Lang Lang is named heir to the Sun King

Lang Lang is named heir to the Sun King

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norman lebrecht

November 21, 2015

The Chinese pianist has been named the first Ambassador to Château de Versailles.

He reports: ‘I’ve fallen in love with Versailles and I’m excited to help raise awareness about the ongoing need for its preservation and restoration. I’ll give outdoor concerts in the gardens in 2016 and 2017. Merci beaucoup!’

lang lang versaillesLouis-XIV

Comments

  • Eddie Mars says:

    “Baroque art was primarily over-decorated, empty and hubristic entertainment, whose sole purpose was the glorification of its worldly owner”

    No change there, then.

    • John Borstlap says:

      Velasquez, Bernini, the majority of Vienna’s central area, the (very strict and bare) façade of the Louvre, all the work of Palladio, the Trevi Fountain, St Peters and St Giovanni in Laterano in Rome, the many palaces spread throughout Europe, the counter-reformation churches, not to mention the baroque music repertoire including Bach and Handel, etc. etc. etc. all ‘over-decorated, empty and hubristic entertainment, whose sole purpose was the glorification of its worldly owner’.

      Versailles was to be the symbol of France, and since Louis XIV himself was the symbol of France, the two symbols were identified as one. Also, if you look at the original designs – without the later 18C interior decorations – you see that the decoration was rich indeed, but in the same time, strictly organized and harmonious, disciplined. Not a matter of taste but of observation. The exterior is even rather forbidding in its symmetry. The chapel is a masterpiece of proportion and nobility – also very, very disciplined. The author of the quoted sentence had no clue about art and certainly not about baroque art.

  • Heywood Jalissen says:

    Sum Ting Wong.

  • Minutewaltz says:

    Great. I shall do my best to go to one of the concerts – that will be something to look forward to.

  • John says:

    Liberace got out-Liberace-d in this move.

  • Milka says:

    Eddie Mars seems unhappy that some people are having a fun time.
    His take on baroque art is uninformed hubris.
    Get out of the hair shirt get out of the hovel head for Versailles, enjoy life !

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