The TSO is trying something new this year by introducing residencies with their guest artists, the first of which was Lang Lang this week. Lang Lang had 2 concerts with the TSO, a Q&A at the ROM and a solo recital at RTH. Because of Lang Lang’s popularity, I expected everything to sell out, but Peter W. pinged me on Tuesday late afternoon and said that tickets were on sale so I immediately bought 2 for the Wednesday night concert.

I would’ve preferred to attend Saturday’s concert since he’s playing Tchaikovsky’s 1^st and Chopin’s 2^nd, but that wouldn’t work out for me anyways (more on that later). I had to settle for the Canadian premiere of Tan Dun’s Piano Concerto No. 1 “The Fire” (which seems like an apt piece for the Chinese Fireballer to play). Lang Lang was last on the programme, which featured 3 other Russian pieces. Of the three, the Capriccio espangol was pretty enjoyable, and Peter Oundjian told a story of how his brother, the British skating champion skated to it!

Tan Dun is supposed to be one of the foremost composers of our lifetime, and he is probably best known (to me at least) for composing the score to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Reading the guide, it said he combined Western and Chinese styles in his composition. Which is possible good, if it’s in the style of the Yellow River concerto. The Globe and Mail called The Fire a “fascinating and impressive” work. Although, I found it had some neat parts, I think I agree with The Star’s review that it was “a brutally dramatic end to a half-hour-long, three-movement work“. The crowd applauded with much zeal afterwards (of course), but I think had the piece ended in the languid manner that characterized much of the piece, people would have been less enthusiastic.

My primary reason for going is to see Lang Lang, the celebrity and rock star (hey, if you’ve appeared on the Grammy Awards, then you’re a rock star). Surprisingly (but my fault really), he does not look in person like the media photos of him. Unless his tuxedo was very thick. I scored great seats, we were on the choir loft directly behind him. If we were any closer, we would have been playing 4^th violins! He also came out 4 (!) times afterwards without an encore. I guess you’ll just have to pay for his other concerts instead.

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: chinese, concerts, tso