Oct 16, 2014

Lang Lang: The Mozart Album (CD review)

Piano Concertos Nos. 17 and 24; Piano Sonatas Nos. 4, 5, and 8; various other pieces. Lang Lang, piano; Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Vienna Philharmonic. Sony Classical 88843082532 (2-disc set).

You'll have to forgive me, but I'm always a little suspicious when I see the name of a record album's lead performer ahead of the composer that he or she is playing. This happens a lot with superstar conductors and soloists, and it happens here as well. Chinese concert pianist Lang Lang gets his name in front of Mozart's. Perhaps this practice satisfies the label's desire to sell albums, a musician's legion of fans, and the star's own ego, but I wonder if in the long run the popularity of the musicians will hold up as well as that of the composers involved. For instance, whose name will people remember a hundred years from now: Lang Lang's or Mozart's?

Anyway, there is no denying Lang Lang is a superstar and that he has a load of talent. He is one of the most-virtuosic pianists of our time. Whether he is yet a great artist may be another question and perhaps one of personal taste.

Whatever the case, on the current two-disc Sony set Lang plays Mozart's Piano Concertos Nos. 17 and 24 with Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the Vienna Philharmonic on disc one and various solo pieces on disc two. All of it is excellent, of course; the question is whether the performances surpass so much of the competition that they qualify as art and that the album justifies its expense, even at the apparently reduced price at which the folks at Sony are offering the two discs.

Harnoncourt may have pared down the mighty Vienna orchestra to Mozartian size, but the ensemble still sounds grand and opulent. Maybe too much so. I have the feeling Maestro Harnoncourt is more at home with a period-instruments group. After all, he has been conducting for something like seven decades, and it's been mostly with historically informed performances. Here, he seems a little out of his depth, with an accompaniment that tends slightly to overpower the scores. The consequence is a pair of performances that appear to these ears slightly too big, too monumental for the music.

No such concerns about the solo playing, though. This is one of the best records I've heard from Lang, perhaps because his style appears more subdued than usual. He grasps the dramatic contrasts in Mozart pretty well, the shifts from the purely operatic to the tender and gentle. All the while he dazzles us with his finger work, so some listeners may feel the combination of Lang, Harnoncourt, and the Vienna players is almost overkill.

Whatever, No. 24 comes off best under Lang and Harnoncourt's approach because it's rather theatrical to begin with. Besides, Lang's handling of the Larghetto is delicious and it alone should recommend the set. I've heard No. 17 sound lighter and breezier than this, but that's no matter.

Lang Lang
So, the question remains about competition in the concertos: Are they worth the money when there are already so many terrific recordings from the likes of Perahia, Ashkenazy, Curzon, Barenboim, Kissin, Tan, Brendel, Giles, Andsnes, Kovacevich, and many more? I suppose it depends on how big a fan of Lang you are.

With the solo numbers on disc two it's another story: I have no reservations except, perhaps, about the live sound in some of them. Lang carries out his part with a consummate ease, a little hurried at times but lending a simple elegance and dignity to each piece. The set ends with an encore of the Rondo Alla Turca, which Lang plays at a breathtaking pace. Although it makes for a whirlwind finish, it seemed a mite like showing off, and I couldn't really enjoy the music taken so fast.

Producer Martin Sauer and engineer Julian Schwenkner recorded the concertos at the Goldener Saal, Musikverein, Vienna in April 2014. Producers Martin Sauer and David Lai and engineers Tony Faulkner and Jean Chatauret recorded the solo pieces at the Royal Albert Hall (live) and the Salle Colonne, Paris in November 2013 and May 2014. The sound field in the concertos places the pianist dead center, with the orchestra spread out around (or, technically, behind) him. The sonic result is a touch close yet reasonably lifelike, a bit soft in the midrange, mildly reverberant, and always rich and luxuriant. I noticed nothing untoward about the sound, no brightness, forwardness, or hardness. Perhaps it could have been a tad more transparent, but that's a relatively minor issue in sound so comfortable and easy to listen to as here. Dynamic range and impact are fine as well, and there's a pleasant bloom on the instruments.

Unfortunately, the sonatas on the second disc do not benefit from the live sound the engineers afford them. While the piano sounds great--clear and resonant--one is always aware of a low background noise throughout the performances and a shifting, coughing, and wheezing from the audience. At the conclusion of the third sonata and again at the end of the program, one hears an eruption of applause. I found it distracting.

JJP

To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click here:




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Meet the Staff

Meet the Staff
John J. Puccio, Founder and Contributor

Understand, I'm just an everyday guy reacting to something I love. And I've been doing it for a very long time, my appreciation for classical music starting with the musical excerpts on the Big Jon and Sparkie radio show in the early Fifties and the purchase of my first recording, The 101 Strings Play the Classics, around 1956. In the late Sixties I began teaching high school English and Film Studies as well as becoming interested in hi-fi, my audio ambitions graduating me from a pair of AR-3 speakers to the Fulton J's recommended by The Stereophile's J. Gordon Holt. In the early Seventies, I began writing for a number of audio magazines, including Audio Excellence, Audio Forum, The Boston Audio Society Speaker, The American Record Guide, and from 1976 until 2008, The $ensible Sound, for which I served as Classical Music Editor.

Today, I'm retired from teaching and use a pair of bi-amped VMPS RM40s loudspeakers for my listening. In addition to writing for the Classical Candor blog, I served as the Movie Review Editor for the Web site Movie Metropolis (formerly DVDTown) from 1997-2013. Music and movies. Life couldn't be better.

Karl Nehring, Editor and Contributor

For nearly 30 years I was the editor of The $ensible Sound magazine and a regular contributor to both its equipment and recordings review pages. I would not presume to present myself as some sort of expert on music, but I have a deep love for and appreciation of many types of music, "classical" especially, and have listened to thousands of recordings over the years, many of which still line the walls of my listening room (and occasionally spill onto the furniture and floor, much to the chagrin of my long-suffering wife). I have always taken the approach as a reviewer that what I am trying to do is simply to point out to readers that I have come across a recording that I have found of interest, a recording that I think they might appreciate my having pointed out to them. I suppose that sounds a bit simple-minded, but I know I appreciate reading reviews by others that do the same for me — point out recordings that they think I might enjoy.

For readers who might be wondering about what kind of system I am using to do my listening, I should probably point out that I do a LOT of music listening and employ a variety of means to do so in a variety of environments, as I would imagine many music lovers also do. Starting at the more grandiose end of the scale, the system in which I do my most serious listening comprises Marantz CD 6007 and Onkyo CD 7030 CD players, NAD C 658 streaming preamp/DAC, Legacy Audio PowerBloc2 amplifier, and a pair of Legacy Audio Focus SE loudspeakers. I occasionally do some listening through pair of Sennheiser 560S headphones. I miss the excellent ELS Studio sound system in our 2016 Acura RDX (now my wife's daily driver) on which I had ripped more than a hundred favorite CDs to the hard drive, so now when driving my 2024 Honda CRV Sport L Hybrid, I stream music from my phone through its adequate but hardly outstanding factory system. For more casual listening at home when I am not in my listening room, I often stream music through a Roku Streambar Pro system (soundbar plus four surround speakers and a 10" sealed subwoofer) that has surprisingly nice sound for such a diminutive physical presence and reasonable price. Finally, at the least grandiose end of the scale, I have an Ultimate Ears Wonderboom II Bluetooth speaker and a pair of Google Pro Earbuds for those occasions where I am somewhere by myself without a sound system but in desperate need of a musical fix. I just can’t imagine life without music and I am humbly grateful for the technologies that enable us to enjoy it in so many wonderful ways.

William (Bill) Heck, Webmaster and Contributor

Among my early childhood memories are those of listening to my mother playing records (some even 78 rpm ones!) of both classical music and jazz tunes. I suppose that her love of music was transmitted genetically, and my interest was sustained by years of playing in rock bands – until I realized that this was no way to make a living. The interest in classical music was rekindled in grad school when the university FM station serving as background music for studying happened to play the Brahms First Symphony. As the work came to an end, it struck me forcibly that this was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard, and from that point on, I never looked back. This revelation was to the detriment of my studies, as I subsequently spent way too much time simply listening, but music has remained a significant part of my life. These days, although I still can tell a trumpet from a bassoon and a quarter note from a treble clef, I have to admit that I remain a nonexpert. But I do love music in general and classical music in particular, and I enjoy sharing both information and opinions about it.

The audiophile bug bit about the same time that I returned to classical music. I’ve gone through plenty of equipment, brands from Audio Research to Yamaha, and the best of it has opened new audio insights. Along the way, I reviewed components, and occasionally recordings, for The $ensible Sound magazine. Most recently I’ve moved to my “ultimate system” consisting of a BlueSound Node streamer, an ancient Toshiba multi-format disk player serving as a CD transport, Legacy Wavelet II DAC/preamp/crossover, dual Legacy PowerBloc2 amps, and Legacy Signature SE speakers (biamped), all connected with decently made, no-frills cables. With the arrival of CD and higher resolution streaming, that is now the source for most of my listening.

Ryan Ross, Contributor

I started listening to and studying classical music in earnest nearly three decades ago. This interest grew naturally out of my training as a pianist. I am now a musicologist by profession, specializing in British and other symphonic music of the 19th and 20th centuries. My scholarly work has been published in major music journals, as well as in other outlets. Current research focuses include twentieth-century symphonic historiography, and the music of Jean Sibelius, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Malcolm Arnold.

I am honored to contribute writings to Classical Candor. In an age where the classical recording industry is being subjected to such profound pressures and changes, it is more important than ever for those of us steeped in this cultural tradition to continue to foster its love and exposure. I hope that my readers can find value, no matter how modest, in what I offer here.


Bryan Geyer, Technical Analyst

I initially embraced classical music in 1954 when I mistuned my car radio and heard the Heifetz recording of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto. That inspired me to board the new "hi-fi" DIY bandwagon. In 1957 I joined one of the pioneer semiconductor makers and spent the next 32 years marketing transistors and microcircuits to military contractors. Home audio DIY projects remained a personal passion until 1989 when we created our own new photography equipment company. I later (2012) revived my interest in two channel audio when we "downsized" our life and determined that mini-monitors + paired subwoofers were a great way to mate fine music with the space constraints of condo living.

Visitors that view my technical papers on this site may wonder why they appear here, rather than on a site that features audio equipment reviews. My reason is that I tried the latter, and prefer to publish for people who actually want to listen to music; not to equipment. My focus is in describing what's technically beneficial to assure that the sound of the system will accurately replicate the source input signal (i. e. exhibit high accuracy) without inordinate cost and complexity. Conversely, most of the audiophiles of today strive to achieve sound that's euphonic, i.e. be personally satisfying. In essence, audiophiles seek sound that's consistent with their desire; the music is simply a test signal.

Mission Statement

It is the goal of Classical Candor to promote the enjoyment of classical music. Other forms of music come and go--minuets, waltzes, ragtime, blues, jazz, bebop, country-western, rock-'n'-roll, heavy metal, rap, and the rest--but classical music has been around for hundreds of years and will continue to be around for hundreds more. It's no accident that every major city in the world has one or more symphony orchestras.

When I was young, I heard it said that only intellectuals could appreciate classical music, that it required dedicated concentration to appreciate. Nonsense. I'm no intellectual, and I've always loved classical music. Anyone who's ever seen and enjoyed Disney's Fantasia or a Looney Tunes cartoon playing Rossini's William Tell Overture or Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 can attest to the power and joy of classical music, and that's just about everybody.

So, if Classical Candor can expand one's awareness of classical music and bring more joy to one's life, more power to it. It's done its job. --John J. Puccio

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"Their Master's Voice" by Michael Sowa

"Their Master's Voice" by Michael Sowa