ok, who's the prick who butchered the rach2?

[pianohopper]

So I was watching the Julliard centennial celebration or whatever it was, and this little kid, 13 years old and (of course) asian, gets up there to play Rachmaninov's 2nd Piano Concerto.  First of all, he's got a name that sounds too much like Lang Lang, and second, he acts for the camera too much like Lang Lang.  The motions and faces he pulled were ridiculous.

And then he goes and mangles about half the chords in the middle section, which is, I might add, the climax of the entire piece!  Or am I just imagining this? but it seemed like most of them had added sharps or flats or something, because they didn't sound right. 

I mean, it's one thing if you're going to play badly for a small concert, with an amateur orchestra, but on national television, with the Juilliard Orchestra?  What were they thinking?  And then whatshisface, the announcer, goes, "wow."  No.  Not right. 

(And then I turned on March Madness.  So it might have been the beer hearing the mistakes.  But it sounded kinda funky.)

[lisztisforkids]

He's 13, give him a break! The skys the limit for this kid, let him grow and mature. Do you really expect a 13 year old to give you the best performance of Rach 2 you have seen? So what if he's Asian?

The reason there are so many Asians in Classical music (besides population) is they have the the work ethic and determination that many of us have long ago lost.....

[panic]

Yeah, but hardly anybody should play Rach 2 at that age, unless they have already developed an incredible natural ability to sense the form and progression of the music, and to treat each phrase within its proper context, taking into account all thirty-four minutes that surround it. That's rare. Sounds like this kid got pressured into doing this by the parents or something...

[stevie]

tut tut darlings, what would the boys mother say if she read this?

it is utterly stupendous that he can play it at this age anyway, and he should be applauded for this, fabulous and delightful things may come in future.

this post added nothing, but took so much, i feel ashamed.

[tompilk]

yeah... shame on you...
maybe its not the best, but is this jealousy i sense?
mmm... as the other guy said... does it matter? nope... i doubt it's going to affect your life...
I do hate pushy parents though...
Tom

[donjuan]

He's 13, give him a break! The skys the limit for this kid, let him grow and mature. Do you really expect a 13 year old to give you the best performance of Rach 2 you have seen? So what if he's Asian?

The reason there are so many Asians in Classical music (besides population) is they have the the work ethic and determination that many of us have long ago lost.....

I agree with the first part, but not the 2nd part.  Many asians play the piano for the reasons listed, but also because whenever they go home, they have crazyass superparents (https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,3403.0.html) at them all day long. 

and as soon as they get their ARCT or whatever, the parents make sure it goes on their resume, and then push them off to Medical School to give it all up for a lucrative future, and to support a house that holds 3 generations (old Chinese thing).

I didnt see the program Pianohopper, but I get the picture.  I hate overdone mannerisms too.
No reason to make a thread about it though..

[juliax]

I told a friend of mine that Rachmaninoff's Concerto No. 3 is one of the hardest pieces ever written.  I know this isn't true, blah blah blah, but c'mon it's written everywhere, it's not like I just made it up.  I read the earlier forum, and yes, I know it's not true, but this was a while back so gimme a break. 
Anyway, the response I got was "Yeah right, my friend could play that in highschool."  That kid, if he even really DID play that in high school, probably played it crappy but noone could tell.  Letting children play engenious music like crap is NOT a good thing.  It sets the standards way too high, and it causes people to say stupid things like "I saw a 13 year old play Concerto No. 2, it's easy!"  Which is really, really annoying.

Otherwise, leave the kid alone, of course he's going to make mistakes
I'm sure he was better than a beauty pageant contestant (we won't name names) I heard once.

[zheer]

Its amazing haw a 13 year old child is able to express the emotional side of Rach 2, its a really heavy PC. But it seems that these days a lot of very young talented pianists are learning and performing these sorts of things. the thing about asians, well you must remember that we are only seeing the best , so i would hate to think haw many others dont get as far. To be honest i feel that asians feel the need to be European and playing classical piano is one way of trying to be more European.

[mariocast]

The reason there are so many Asians in Classical music (besides population) is they have the the work ethic and determination that many of us have long ago lost.....

I'm of "Asian" descent, and I lost my work ethic a long time ago too.
 

[pianohopper]

ok guys maybe i came across a bit strong, but my point has been misconstrued

basically what i was trying to say is that there is nothing wrong with playing the rach 2 at the age of 13 and not play it at performance level, but what IS wrong is playing it on national television without having it satisfactorally mastered. 

[ako]

I watched the program and I thought he gave a great performance. It's not perfect but I would choose to listen to a couple of clipped notes over an unconvincing, boring performance anyday. My thoughts were "Wow, this is great! I can't believe this kid is 13 and has the maturity to pull off a performance like that!" Yes, I did hear all those mistakes with those chords and I even thought for a few moments he sounded disconnected with the music. But so what? I don't think Julliard will put this kid on stage if they did not think he's one of their best. I don't think they wanted people to think that Julliard put some kid who is not up to performance level on the centennial celebration in front of a national audience. It's too bad that he clipped those chords and choked on national TV. But he's a kid and might not have been on TV before. Maybe that's exactly why he messed up, being so nervous and knowing that the whole world is focusing on the negatives rather than the postives.

For the record, the kid's name is Peng-peng Gong. I did a search on him on the Internet. Many Chinese from Mainland China have names that are "doubled" so it's not unusual that his name might sound like Lang Lang's. I watched both LL and this kid played the same piece and I don't think the kid is making faces intentionally. IMO, this kid is truly in the moment with the music because he looked totally like an ordinary kid when he's off the piano, no pretenses, etc...that's why I think his expressions are real, no matter how unflattering they might look.

It's too bad that you didn't enjoy the performance. Even with everything said, it's really ok that you didn't like it 'cos everyone is entitled to an opinion. I just wish ppl in general won't be so hard on a kid...he's just a kid and hasn't done anything wrong to deserve this...

[franzliszt2]

Why can'tpeople playRach 2 at a young age?, all this maturity stuff is silly, He will mature, and willplay the piece well in yrs to come, but at least he canplay it, and has the technical abilty at such an early age

[Siberian Husky]

the elitism that seeps through the original poster of this thread really discusts me..before responding to this...take into concideration the ignorance involved in your claim..concider the boy's age...concider the state of emotion your in *dissapointment and dare i say anger*..your in no condition to pass judgement...

what you should really be focusing on is your relation with the 13 year old boy who "butchered" the piece..you both play and love piano..right?..

with that said..you will get much more servicable and practical answers to your thread if you constructively criticized...yes its hard i know...but really..just try..its not hard..just take the stick from out ya ass boy..

[cherrysoda]

basically what i was trying to say is that there is nothing wrong with playing the rach 2 at the age of 13 and not play it at performance level, but what IS wrong is playing it on national television without having it satisfactorally mastered. 

I agree completely-I mean surely there was another piece he could have played with more technical confidence, or they coulda had a 16 year old, or even college division student do something, unless their intention was to show the student-in-progress angle, otherwise, why, when you can pick from the cream of the crop, would you choose someone who's going to possibly mar the performance because of some technical issues, when you certainly have many others to choose from that won't?...obviously the kid's talented but like ya say for an (inter?)nationally televised broadcast showcasing their school you'd think they could have done better...put it this way, the (classicaly) musically uninitiated who may have happened upon that channel and saw that performance would probally remain uninitiated...the bungling in the climax really did leave much to be desired and the impression was that he wasn't really technically secure  with that piece.  Noone's saying the kid ain't got talent-just why have him play it when surely they have someone else (probally of the same age even) who will give a secure performance, considering the venue and occasion?-that's all.


It's like if you have a prize winning celebrated apple orchard and you have a festival to show how good your apples are and you have bushels of perfect bright, shiny, juicy, flavorful apples, why would you pick a slightly bruised, even if still beautiful, flavorful etc., one to give your guests when you can just as easily choose the unblemished ones?.

[juliax]

the elitism that seeps through the original poster of this thread really discusts me..before responding to this...take into concideration the ignorance involved in your claim..concider the boy's age...concider the state of emotion your in *dissapointment and dare i say anger*..your in no condition to pass judgement...

what you should really be focusing on is your relation with the 13 year old boy who "butchered" the piece..you both play and love piano..right?..

with that said..you will get much more servicable and practical answers to your thread if you constructively criticized...yes its hard i know...but really..just try..its not hard..just take the stick from out ya --- boy..

I love it when people criticize people for being too critical.  Something about it just makes me smile.

Excellent example of positive criticism 

[cherrysoda]

The reason there are so many Asians in Classical music (besides population) is they have the the work ethic and determination that many of us have long ago lost.....

There was a university somewhere in NY where they had to install locks to the roof of this one high building because an inordinate amount of Asian students were using it to jump off of (and kill themselves) when they got B's instead of A's.  I think suicide is considered an honorable thing to do if you "fail" in some Asian cultures. Sad.

One time at a summer music camp I went to there was an Asian girl in our cabin and one afternoon she was sitting on her bunk crying really hard, like something really awful had happened, and a couple of us went up to her and asked her what was wrong and, in broken phrases between sobs, she said "my teacher said my playing today was no better than last week" and she was a truly amazing pianist.

[mcgillcomposer]

Again another silly discussion...

There is no point on commenting until we see what Ping Pong (or whatever his name is...I honestly do not remember) does in his maturity. There are prodigies by the dozen these days...who cares?  It is only a few of those who will make a lasting impression on the musical world, and to see who these few are all we can do is wait.

And re: learning the concerto at 13 being wrong...that's a bunch of BS.  Now he knows the notes, so later on he can pick it up again and apply his ever-growing musicianship to a new interpretation without having to worry about the notes. In fact, I think that this liberation from the notes themselves is what many pianists long for so that they can focus on the interpretation while practicing and, more importantly, WHILE performing.