From the Archives: Lang Lang

Alec Baldwin (0:02)

This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's The Thing. Rock star is the wrong word by definition, but classical star doesn't quite get at Lang Lang's place in the pantheon. He's a serious pianist playing serious repertoire with a flare. Here, it's a Schubert fantasy in front of a sold-out crowd at Carnegie Hall.

One's tempted to say he's one part Glenn Gould, one part Van Clyburn, but the truth is he's Lang Lang. He and his signature Buffon were the obvious choice to open the Beijing Olympics, watched by four billion people. And for President Obama to invite to play at the intimate White House dinner for the President of China. Lang Lang takes an obvious joy in his art and his fame, but both are hard won. A musical prodigy, he was the son of two talented artists forced to abandon their dreams by the Cultural Revolution. Just a few years after he won a national competition at the age of five, his father abandoned everything else in his life to focus on his son's talent.

They moved together to Beijing. Lang Lang won so many contests that he was offered a spot by the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. His father moved with him to America too. All that vicarious ambition took its toll on their bond, but over the years, it returned.

Lang Lang (2:02)

We're very close.

Alec Baldwin (2:04)

Our conversation was taped in front of a live audience at WNYC's GreenSpace.

Lang Lang (2:10)

We're really much better than when I was a nine-year-old. Much better. We're not in the same level. Yeah, we were really... It's getting closer somehow, because we are not living together. So in a way, distance makes beauty, right?

So that's how exactly happened.

Alec Baldwin (2:28)

In his mind, he must have a kind of a mixed feeling, the euphoria of you having made it to the degree you've made it. And at the same time, he's not around you. I know that if I was your dad, I'm obsessed with my kids.

And if I was like your dad and I was instrumental and influential in helping you become what you became, then all of a sudden you were like, okay, dad, I got this and you're going to move out on your own. I'd be like, wait, no. If you were my son, I want to live with you forever.

Lang Lang (2:58)

So, I mean, he...

Alec Baldwin (2:59)

What does he do with himself now that you're not living together?

Lang Lang (3:02)

He's actually, he's helping me a lot in China, back home. And then he's also teaching a lot. He likes to help in the next generation of musicians. And he himself was a musician. Yeah, he played the Arhu, the Chinese violin.

So that was his...

Alec Baldwin (3:20)

Musicians of like circus bands?

Lang Lang (3:22)

He was in the Air Force band, but in, yeah, before I was in the circus band. Yeah. Yeah. But the instrument itself is very beautiful. It's like one of the most charming instrument from Asia. And it's very tasteful. It has a really beautiful taste.

And it's also instrument always make you cry somehow.

Alec Baldwin (3:41)

Yeah.

Lang Lang (3:41)

It's like, yeah, so, so sometimes, I mean, my father made me cry with different reason.

Alec Baldwin (3:51)

You weren't crying because he broke out the, what is it called again?

Lang Lang (3:54)

Arhu.

Alec Baldwin (3:55)

Arhu.

Lang Lang (3:55)

Yeah. Arhu. Yeah. More like that.

Alec Baldwin (3:58)

I'll get my Chinese pronunciation eventually, but maybe by the time we're done. But then you, your country, your native country, is very driven by competitions and international competitions. They put a tremendous emphasis on that, correct?

Lang Lang (4:12)

Absolutely. The best way to make career were winning the competitions. Which is the truth, especially during that time because otherwise nobody will discover you.

We have to go out for international competitions and to win prizes. Being number one is became a motto in my early career. Then, of course, after I landed here, I had this teacher, a great pianist, Gary Grafman, who was also quite different compared to the other academic professors because he is so into a real career rather than a short-term being a prize winner. So he discouraged me to do competitions and I was like, wow, really?

Alec Baldwin (5:03)

Did he say why?

Lang Lang (5:05)

Yeah, he said that you're too crazy about being number one and you're not really focused on what you should be learning the repertoire. And he said, do you want to become a great musician or you want to just win a prize winner? And I said, oh, I said, is that not the same? I said, what's the difference? I said, if I don't win a prize, how am I going to become a great musician? He said, oh, okay, that's the wrong understanding you have. And especially his wife, you know. Naomi, every time I go to the library in Curtis, and then I start looking over the competition forms, like Van Clyburn, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, and I take it out. And then I'm thinking to fill the form, right? And then I saw Naomi next to me. Hey, what are you doing, bad boy?