Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn: First Piano Concertos
Lang Lang, piano
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
Deutsche Grammophon B0000666-02
Released: July 2003

 
"After a performance, there may be a hundred different opinions about how every phrase should go or should have gone. But, at the moment of making the music, it is absolutely imperative that everybody on the stage really wants to hear the same thing."
-- Daniel Barenboim, conductor

At the end of the strenuous, three-day recording session, Lang Lang expressed his satisfaction to Fred Child on the stage of Orchestra Hall at Symphony Center. This new CD of the First Piano Concertos by Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn is Lang Lang's debut recording with the Chicago Symphony and on the Deutsche Grammophon label. For the 20-year-old pianist, the whole process has been a "tremendous experience," enhanced by the fact that Maestro Barenboim himself is a former child prodigy and renowned concert pianist.

In preparation for the recording, Lang Lang spent several hours reviewing the scores of the Tchaikovsky and the Mendelssohn with his new mentor. Chicago Symphony concertgoers got a preview of the Mendelssohn Piano Concerto in April, and evident throughout the performance was what Lang Lang learned from Barenboim about how to shape the music.

During the recording session, Fred noticed that Barenboim rarely had to make eye contact with his soloist. The maestro explained that he had a good deal of faith in the young musician, who plays in "such a convincing nature... When there's that degree of musical understanding, there's very little need for eye contact. You know, I can feel him in the spine musically what he's going to do, and I'm sure the same thing for him."