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Friday, February 14, 2003

By Andrew Druckenbrod, Post-Gazette Classical Music Critic

Don't try to tell pianist Lang Lang it's rough growing up as a child prodigy. Now 20, he feels the pressure of evolving out of prodigy status was well worth it. He knows it opened unique opportunities for him, not the least of which was traveling from his native China to Philadelphia to enroll at Curtis Institute of Music.

	PITTSBURGH SYMPHONY WITH: Mariss Jansons, conductor; Lang Lang, piano. WHERE: Heinz Hall, Downtown. WHEN: 8 tonight and Saturday. TICKETS: $19.25-$65.25. 412-392-4900.

Another is signing a rare multi-year deal with a record company, as he did this week with Deutsche Grammophone, inking a five-year contract.

"You see the great talent, but you want to know if he can develop into a piano master and great musician," says Lang Lang. "It is a big challenge if you have had a big career when you are young."

But many musicians who don't get those early opportunities can find themselves behind the eight ball later on. "If you go to Juilliard or Curtis, everybody wants to have a great career and wants to be famous. They love music first, but they want to be a famous musician.

"But they don't have a chance to play with the same orchestras and great conductors, and they get really upset that they worked really hard and never got the chance."

With a musician for a father, and a society in China that "thinks of classical music as part of the mainstream," Lang Lang may have missed out on those beloved salad days. "I won lots of prizes," he said. "I did my first recital when I was 5 and become a child prodigy."

But it wasn't a poor experience. "It was great for me growing up," says Lang Lang, who prefers the use of both of his names.

Plus, his permanent move to Philadelphia in 1997 came at the perfect time: as a teenager. He has been able to emerge from the practice rooms of his earlier life to embrace the world while still performing on some of the grandest stages. "I always have fun," he says with a laugh. "I see movies, watch the NBA."

With the latter, the subject of the colossal Chinese center Yao Ming inevitably arises. "There have been several times I tried to come to see him, but I wasn't here when he was," says Lang Lang. "Then I was in Houston, and he wasn't there. I am so proud of him."

Lang Lang isn't as big, literally or popularly, in China as Yao, but he is well known. He was chosen by two major orchestras, those of Philadelphia and New York, to be the highlight for recent tours to China. The Philadelphia Orchestra visit was Lang Lang's first time back in several years. "We played in the Great Hall of People, with 10,000 [in attendance]," he says. "It was a very emotional moment -- it has always been my dream to play with one of the greatest orchestras in the world in China."

Lang Lang will debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony performing "Rach Pag," as he calls it. Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, as it is also known, is a perfect vehicle to showcase his widely lauded skills. "[It is] really a cool piece," he says. "It is not as heavily played as Rach Two or Three [the piano concertos], but it is on the same level. It is shorter, but it is such a magical piece, one of the most dramatic in the repertory."

The greatest and most common compliment Lang Lang has received in his short career is the flexibility of his playing and his superb use of rubato. He credits this in part to his work with Chinese instruments through his father, a folk musician who now lives in Philadelphia with his mother. "Chinese music is very flavorful," he says. "I found some connections between Chinese music and Mozart, for instance, in its small, sharp phrasing."

Lang Lang finds it's natural to apply that artistic pliancy to Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody. "It is a fun piece, and many people think it is a little bit show business," he says. "But I think there is a deep musicianship in this piece. The difficulty is that it is so easy to play as an etude or exercise and really hard to play with real music-making. It has huge contrasts between variations, [especially] in tempo."

One gets the distinct feeling that Lang Lang relishes this sort of challenge. After all, he's handled the prodigy years, and look where the pressure got him.