Second Life (SL) is a virtual world developed by Linden Lab launched on June 23, 2003, and is accessible on the Internet. A free client program called the Viewer enables its users, called Residents, to interact with each other through avatars. Residents can explore, meet other residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, and create and trade virtual property and services with one another, or travel throughout the world (which residents refer to as “the grid”). Second Life is for people aged 18 and over, while Teen Second Life is for people aged 13 to 17.
In 2007 Lang Lang played the first piano recital ever to take place on SL. Also pianist Jeremy Denk appeared in 2009 via WGBH simulcast on Second Life. The way these events work is that the music is streamed onto Second Life and a separate “performer” operates their avatar to mime playing the instrument.
Recorded and filmed live in Vienna’s legendary Musikverein concert hall, the Sony Classical debut is available on August 24 in multiple formats including vinyl and 3D video.
This release represents Lang Lang’s second live recorded recital to date after the best-selling “Live at Carnegie Hall” in 2004, which marked his international breakthrough as a recording artist. He has performed the new album’s program at the world’s major concert venues and will continue to tour with it throughout 2011.
This recital, one of 2010’s most eagerly-awaited classical recordings, is released in its entirety on the following multiple formats: Deluxe limited edition, Blu-ray, DVD, LP vinyl and Digital formats. For the first time Lang Lang will be performing some of the album’s repertoire in the new spectacular 3D format which will be a bonus feature on the Blu-Ray. This will include the first movement of Beethoven’s Appassionata Sonata, Evocation from Albeniz’s Iberia suite, the explosive finale of Prokofiev’s Seventh Sonata and Chopin’s “Heroic” Polonaise. This forms part of Lang Lang’s commitment to reaching new audiences through innovative technologies, a goal he also aims to realize through his global brand ambassadorship with Sony Electronics. The Blu-Ray will be released in October 2010. The CD, DVD, LP vinyl and CD/DVD combo will release on August 24, 2010.
Promotional video:
Sheet music of Chopin’s Polonaise “Heroic” to download and print:
Lang Lang began playing the piano at the age of three and had already won the Shenyang Competition and given his first recital by the tender age of five. He shot to world-wide fame at seventeen when he triumphed in the Tchaikovsky Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the “Gala of the Century”. Since then he has become one of the most sought-after musicians around the globe and was listed by TIME magazine among the “100 Most Influential People in the World”. Watched by more than five billion viewers, he played at the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and performed alongside Herbie Hancock at the 50th Grammy Awards. In December 2007, Lang Lang was guest soloist at the Nobel Prize concert in Stockholm, an event attended by the Nobel Laureates and members of the Royal Family. He returned as soloist for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize awarding ceremony and concert for President Barack H. Obama.
Lang Lang is an inspiration to young musicians everywhere and has made it his personal mission to broaden the appeal of classical music to the widest possible audience. He has founded the “Lang Lang International Music Foundation” with the aim of identifying and supporting exceptionally gifted piano students between the ages of six and ten, and he made a historic appearance on the finale of “Oprah’s Search for the World’s Smartest and Most Talented Kids,” duetting with three young musicians from his Foundation. Ever since the pianist shot to fame, China has been in the grip of a piano-learning frenzy known as the “Lang Lang Effect,” and Steinway has recognized the pianist’s popularity with children by creating five versions of the “Lang Lang Steinway,” designed for early music education. An estimated 40 million children in China are learning the piano because of the “Lang Lang effect.” While performing around 130 concerts a year, he also manages to find time in his packed schedule to be a UNICEF ambassador and work with the Montblanc Cultural Foundation.
“It is not just sound. The problem is that this content cannot be really be articulated in an objective, rational, scientific way — with words.
If it were possible to articulate it in an objective, rational, scientific way, the music would not be necessary.”
In the Masterclasses series with Daniel Barenboim, he speaks about what
it is and what it takes to truly play Beethoven. Lang Lang, a younger
colleague playing the Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Appassionata, gets
some intense advice on how to reflect on different interpretational aspects.
International concert pianists including Lang Lang, Cyprien Katsaris and Louis Lortie premiered a new piano concerto for ten pianos and orchestra during the Olympic Games in Beijing on August the 20th.
Vladimir Feltsman, Liu Shi-Kun, Joseph Kalichstein, Philippe Entremont and Yin Cheng-zong also performed in this work with the China National Symphony Orchestra under Chen Zuo-huang at the Piano Gala that made a ”Grand Finale” of an evening of solo recitals by each pianist.
Composer Shi-Guang Cui says that the four movement work was inspired by Chinese folk dances and percussion instruments.
The concert was held at Beijing’s new national Centre for the Performing Arts.
Recorded and filmed live in Vienna’s legendary Musikverein concert hall, the Sony Classical debut is available on August 24 in multiple formats including vinyl and 3D video.
