{"id":19886,"date":"2022-10-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-03T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=19886"},"modified":"2022-10-06T11:48:15","modified_gmt":"2022-10-06T09:48:15","slug":"music-that-changed-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/2022\/10\/04\/music-that-changed-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Music that changed me"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n

Music that changed me <\/h4>\n\n

Lang Lang<\/h2>\n\n

Pianist <\/span><\/h4>\n\n

Chinese pianist Lang Lang has won plaudits for his mastery of the classical repertoire, performing with conductors including Daniel Barenboim and Simon Rattle. But his extrovert performances of works ranging from Chinese folksongs to Metallica and Herbie Hancock have also inspired millions of children to learn the piano. On his new album, The Disney Book, <\/em>he presents iconic movie melodies, reimagined in new versions written especially for him by some of the world\u2019s leading arrangers. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

\n\n
<\/div>
\n

The choices <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Tchaikovsky<\/span> Piano Concerto No. 1 <\/strong><\/strong>Lang Lang (piano); Chicago Symphony Orchestra\/Daniel Barenboim Deutsche Grammophon 474 2912 <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

JS Bach <\/span>Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 <\/strong><\/strong>Glenn Gould (piano) YouTube <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chopin<\/span> 24 \u00c9tudes <\/strong><\/strong>Vladimir Ashkenazy (piano) Decca 466 2502 <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Puccini<\/span> \u2018Nessun Dorma\u2019 from Turandot <\/strong><\/strong>Luciano Pavarotti (tenor) et al Decca E467 4622 <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael Jackson\/Lionel Richie<\/span> \u2018We Are the World\u2019 <\/strong>YouTube <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n

My all-time favourite piece is TCHAIKOVSKY\u2019s <\/span><\/span><\/strong>Piano Concerto No. 1. I listened to it in my little dormitory at the Shengyang Conservatory, and I was amazed at how powerful classical music could be. Before that I had listened to beautiful Mozart, but one day I heard these huge chords at the opening of the concerto, and I thought, \u2018Wow! This is something.\u2019 Later, this concerto launched my career when I played it with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra [standing in for Andr\u00e9 Watts], and I\u2019ve played it many times since. <\/p>\n\n

As a ten year-old in 1992, I watched a video of Glenn Gould playing JS BACH\u2019s<\/span><\/strong> Goldberg Variations. <\/em> I\u2019d never heard Bach played this way. Such a strong personality! You think of Bach as being economical, but the way Gould played it was like a Picasso \u2013 he totally changed the shape, the melody, the voice, the articulation. It was the same material, but he turned it into another, amazing creature. More recently I played the Goldberg Variations <\/em>in concert and I\u2019ve recorded two versions: a live recording at [Bach\u2019s own] Thomaskirche, Leipzig; and another in the studio. Glenn Gould said it\u2019s much better to record in a studio, and I agree, but there\u2019s something about the spontaneity of a live concert \u2013 those special moments that you don\u2019t get in the studio. As students, we are always practising exercises by composers like Czerny and <\/span><\/span>Moszkowski, but <\/span>CHOPIN\u2019s <\/span><\/strong><\/span>24 \u00c9tudes are on another level. They are not just about pure technique \u2013 they are about serving the music. This is why we have to practise: to make the bridge between the mechanics and real music, and this is what Chopin delivers in his \u00c9tudes. The first one I played was the \u2018Black Key\u2019 \u00c9tude, Op. 10 No. 5, and that was a very difficult piece for me at eight years old. Each year I learnt five or six more until, at 13, I played the complete Chopin \u00c9tudes in concert.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Luciano Pavarotti\u2019s performance of \u2018 Nessun <\/em> Dorma\u2019 from PUCCINI\u2019s<\/span><\/strong> Turandot <\/em> has to be one of my five choices. He had this special skill of making sunshine in the music. There other great artists like Pl\u00e1cido Domingo or Jonas Kaufmann, but Pavarotti is The One. Somehow when he sings, that\u2019s it \u2013 music is supposed to be like that. He has the talent, he has the high notes and he has that sound. It\u2019s something you cannot practise \u2013 you have to be born with it, and what\u2019s more, he brings this music to everyone, even people who don\u2019t understand classical music. I met him in my late teens in Philadelphia, on one of his last tours, and I gave him a recording of my Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto to listen to. He wrote me an email which I still have, saying that he could see sunshine in my performance of the concerto. That was really inspirational for an 18 year-old! <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n

\u2018We Are the World\u2019 by MICHAEL JACKSON<\/span><\/strong> <\/span>and LIONEL RICHIE<\/span><\/span><\/strong> <\/span>is the song that breaks through all the barriers in this world. If we had more songs like that, there would be no wars. I play it often in charity concerts \u2013 including last year in Central Park during a charity concert for children. I have a Foundation for children and I believe you have to be very creative in your approach to music education. There isn\u2019t just one way of teaching; don\u2019t stick rigidly to rules but let children find their own voice. My wife [pianist Gina Alice Redlinger] has been introducing our young son to music through some of the beautiful classical and crossover pieces from her album Wonderworld. <\/em>I think the pieces on my latest Disney album will be perfect for his early listening education. After all, my first experience of classical music came from an episode of the cartoon Tom and Jerry, <\/em>\u2018The Cat Concerto\u2019! <\/p>\n\n

Interview <\/em>by <\/em>Amanda <\/em>Holloway <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Music that changed me Lang Lang Pianist Chinese pianist Lang Lang has won plaudits for his mastery of the classical repertoire, performing with conductors including Daniel Barenboim and Simon Rattle. But his extrovert performances of works ranging from Chinese folksongs to Metallica and Herbie Hancock have also inspired millions of children to learn the piano. 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