retrospective quality that hangs over the whole. The Liszt "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2," which Lang Lang first encountered in the music of a Tom & Jerry cartoon, lets loose some high spirits that speak of youthful enthusiasm revisited. Deutsche Grammophon's engineers have done their utmost to make the label's new property sound good, and they pick up the overtones that roll around inside the piano as Lang Lang's pedal does its magical work. James Manheim
Gramophone
One constant factor in this recital is the beautiful piano sound Lang Lang produces, superbly captured by DG's engineers. It s a joy to hear. Jeremy Nicholas
Los Angeles Times
[Lang's] tone is pure gold, and his liquid phrasing still approaches poetry. His flamboyance shows through now and then, as in the ferociously difficult Horowitz/Liszt arrangement. Mark Swed
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© 2009 All Media Guide, LLC