Until five years ago, Lang Lang jetted to concerts around the world with his mother, playing 140 times a year. “I was basically travelling every second day,” he says. But in 2017, tendonitis put him out of action altogether – “It wasn’t a career danger. I just had to rest it for a year and three months, and the last three months I already started practising.”

It’s theatrical in a way and this is what creates his crossover appeal, but he has long had some purists tutting. On one side of me is Cheryl from London, who gasps at the climax of the first piece, and compares Lang Lang’s showmanship to Liberace; on the other side is a respected piano critic, aghast at the way he slows the first movement to squeeze every last drop of emotion from it. Successive encores show how audiences respond to his mix of technical brilliance and sentimentality. Top Selling Albums of 1994". RIANZ. Archived from the original on 31 August 2017 . Retrieved 19 May 2022.a b c Sexton, Paul (19 December 2018). "Vangelis sets out on new mission with 'Nocturne' album". UDiscover Music . Retrieved 24 January 2019. He also flits seamlessly between cultures. In fact, the only time he looks at all uncomfortable is when I ask him how he feels about the tension between China and the West. “In a way, I’m not political at all,” he says. “The only position I have is as a Messenger of Peace for the United Nations. And, for me, I think music is a great bridge to help each other, to help China to understand Western culture.” I wonder if there’s any tension between his emotionality as a performer and the culture he comes from in which individual expression is not seen as important in the way that it is in the West. Newcomers are a great thing, because in classical music, it’s so hard to break through, you know, because we never retire. It’s not like Roger Federer in tennis.” He points to the Argentine pianist Martha Argerich, recognised as one of the all time greats, who’s 82.

Whatever preconceptions one has of classical music’s great stars, formed perhaps of Maria Callas’s temper, Pavarotti’s appetite and the eccentricities of Glenn Gould, Lang Lang doesn’t fit them. Once on stage, he is completely engaged with the young performers, reaching for words to describe what he wants – “perfume” for a delicate clutch of notes, “like water” for a sequence to be played less stiffly, singing the melodies, expressing himself through dramatic physical gestures.Oficjalna lista sprzedaży:: OLiS - Official Retail Sales Chart". OLiS. Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 7 February 2019. But when he sees a string quartet… the other day in the shopping mall, he was the only one there to shout, ‘bravo’. And he just stared at the cello the whole time, so afterwards Gina bought him a cello, which he is very happy about.” And they welcomed their first child, in early 2021. “The good news is that I’m gradually adjusting to a new lifestyle,” Lang Lang tells me, when we sit down over coffee (just the one) and pains au chocolat.