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Lang Lang

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Biography

Chinese piano prodigy Lang Lang (b. Shenyang, June 14 1982) won a series of competitions before moving to the USA, where his career took off. At just eighteen, he gave his first concert at New York's Carnegie Hall (2001), and two years later recorded the critically acclaimed program of Tchaikovsky - Mendelssohn piano concertos with Daniel Barenboim and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Since then, his albums such as the Memory recital (2006) and the Beethoven: Piano Concertos No.1 & No.4 program have regularly topped the classical music charts. The first Chinese artist to be nominated for a Grammy Award (2007), Lang Lang performed at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games the following year and set up a foundation to promote emerging talent. From then on, with his inclusion in Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world, Lang Lang's career took on a starry path, bolstered by sponsorship, promotion, his contributions to film and video game soundtracks, rock (Mike Oldfield), pop (Bruno Mars), rap (Eminem, Kendrick Lamar) and jazz (Herbie Hancock, Quincy Jones) albums, and his appearances at events such as the opening ceremony of the Shanghai World Expo (2010). In 2011, he paid a timely tribute to Franz Liszt in My Piano Hero, followed by The Chopin Album (CD/DVD, 2012), a collection entirely dedicated to his favourite composer. That same year, the pianist gave a recital in front of ten thousand spectators at the Berlin O2 World arena. Named Messenger of Peace by the United Nations (2013), Lang Lang records the double concerto recital The Mozart Album with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt, performs at the Grammy Awards ceremony with the band Metallica and collaborates on Jean-Michel Jarre's album Electronica 1: The Time Machine. Winner of the Echo Klassik awards (2013, 2015), he publishes the double recital of Lang Lang concertos in Paris (2015) and crosses genres in New York Rhapsody (2016), featuring guests Herbie Hancock, Lindsey Stirling and Madeleine Peyroux. In 2020, the Piano Book souvenir album released the previous year was followed by a performance of Bach's Goldberg Variations, in the studio and in the Leipzig church where the composer worked. The next episode sees the pianist join the anniversary of Saint-Saëns's death with a program including Carnival of the Animals conducted by Andris Nelsons and a version narrated by Jimmy Fallon. 2025 saw the release of the second volume of his personal music diary, Piano Book 2, a new anthology of varied pieces by great composers and other popular melodies.
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Albums

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Top Tracks

  1.   Track
    Popularity
  2.   Arirang (arr. Schindler for piano)
  3.   Beethoven: Piano Sonata in D Major, Op. 6 - II. Rondo. Moderato by Christoph Eschenbach
  4.   Scriabin: 12 Etudes, Op. 8 - No. 12 in D-Sharp Minor featuring St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra
  5.   Part of Your World (Arr. Hamilton for Piano)
  6.   El Caminante by Lang Lang
  7.   River Waltz by Alexandre Desplat
  8.   Wild Swans Suite: 2. Eliza Aria (arr. for piano)
  9.   Mozart: Piano Sonata No.10 In C Major, K.330 - 3. Allegretto by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  10.   Liu Yang River
  11.   Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 30 - III. Finale. Alla breve featuring St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra
  12.   Scriabin: 12 Etudes, Op. 8 - No. 2 in F-Sharp Minor featuring St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra
  13.   Scriabin: 3 Pieces, Op. 2 - No. 1, Etude in C-Sharp Minor featuring St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra
  14.   Scriabin: 12 Etudes, Op. 8 - No. 8 in A-Flat Major featuring St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra
  15.   Scriabin: 12 Etudes, Op. 8 - No. 3 in B Minor featuring St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra
  16.   Scriabin: 12 Etudes, Op. 8 - No. 11 in B-Flat Minor featuring St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra
  17.   Scriabin: 12 Etudes, Op. 8 - No. 10 in D-Flat Major featuring St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra
  18.   Khachaturian: Children's Album for Piano, Book I - 1. Andantino "Ivan Sings"
  19.   Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 30 - II. Intermezzo. Adagio featuring St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra
  20.   Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 30 - I. Allegro ma non tanto featuring St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra
  21.   J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 - Variatio 28 a 2 Clav. by Johann Sebastian Bach
  22.   J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 - Variatio 27 Canone alla Nona. a 2 Clav. by Johann Sebastian Bach
  23.   J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 - Variatio 26 a 2 Clav.
  24.   J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 - Variatio 25 a 2 Clav. Adagio by Johann Sebastian Bach
  25.   We Don't Talk About Bruno
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