Chinese pianist Lang Lang is 19 years old and, ridiculous though it sounds, already facing a mid-career crisis. He won his first competition at the age of five, and gave solo recitals across the world when he was 13. Now he is in an adolescent limbo: neither young enough to pass for a child genius, nor old enough to be considered a fully fledged master.
His performance of Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Christoph Eschenbach, however, demonstrated that he is better equipped than many teenage virtuosos to deal with the transition from prodigy to professional. His interpretation was studded with moments of barnstorming virtuosity, such as the cascades of double octaves in the first movement. He negotiated these formidable obstacles with ease, but his tone often became dry and brittle, and it seemed that his technique had got the better of his musicality.
Far more impressive was the way he handled the ebb and flow of Tchaikovsky's enormous structure. He gave the first movement a powerful musical momentum, and his phrasing in the second created a subtle poetry. And he achieved a sensitive partnership with Eschenbach, varying his tone colour and dynamic to blend with the LPO players. If Lang can develop a consistency across the range of his playing, he will become a remarkably complete virtuoso.
Eschenbach and the orchestra took centre stage for the UK premiere of Kaija Saariaho's Nymphea Reflection. The work revisits Saariaho's Nymphea, originally composed for string quartet. In "reflecting" the music for full string orchestra, she has transformed and amplified its gestures and power. Reflection is a metaphor for the musical processes she uses in the new piece. The music begins with a single pitch, out of which blooms a lush, microtonal haze. It is as if the minute complexities of that initial note had been refracted through a musical prism.
The texture is awash with glissandos and noises, making the string orchestra sound like an ensemble of weird, electronic effects. There are also more conventional moments: a solo violin melody hovers above this pool of sound, and is itself mirrored by the other parts. Eschenbach inspired the LPO to a searingly intense performance, capturing the finesse and ferocity of this fascinating work.
