The Rachmaninov Third Piano Concerto has become the archetype virtuoso showpiece pianists use to dazzle us with their technical prowess. Lang Lang however, offers a prowess of a different sort in this beautifully sculpted and supremely musical interpretation. Lang’s primary concern is the work’s overall structure, with his focus trained on the music’s larger plan. Individual moments do not matter so much as the overall dramatic scheme. So, where we’ve come to expect a cascading rush at the close of the first movement’s lyrical second subject, Lang instead floats down the keyboard on gossamer wings, rounding out the phrase beautifully. Likewise Lang’s smoothly flowing phrasing in Rachmaninov’s reputedly overwrought longer version of the great cadenza makes it sound as fleet and immaculately balanced as the shorter revision.
That’s not to say that Lang’s playing is unspectacular, for his technique is stunning, primarily because he takes great pains to elucidate Rachmaninov’s multi-layered motivic material. Of course, some of this exceptional clarity is due to the piano-dominant recording, which makes some passages sound like the composer’s solo works (particularly the Preludes). Also, because of this Yuri Temirkanov’s energized performance with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic gets short-changed, as it’s barely audible a good deal of the time (but then, this applies to most recordings of the Rachmaninov Third). Lang’s precision fingerwork comes to the fore in the challenging finale, where he’s certainly not the fastest (Martha Argerich is a prime contender for that title)–but his is one of the most rhythmically acute and melodically aware performances I’ve heard in some time. The tremendous applause at the end of this live performance only serves to reinforce my view that this piece works best in concert.
As an encore, Lang chooses Liu Yang River, a charming Chinese folk tune based on the pentatonic scale. Lang’s studio-recorded selection of Scriabin’s Etudes finds him displaying more emotional volatility, although nothing like the passionate fervor of Ruth Laredo in this music. Still, it makes for a novel conclusion to an enjoyable disc, one that stands out in a very crowded field. [5/10/2002]
