Ravel Piano Concerto for Left Hand

Can't really get the cadenza part out of my head after listening to it yesterday at Lincoln Center performed by NYPhil under David Robertson's baton. This is an exciting and beautiful composition. Worth mentioning is, it is a non-traditional one movement piano concerto where it has dramatic contrasting effect compare to usual-light-hearted temperament of most piano concerti.

As usual, you can find that there are "chord-sweeping" sessions dominating the piano part in Ravel's works. One thing special about this is Ravel combined his unique style of harmony with some jazzy effect. You can enjoy the visual excitement when you watch it live. But without listening live it radiates same excitement.

Here is a version by Richter. Part II is very exciting as it is building up to the climax (cadenza). You can feel the gradual inclination of the intensity and yes it is so excitng.
Part I

Prokofiev Piano Concerto No 2

My most favorite part of the Prokofiev Piano Concerto No 2. Magical. It feels like a snowball rolling, gaining momentum and dangerously rolling. Sound better on HQ recording.

Thoughts after Lang Lang's performance with New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center

Lang Lang is a real performer in Performing art field. He is sensitive to audience's who have unopened minds to classical music. If you want to draw a classical outsider's interest to classical music, you should bring that outsider to watch Lang Lang's performance. Classical music is like opera. For people who don't know anything about it, it is quite a pain to watch or listen to it.

Lang Lang, as a classical music "insider", he made an effort to reach audience who don't understand classical music with his extraordinary "body language". His extra-musical "choreography" transmit to audience messeges of a composer. Especially audience who are not sensitive enough to the meaning of certain arrangement of sound in classical music context. l as a classically trained pianist, frankly, was very much distracted by Lang Lang's unrelevant "extra musical choreography". However, I realized that Lang Lang has a respectable pianistic skills. As I closed my eyes, I still was able to perceive a descent interpretation of Beethoven's piano concerto by Lang Lang.

So, I must say that, Lang Lang, as a piano pieces performer, realistically realizes the difficulty of ordinary person in understanding classic music. And thus he creatively incorperates extra-musical choreography so that audience can understand a composer's work without sacrificing the quality of the real pianistic skills. So, Lang Lang does have a mind of "businessman" whom is sensitive to the need of different crowds and bring a different crowds to enjoy classical music. Or I should say he opens door of classical music to a very different field of audiences.

Not every classically trained pianists are brave enough to breaks this wall to convey a composer's artwork through unconventional way. I must say that most "well-respected" pianists, the pianists who won a lot of piano competitions are those who are not very creative at performing. Most of them are very much robot whom just do what was instructed, without a "creative mind" whichi, literally doesn't really belong to "performing art field". Art means creative, original. Dance is a performing art too. You can choreograph a dance. But why not a piano performing? If piano performing should be ideally doing what is instructed perfectly, piano performing should not be a performing art but a sport where the concerns is all about physical strength and intelligence at accuracy.

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