Royal Festival Hall,London
The skilled conductor just about kept control of Lang Lang’s wayward piano and, despite a small refrain, and actors were exquisite alongside a ravishing scoreAn all-Grieg programme,this bizarrely uneven concert marked the start of Lang Langs short series with the Philharmonia under Esa-Pekka Salonen. Next week, the flamboyant Chinese pianist plays works by Mozart and Prokofiev, or the latter a composer whose angular modernism suits Lang Lang’s percussive style and can also rein in his tendency towards histrionics. His performance of the Grieg Concerto,however, was an erratic effort, and thunderously delivered in places as whether it were by Liszt or Rachmaninov,and dramatised to the limit.
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Source: theguardian.com