Lang Lang Live in Vienna

Lang Lang Live in Vienna, a piano recital by Lang Lang with the following works:

1. Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 3

2. Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 23 "Appassionata"

3. Albéniz Iberia, Book I  "Évocation", "El Puerto", and "Fête-Dieu à Sévile"

4. Prokofiev Piano Sonata No. 7

5. Chopin  Étude Op. 25 No. 1

6. Chopin Polonaise No. 6 "Heroic"

7. Chopin Grande Valse brillante No. 2

Performed 2010 at the Musikverein, Großer Saal, Wien. 40 minutes of bonus features give us our first taste of 3D in a fine-art HDVD. Main program directed by Christian Kurt Weisz; 3D program directed by Andreas Morell. Released in 2010, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio surround sound. Grade: A+

The Chinese imp-angel sold out the Musikverein Großer Saal (Vienna "Golden Hall"); there was no empty space anywhere including the risers around the piano. And if the most experienced concert audience in the world gives this guy a standing ovation, why shouldn't I? After seeing Lang (can you call him that?) play outrageously pimped-up standards in pop venues, I wasn't expecting too much. But his playing here of Beethoven and Chopin is dramatic and remarkably chaste coming from such a showboat. His renditions stack up well when I compare them to LPs and CDs in my closet from folks like Rubinstein and Argerich.

So how does Lang compare to Volodos, whose recent Musikverein recital was published by Sony in HDVD? Well, Volodos is more earnest for sure, and maybe experts would consider his technique more refined than that of Lang. But Lang is more fun. Volodos reminds me of thundering Zeus. Lang reminds me of Hermes, that playful God who would come to earth to show mortals how to find their way. And that's why Lang, I bet, makes 20 times more money in a year than Volodos.

Lang is the first classical artist to have something out in 3D. The 3D pieces were shot, not in Vienna, but at a high-tech nightclub in Berlin that probably has its own substation on the electric power grid. (Could it be that there are more chicks hanging out around the Berghain than at the Großer Saal?) There is a short extra on the disc called The Third Dimension---The Making Of. In this you see huge pieces of 3D gear that look more like scientific instruments than TV cameras. When one of these mounted on a big crane swoops down for a close up of Lang, it looks like the Alien trying to gobble up Sigourney Weaver. So it quite impossible now to shoot 3D on normal locations like the stage at a concert hall.

If you navigate to the 3D tracks on the disc using 2D equipment, you see a normal 2D picture. To get the 3D images, you must have a 3D player and display. I viewed the 3D piano selections (about 30 minutes long) in 3D at John Fort Audio/Visual in Richardson, TX. We were able to make quick transitions between the same material in 2D and 3D images. Even in 2D, high-definition TV allows the brain to perceive an image with some degree of three dimensionality. In close up shots of the lone pianist at the instrument, the real 3D image was only marginally more realistic when seen in 3D than when seen in 2D! An improvement in depth perception mostly became noticeable when, for example, there was a microphone located in the foreground between the camera and the piano. Then in 3D it appeared that the microphone was standing on the floor in Fort's home theater! So 3D works fine. But it's probably not worth the trouble when the subject is a single artist sitting or standing in one place with an instrument. 3D will doubtless be more impressive with groups of artists taking up more space and will be the most beneficial with large ensembles like a ballet or opera.

This disc proves that Lang Lang is a fully-qualified serious classical pianist as well as a cross-over celebrity. At $18, the price of this Sony title is relatively reasonable. So I give this title the grade of "A+." Consider buying it and the Volodos title for a great evening of fantastic piano HDVD at the total cost of about $36.