Every musician has fond memories of those pieces with which we first made a deep connection. As we grow up and learn an instrument, there are pieces on our journey which inexplicably travel along with us. For me, the first time this happened was when I encountered Eric Satie's lyrical ‘Gymnopédie No. 1’. Playing it, even many years later, still transports me back to Friday night choir practices, sneaking on to the piano before the conductor arrived, balmy summer evenings, and the whole flavour of childhood.
Piano virtuoso Lang Lang has increasingly turned his searing talents toward pedagogy over the last few years, setting up the Lang Lang International Music Foundation in 2008, releasing the series Mastering the Piano with Lang Lang in 2014, which was shortly followed up by an iOS App (I'm still waiting for the Android version!), and then joined by the five-level Piano Method. The latest addition to the Lang Lang Piano Academy brand is the Piano Book. The author describes it as a ‘collection of the most significant pieces from my own musical journey’. The publication ties in with Lang Lang's first studio album in three years: a double-CD release of the same name from Deutsche Grammophon that features repertoire from the book.
The first thing to note, in this age of disposable sheet music printed out five minutes before a lesson, is that this book is beautiful. Properly beautiful: hard-backed with gold inlaid text, page-finder ribbon, marble endpapers, and the kind of paper that even the most enthusiastic of page turns is unlikely to tear. The imprints (at least of the out-of-copyright repertoire) are all new. They are spaciously and thoughtfully laid out and feature Lang Lang's own editorial suggestions. This is a book which has been designed to be loved for many years.
The repertoire list further supports the notion that this book is designed to be part of a student's journey for a long time. Perennial favourites like ‘Prelude No.1’ from The Well-tempered Clavier and ‘Für Elise’ nestle together with Mendelssohn's tricky ‘Spinning Song’ and Grieg's intimidatingly three-stave ‘To Spring’. The book also contains a rare print outing for Arthur De Lulli's infamous ‘Chop Waltz’ (‘Chopsticks’), which my students were shocked to discover is ‘an actual piece of music’, and a deliciously ethereal transcription of Elena Kats-Chernin's ‘Eliza Aria’, made famous by the Lloyds TSB advertising campaign.
The collection also includes some less familiar items, at least to the Eurocentric pedagogical canon. My students particularly enjoyed Ryuichi Sakamoto's haunting ‘Merry Christmas, Mr.
Lawrence’ and Ginastera's jazzy ‘Danza de la moza donosa’.
The book is topped off with an additional printing of ‘Für Elise’ complete with Lang Lang's own (terrifyingly neat!) annotations. While none of the hand-written comments were particularly revelatory, they did serve an interesting purpose. They underlined to my students that the things I've been saying to them for the last few years are valid universal concerns, even to international concert pianists. Even Lang Lang maps out tension and release, structural points, and has a note to remind him not to over-pedal!
Each piece in the collection is prefaced with a comment from Lang Lang, suggesting some sensible approaches (‘keep your fingers at a 45° angle, use your thumb and fingernails and don't press too hard’) and focusing on imagery and imagination for each interpretation (‘picture the Salzburg mountains as you play it’). The collection is judiciously peppered with fingering suggestions, which are generic enough to be universal to all students irrespective of their hand size. Some of the suggestions (Var I ‘Ah, vous dirai-je, maman’ jumps to mind) seem a little dogmatic, but are sufficiently sparingly applied to not confuse those students who need alternative approaches.
So is this book ultimately a useful teaching tool, or an attractive keep-sake? In spite (or in fact because) of looking beautiful, the volume will not sit on the average music desk without some judicious spine-cracking. My poor students were reluctant to perform this on a shiny new book. The repertoire list encompasses a tasteful balance of familiar and new music, pitched from post-Grade 1 up to Grade 8 level pieces. The ordering of the contents might leave some readers scratching their heads, for instance moving from ‘Wilder Reiter’ (Grade 3, 2011) to the extended octave challenges of Baądarzewska-Baranowska's ‘Maiden's Prayer’. The editorial additions may prove irksome to the more purist practitioner, especially where these aren't strictly played out in the accompanying audio recordings. It made an interesting exercise to listen to the author's recordings of ‘Für Elise’ together with the annotated score.
On balance, this publication is likely to represent something in between a learning manual and a keepsake for students. Sumptuous recordings and photos of the young Lang Lang give an aspirational quality to this publication, which had my students listening to piano music in a new way for the first time – I can even forgive the author for missing out ‘Gymnopédie No. 1’!
An exciting interview with Lang Lang can be found in the May issue of International Piano magazine.
The book is available here for £25.
