Chinese pianist Lang Lang plays ‘like a new man’ in first concert for over a year following recovery from tendinitis

Chinese pianist Lang Lang is back in the limelight – and back to playing with both hands.

His concert to open the 2018 Tanglewood festival in the United States on Friday was his first major public performance since suffering an arm injury a year ago that threatened to end his career.

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Under the baton of Andris Nelsons, the 36-year-old soloist “sailed through” Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 24 in C minor with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, according to The New York Times’ review of the concert.

“You could even say he seemed like a new man as he – for the most part – eschewed his trademark flamboyance in favour of a gentle, controlled performance …,” it read.

The celebrated pianist was out of action for more than a year after suffering tendinitis in his left arm in 2016, and had to cancel a string of performances, including one with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in Hong Kong last November .

He did make an appearance at New York’s Carnegie Hall last October when he received a helping (left) hand from teenager Maxim Lando to perform George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with jazz composer and pianist Chick Corea and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

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Lang’s performance on Friday at the festival in Massachusetts which has been the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1937 launched a season which celebrates the centennial of Leonard Bernstein’s birth and which concludes on September 2.