Lang Lang AT THE MOVIES

LANG LANG AT THE MOVIES

Lang Lang JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH Goldberg Variations

GOLDBERG VARIATIONS

Lang Lang AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL

                                        LANG LANG AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL

Lang Lang PIANO BOOK Encore Edition

Global superstar pianist Lang Lang has announced a new deluxe digital version of his chart-topping album Piano Book – the best-selling classical album worldwide released this year. Piano Book – Encore Edition, released on 15 November 2019, features six new additional tracks. Accompanying the release will be three performance videos and six short films in which Lang Lang talks about the pieces. 

Piano Book – Encore Edition is a collection of 47 tracks including brand-new recordings of ‘Sweet Dreams’ from Tchaikovsky’s Children’s Album, ‘Ivan Sings’ from Khachaturian’s Adventures Of Ivan, Christian Petzold’s ‘Minuet In G Minor’ from J.S. Bach’s Notebook For Anna Magdalena Bach and the three movements of Friedrich Kuhlau’s ‘Piano Sonatina In C Major, Op.20 No.1’. These are featured alongside favourites from the original album including Beethoven’s ‘Für Elise’, Chopin’s ‘Raindrop Prélude’ and Bach’s ‘Prelude In C Major’ from The Well-Tempered Clavier. 

Lang Lang’s Piano Book has enjoyed huge success around the world since its release in March. It has topped the classical charts in the US, the UK, Germany, France, China and Japan and entered the pop charts in Austria, France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and the UK. His recording of Beethoven’s ‘Für Elise’ reached No.4 in the official Chinese pop single charts.

Lang Lang BEETHOVEN Sonatas Nos. 3 & 23 "Appassionata"

Whenever the proud young Beethoven deigned to play the piano in the noble circle of his patrons and benefactors, his aristocratic listeners quickly lost their composure. They were moved, nay, convulsed, by his incomparable art. Some are even said to have collapsed in tears and unseemly sobs. Beethoven stopped playing, laughed at his mawkish listeners and accused them all of being fools and spoilt children. Only reluctantly did he agree to enter duels with leading keyboard virtuosos, a favourite pastime in Vienna’s salons. Being a protégé of Prince Lichnowsky, he once had to square off against Count Kinsky’s pianist-in-residence, Joseph Gelinek. He won hands down. The defeated Gelinek freely admitted his abject rout: “That young man is in league with the Devil”, he exclaimed in awed trepidation. “I’ve never heard anyone play the piano like that. And he improvised on a theme I gave him in a way I haven’t heard even Mozart equal. Then he played his own compositions, which are marvellous and splendid to the utmost degree. He carries off difficulties and effects on the piano we’ve never so much as dreamt of.”

Lang Lang PIANO BOOK

Recorded at London’s Abbey Road studios and in Beijing, ‘Piano Book’ is Lang Lang’s very personal playlist for everyone who loves the piano. It’s also the fruits of an astonishing career that has taken him from child prodigy to virtuoso at the very top of his profession. Equally happy playing for billions of viewers at the Olympics or just for a few hundred children in the public schools, Lang Lang is a master of communicating through music and his new album is a testament to that.

JAMES NEWTON HOWARD The Nutcracker and the Four Realms

With original music composed and produced by Howard, the soundtrack builds on iconic themes from Tchaikovsky's classic 1892 ballet score. Howard's thrilling orchestral score captures the magic and intrigue of the film by reimagining the original "Nutcracker" ballet mu^th-century romantic music that I call upon as a film composer is rooted."

sic with a modern twist. "Tchaikovsky was one of the great melody writers of all time," said Howard. "The colors of 'The Nutcracker' ballet score have become a part of the vocabulary of film music. It's where so much of the 19

According to the composer, the score is elegant and emotional. "It's all about the storytelling," he said. "The score is very traditional—a big orchestra score—with lots of woodwinds and strings, plus tinkle bells and celeste and chorale music, including a boys' choir."

Considered one of the most distinguished conductors of our day, Dudamel along with The Philharmonia Orchestra, brought the score to life. "Tchaikovsky's epic score always takes me on a journey," he explained. "Add a little Disney movie-making magic to this and the results are stunning—an instant holiday classic."

Global phenom Lang Lang says his career was launched thanks in part to Tchaikovsky. "His first piano concerto is the piece that made my career," said Lang Lang. "His music is not only exciting, but it's so beautiful and intimate—it gets right into your heart. That's the power of Tchaikovsky's music. But James made it his own. It is an original work of magic—it's spiritual and it sparkles. Audiences will get a new sound experience."

The film end-credit track is the poignant duet "Fall on Me," the new song by global superstar tenor Andrea Bocelli and his son Matteo Bocelli which is also featured on Andrea's new album Si.

DIE KLASSIK-BESTEN

"Klassik-Besten" presents the highlights of the current classical music scene and combines the glamor of big stars with the stars of tomorrow in the starry sky of classical music. The exclusive double CD presents famous melodies - interpreted by outstanding world-class artists. The sexy spectrum ranges from classic top stars like Anna Netrebko and Lang Lang to young stars like Sheku Kanneh-Mason and offers only the best of the best in the classical world: With Cecilia Bartoli, Jonas Kaufmann, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Daniil Trifonov, Andrea Bocelli , David Garrett, Daniel Hope, Joyce DiDonato, Il Divo, Sol Gabetta and many more.

Selected masterpieces invite to sensual experience, immersion and relaxation. In addition to Beethoven's fabulous "Moonlight Sonata" or "Solveig's Song" from the Peer Gynt Suite, the excellent selection features immortal moving melodies, such as the enchanting "Ave Maria" by Bach and Gounod, the famous aria "Nessun dorma" by Puccini or Benny Andersson World Success "Thank You For The Music". Both classical and curious people can discover and enjoy great masterpieces with this high-quality album - a glittering firework of classical music.

Lang Lang / Sophie Shao HOWARD SHORE Ruin & Memory - Mythic Gardens

World-renowned for his many award-winning film scores including “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit”, Howard Shore’s latest album “Two Concerti” shows that his immense compositional talents light up not only the cinema screen but the classical concert stage as well. Released on February 17, the album presents two specially commissioned works dedicated to the music of Frédéric Chopin – the piano concerto Ruin & Memory – performed by renowned pianist Lang Lang; and the cello concerto Mythic Gardens performed by award-winning cellist Sophie Shao.

Ruin & Memory – Concerto for Piano and Orchestra was written in celebration of Chopin’s 200th anniversary and recorded live at its world premiere at the 2010 Beijing Music Festival – whose Arts Foundation commissioned the work. Composed specifically for Lang Lang, Ruin & Memory is Shore’s musical reflection of Chopin’s time and the life he led. About the work Shore explains “The title captures a bit of Chopin’s life, about where he came from and the world he lived in, and what happened when that world was no longer there. The piece is really a love affair with the piano, the intimacy, the tactile perception of that instrument.”

For the companion piece Mythic Gardens – Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra was commissioned for Sophie Shao by the American Symphony Orchestra. Shore took his inspiration from the architecture of three classic Italian gardens: Cimbrone, Medici and Visconti Borromeo Litta. The composer elucidates on his various muses “Growing up in Canada, I spent many summers in Northern Ontario. The surrounding natural beauty of the area was and remains a great inspiration. I believe that it is through this love of nature that I was able to connect so well to Tolkien’s work. The natural world influences the form of my compositions when writing for the concert stage as well. However, it is the incredible musicians themselves, such as Sophie Shao and Lang Lang, whose artistry is always at the center of my creativity when composing.”

Martha Argerich CARTE BLANCHE

The first release in Deutsche Grammophon’s new partnership with the Verbier Festival that will see the release of exceptional concerts with great artists (2 sets per year from 2016) recorded by Verbier over the years.

Something special was bound to happen when Martha Argerich was given carte blanche to invite whoever she wanted, to play whatever she and they chose at her Verbier Festival concert on 27 July 2007. She was the life and soul of the party, playing in seven works and making a rare solo appearance in Schumann’s Kinderszenen. Argerich’s artistic partners are Yuri Bashmet, Renaud Capuçon, Lang Lang, Mischa Maisky, Gabriela Montero, Julian Rachlin in a killer programme.

An uproarious encore was given by Gabriela Montero improvising a tango version of “Happy Birthday” (for Mischa Maisky’s daughter Lily Maisky).

This release offers over two hours of exceptional music-making with an enviable line-up of colleagues is now re-created on these two CDs. (McAlister Matheson Music)