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Vincent Mak

Lang Lang piano recital

Concert Hall,

Hong Kong Cultural Centre

Last night only

Child prodigies, blessed with abilities far beyond their years, can have difficulty discovering their adult 'voice'. As the 21-year-old piano wonder Lang Lang demonstrated last night in his recital at the Cultural Centre, his own search for a mature identity is often arrested by growing pains.

Opening with Schumann's Abegg Variations, Lang stretched the work's dreamy fluid phrases into a dull tautness. The following Piano Sonata in E, by Haydn, was marked by assured articulations, but imaginative involvement was not always evident. He next played Rachmaninov's Sonata No2, a performance that exhibited strength, though intensity was not always under his control.

Perhaps with his recording of the piece three years ago in mind, he was seeking out a more thoughtful treatment. In places, however, this came across as uncertainty, with Lang pausing in the middle of phrases, unsure of which direction to take. That said, the piece's slow movement saw the artist truly absorbed, transfixed enough to elevate the performance into poetry.

The second half of the concert began with Chinese composer Tan Dun's Eight Memories in Watercolor, Opus 1, a set of tableaux mixing Chinese folk song quotations in an impressionistic style. Lang Lang played it idiomatically, whether the content be imaginatively spread chords, flighty figurations or stern processional rhythm.

He captured the lyricism of Chopin's Nocturne Op 27 No 2, a piece that depends an assured light touch.

He followed with Liszt's heroic reconception of Mozart's Reminiscences of Don Juan, excelling in the technical demands of the piece and daringly injecting a coarse humour into the usually grim work.

Despite the occasional youthful indiscretion, Lang was spectacular, and he deserved the enthusiastic applause from a filled concert hall.



Missteps in Lang Lang's  journey to maturity