Lang Lang names a role model
mainIn one of those quickfire things he does nowadays because he has nothing more to say in interviews, Lang Lang names two role models for readers of Ludwig Van Toronto. Both are gay men.
They are: Leonard Bernstein and… Vladimir Horowitz.
Now how does that work?
Gay and married?
Megalomaniac father-in-law?
Jewish, with a Catholic wife?
Several nervous breakdowns?
Only plays at 4pm?
Lives off a diet of boiled fish?
Which of these does Lang Lang want to be?
This doesn’t even merit being ignored.
As with the playing, i can’t say there’s as much depth behind this answer as you might think…
Why more Lang Lang bashing in this space?
Because there can never be enough, apparently.
Well that really is up for debate. He is a terrible musician, and one who preys on the average plebians idea of classical music, and not for the greater good of the music itself, but rather for his ‘career’. Considering him a ‘musician’ at all is an insult to all of us who actually enjoy true art…
He is nothing but a con artist and deserves no other treatment whatsoever.
I wonder what is the basis of your immature statement? “Lang Lang is a terrible musician” (?!?) What do you know about being a good one? May be Trifonov? or better yet, Levit?
Because he deserves it!
there will NEVER be anyone to equal Vladimir Horowitz he was the greatest pianest of all time.the colours he could magic from a piano where simply jawdropping
Now THAT’S a funny joke!
So Lang Lang happens to be….well….you know. So what?
The pianism that dares not speak its name?
I’d gladly live Bernstein’s life.
Even 1/2 of it.
Even 1/3 of it.
Any third.
His first 25 years was as charmed as his last 25.
No more Dudalang please!
What the hell are you blathering on about, Norman?
Well it couldn’t possibly be “two great performers with enormous charisma and great musical insight (which incidentally brought them huge careers which lasted many decades),” could it.
I wonder: if Trifonov had named these two as idols, what would NL’s reaction be?
Just cannot believe what Norman has made of this. As both LB and VH were known rather more as musicians than gay (or bisexual) men during their lives it might be that LL was referring too their musicianship rather than their lifestyle.
Please don’t refer to being gay as a “lifestyle”. Lifestyles are what the newspaper supplements advise us on: white jeans are in for this summer (as The Guardian thought fit to announce today at the top of its front page), shepherd’s pie is the in dish for dinner parties, and corduroy furniture is making a comeback. The deep relationships of which gay people are capable should not be trivialised as lifestyle. Do you refer to being straight as a lifestyle?
Though I agree with the gist of your remark, just a reminder that being gay is not a “lifestyle”
um…what the…? I stumbled upon this site thinking this was serious informational site on classical music…I guess I was wrong…who is this Norman person?
So far all the prominent Chinese pianists seem to be followers of more flamboyant school of piano playing. Yuja Wang is by far the best of them. I wonder whether an equivalent of Mitsuko Uchida from Japan will ever come out of China.
“I wonder whether an equivalent of Mitsuko Uchida from Japan will ever come out of China.”
That totally depends on whether a major record label wants another complete cycle of Mozart piano sonatas and concertos in their catalog. This is an absolutely necessary (but maybe not sufficient) condition for an equivalent of Uchida to emerge.
Flamboyant is not the correct word for tasteless pianists lacking in culture.
Somebody has gone off the deep end and it isn’t Lang Lang.
In my opinion (and I am a lawyer who has handled defamation cases) this is defamation per se.
So much the worse for the law on defamation, then.
I’ll take your professional word on that. I’m not a lawyer, just a civilian. And this is ugly.Very.
This strikes me as a racist and homophobic post.
I’ve heard Lang Lang. Thought he was so-so.
“There are three kinds of pianists: Jewish pianists, homosexual pianists, and bad pianists.” – Vladimir Horowitz
Is this supposed to be a picture of Vladimir Horowitz with Leonard Bernstein? It’s Horowitz with Toscanini.
Norman, you have exceeded your bollocks quotient with this item.
Whatever Lang Lang “want to be”, he will never, ever be in the Horowitz league (as a pianist, I mean).
From Heifetz, Horowitz, Toscanini etc. to Lang Lang.
What a comedown! How did this happen?
(It is really unfortunate when when he plays Horowitz transcriptions such as that of Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody no2. Such is the gulf between the two that Lang Lang does himself a huge disservice).
The moderator needs moderating.
Reading some of the comments here, I sometimes feel as if I have walked in to the “Pseuds Corner” column of Private Eye.
Well, both were guilty of musical excesses and sometime tastelessness, so he is quite accurate in his choices.
bRRoiled fish. Not boiled.