Lang Lang’s wedding outshone Marie Antoinette’s

Lang Lang’s wedding outshone Marie Antoinette’s

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norman lebrecht

June 06, 2019

New York Post’s Page Six has some sketchy details of the wedding of the week:

Marie Antoinette might have considered the whole thing slightly over-the-top. We’re told 300 guests — including John Legend and Chrissy Teigen and HRH Prince and Princess Michael of Kent — were treated to a Bach recital by the newlyweds, a seven-course meal, including a “transparency of lobster” served over dry ice and an 8-foot-tall wedding cake accompanied by two Dom Pérignon vintages.

Fireworks followed with a view from the famed Hall of Mirrors.

Slipped Disc hears that not all the guests were phonies.

Comments

  • Gabriel M. Overholt says:

    So where does the money come from? The Chinese government? Hardly from a few dozen mediocre performances of Rondo à la Turk.

    • Kurwenal says:

      Do your homework. LL’s net worth is north of 30 million USD.

      • Laerke S. Lorenzen says:

        “LL’s net worth is north of 30 million USD.”

        So where does this money come from? The Chinese government?

        • Anonanon says:

          It’s actually a lot higher than that if you believe People Magazine:

          “The Chinese pianist has an estimated net worth of $215 million. He owes his fortune to smart stock investments, substantial property holdings, lucrative endorsement deals with CoverGirl cosmetics. He also owns several restaurants (the “Fat Lang Burger” chain) in Beijing, a Football Team (the “Shenyang Angels”), has launched his own brand of Vodka (Pure Wonderlang – China), and is tackling the juniors market with a top-selling perfume (With Love from Lang) and a fashion line called “Lang Lang Seduction”.”

        • Saxon Broken says:

          The money comes from record sales, and being hired by orchestras at enough money a time.

    • Nick2 says:

      I don’t know about other parts of the world, but in China he is a superstar with commensurate fees – way above what Pavarotti would have received. So that puts him in the US$500,000 bracket for some gigs. Plenty there to pay for a nice little wedding.

    • Franhx says:

      Bitter and twisted. Just because you can rondo ala turk?

  • Petros LInardos says:

    Is it so difficult to wish the new couple well and leave them alone?

    • Sying Chiang says:

      Well, it’s NL who regales *us* constantly with the mating and reproductive activites of musicians of highly varying quality.

  • RW2013 says:

    Frankly, the bride looks worse than most…

    • Jack says:

      Nowhere near as ugly as your comment.

      • MJ says:

        pretty sure this is a joke about the picture of LL with Franz W-M above

        • Nick2 says:

          If a joke, it falls totally flat. Jokes work if readers can actually interpret them correctly. RW2013 would have done better to refrain from any comment of that nature.

          • Tamino says:

            Jokes work if readers can understand them. You are correct. Says a lot about the readers, if they can’t. Sense of humour, and such…

            “Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humour to console him for what he is.”

            Francis Bacon

          • Sue Sonata Form says:

            Yes, well I can tell you what I usually do with bacon!!!!:-)

      • music_montreal says:

        PEOPLE! that was a joke on franz welser-most’s ‘nickname. oh, wait, i forgot – trolls don’t have a sense of humor.

    • Franhx says:

      I suppose you look pretty

  • Debra says:

    They’re nice people and wonderful musicians . I wish them all the best. May God’s blessings be upon their marital union. Amen.

  • CJ says:

    Marie-Antoinette’s wedding might have come cheaper than Lang Lang’s, but at least his fireworks seem to have been safer: 132 people died in the firework accident organized to celebrate the wedding of the future Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette.
    (By the way, they were respectively 15 and 14 year old).

  • CJ says:

    Corrigendum: I am afraid the words of my previous comment were in the wrong order: it’s the firework that was organized, not the accident, sorry! 😉

  • Sue Sonata Form says:

    I’m as happy as the next person to wish people well when they decide to marry. But there’s something vulgar and parvenu about this whole ceremony. I keep thinking more of Liberace than Beethoven.

    I do hope the marriage has what the ceremony lacked; class and depth. But I guess the people like their bread and circuses.

    • John Rook says:

      Let’s be honest: if it weren’t for SD and all its teachings, we’d never even have known about LL’s wedding. As it is, it hasn’t cost a penny of taxpayers’ money, so they can be as tacky as they like as far as I’m concerned.

  • Tamino says:

    bah, only black tie, not white tie, not very fancy.

  • fflambeau says:

    Why not? It’s not nearly as ostentatious as many of the weddings by pop artists and movie stars.

    Let all the Lang Lang bashers here bang their heads against the wall.

  • Jack says:

    I love that he married a pianist. In case his damaged shoulder flares up, he can ask his wife to play one hand. He can also ask the concert promoter for her appearance fee too. Brilliant!

  • John Borstlap says:

    Thinking of the original occupants of the place it seems a bit reckless to celebrate an intimate union there.

    Also, it is a rule of thumb that the more demonstrative a wedding is, the less stable the relationship.

    “Marriage should be a duet – when one sings, the other claps.” (Joe Murray)

  • Cantantelirico says:

    He married Franz Welser – Möst?

  • M McAlpine says:

    Always amuses me the way some people think they have the right to make judgments on how other people celebrate their weddings. Guests, meal, wedding cake, fireworks, music? What is so wrong with this? Oh just so we can wreak our own bitterness on the fact that LL has succeeded in life and can afford it!

  • Graeme Withers says:

    Video of part of the wedding on YouTube . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SexPOMni38Y

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