Sparagmos

There is no one more fitting to play the hero in Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto than the cultural savant of our time, Lang Lang, who possesses an acute stylistic extreme that outshines his intellectual and technical ardor. For this reason, it is unfair to use his notoriety to undermine his genius.

Attesting to the strength of the spirit, Ludwig van Beethoven composed his Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73, as the Napoleonic Wars besieged his city of Vienna and too the decline of his auditory senses. Interestingly the last two movements blend together, but that is a red herring - the concerto defers to the soloist, the pianist - it is not about compromise.

The concerto opens with the orchestra’s vigor, probably because it is the most significant they will ever sound in the entire piece. Immediately after, the solo piano responds with layered arpeggios, trills, and scales. It could not be more clear that the world is Lang Lang’s oyster, which we have sensed from the moment he entered the world stage, but also because Beethoven made it that way.

Lang Lang posesses a disproportionate abundance of talent, but it is overshadowed by his enormous indulgence for showiness. It is easily misunderstood even by the professional musician: Gustavo Gimeno, conductor and music director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra for the past 10 years, who had an excellent run with The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by Paul Dukas just 10 minutes earlier. Unfortunately, in Beethoven, I have never seen a conductor become so obsessed with clinging to the limelight. And if it takes a martyr to reveal disparity, then do not forget how he looked more exhausted as he gestured flashily for more, at moments that do not require a conductor to exaggerate nor take the spotlight. So in the sense of creating a one-sided battle out of insecurity, he is not a martyr, but in the sense of choosing to go down with a ship, he certainly is. Then if Gimeno’s showiness ceased to enthrall in comparison, there must be a certain weakness to it, at least relatively, he has transformed into an exhausting self-monologue. On that note, by set difference, it is incredibly obvious who carries conviction and soundness; there are levels to indulgence and levels to egoism.

We enjoy artists of such originality for their authority, for their sacrifice to become the extreme, which are distortions of reality. Thus I can underscore the significance of Lang Lang as tonight’s soloist. His desires are far from ours, yet over 200 years later, his is the template exactly underlying the intention of Beethoven’s later concertos for a dominant and directional soloist. His explicitness is what best serves the needs of our spirit at this time and it is what we shall come to respect, with nothing less. And in the respect we pay to such people, we acknowledge the reaches of their artistry.