Sunday, May 20, 2007

Lang Lang at the Kennedy Center

Here's a review of the performance.

I don't go to make performances by the symphony because I don't know the names of the many pieces that I enjoy. So this was a treat. There was a very beautiful opening piece by Enescu, Romania Rhapsody No. 2 in D major. The other piece of the opening half was City Scape by Jennifer Higdon. It was the Washington premiere of this piece and the writer was there. She took questions in the AfterWords segment too.

The second half was Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 which is one of my favorite classical pieces.

Again my seat gave me the vantage point of being behind Land and thus I was able to his hands play the piano. Here are just some random thoughts I wrote down on the subway ride back home on Friday night from the performance:

• How do you know when to have one hand move over the other? Yes it must have something to do with the notes you are playing.

• Sometimes Lang's fingers pounded the keys and other times they caressed the keys.

• When he wasn't playing, I noticed that his right arm and left kept time to the music.

• I was surprised how help his arms in relation to the piano for some reason I thought they would be closer to the piano.

• He stretched and arched his back at one point. What you see someone do at gym instead of a concert performance.

• There were times when his hands were a blur moving over the keys. It was genius.

There were balcony seats to the side and behind the orchestra. I think it would be very interesting to see a performance from there. The unfortunate thing is that there is only one performance left in the season. I think I might be going to it.

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