what is lang lang doing to change the perception of classical music and the study of music?

In a individual room on the top flooring of Harvey Nichols in Knightsbridge, hordes of glamorous and mainly very young Chinese women (and the odd man) are packed effectually a Steinway piano on a stage in the heart of the room. Blow-stale, designer-clad with shopping bags at their feet, they're drinking champagne and nibbling canapés, excitedly anticipating the evening's star attraction.

The man they've been waiting for, a pianist named Yundi, enters to a ripple of excitement. In black tie, with an Elvis quiff and babe face up, one of People's republic of china's biggest stars steps onto the stage. Beside him is a beaming Sir David Tang, the Chinese billionaire and socialite.

The so-called "Prince of the Piano" sits, raises his famous, slender easily and launches into a silky Chopin'southward Nocturnes. Scores of iPhones click and whirr, capturing his fingers gliding across the keyboard. At the end of his 45-minute recital, fans, who'd won tickets through social media, whoop and cheer, before queuing for autographs.

Classical musicians have long been considered dusty, dry out figures, but in China, 31-year-former Yundi and his more than internationally known rival Lang Lang are treated as stone stars. They've inspired what's being called "pianoforte fever"; an estimated 50 million young Chinese now learn the musical instrument that until recently was banned as "decadent".

Hordes of fans follow Yundi (built-in Li Yundi) wherever he goes. In last year'south Chinese classical music charts, he had 11 albums in the peak xv, while his latest recording of Beethoven's sonatas went platinum – two feats unprecedented not just in the classical world, only in the unabridged Chinese music market.

A one-billion-strong audition watched his televised performance at the Chinese Spring Festival Gala, with x,000 in the auditorium. On Weibo (Cathay'due south Twitter) he has 14.5 million followers, who react in fury to anyone who dares even mildly criticise their hero, and is one of the superlative ten Chinese celebrities discussed on the service. When he appear his idol was Chopin, the expressionless composer'south biography began racing up the Chinese volume charts. He advertises Rolex and Bang & Olufsen and is the "paradigm administrator" to Super Boys – China'southward reply to Pop Idol.

Last year his Dream Tour – the largest classical bout in Chinese history – took in 33 cities, with tickets selling out in only 12 minutes. "Nobody had ever washed anything like this before," says Yundi, sitting in a hotel bar, the morning time after the Harvey Nichols showcase. Some other pianist hammers out show tunes in the background; Yundi declines the PR's proposition that he re-enact the scene in the film Polish when the hero stuns a eatery with his virtuoso functioning.

"My fans really dearest me, so they desire to understand classical music and I desire to help them," he continues. "Past watching me, they've learnt non to handclapping between the movements, to know some of the music I play quite well. I love the idea of playing repose music on a big stage, you lot can feel every note bubbling in the air, with everybody post-obit."

In jacket and jeans, the quiff at present a shaggy mane, Yundi is unassuming and polite. Cheers partly to the language barrier (he began learning English when studying in Frg, aged xviii), but also to his devotion to the piano, he makes an amiable, but opaque graphic symbol. But this restraint makes the Chinese love him more than, his reserve being viewed equally more characteristic of the state than Lang Lang's flamboyance. "My emotions are expressed through the piano," he says. "Information technology'south easier to speak through the keys than through words."

Yundi appeals not only to 15-yr-olds but also to serious music buffs. In 2000 he was awarded the gilt medal at Warsaw's International Chopin Competition, the first time the notoriously picky judges had awarded the prize in 15 years. He was the youngest ever pianist, and also the kickoff Chinese musician, to win.

^{Lang Lang performing terminal year (Niu Xiaolei/Rex)}

Since and so, his playing has been internationally acclaimed. "Mr Li is a poetic thespian with a sensitive touch, but too ample power when he needs it," said The New York Times of his early Chopin recordings. His latest CD of Beethoven's Emperor Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic was declared "brilliant and properly rhetorical, however superfine" by pianist Stephen Preslin in International Tape Review.

Nosotros meet at the terminate of a 21-appointment European tour. "I feel so good today, now the tour'south over," he exclaims, stretching his arms in the air. "If I'd met you yesterday I would have been stressed only last night we went out for cracking nutrient in Chinatown and this morning there was no alert clock going off at six, saying it's time to go to the airport once again."

In China, Yundi leads a superstar lifestyle, even though he lists his hobbies as "drinking tea and listening to jazz". Based in Beijing, he hangs out with actors, models and singers (the Chinese media has long speculated about his alleged gay relationship with a Taiwanese pop star, though I'yard reliably informed he has a girlfriend).

"My friends work in different areas, merely we empathize what information technology's like to be in the public eye and nosotros can support each other in that," he says, pulling out his phone to prove a photo of him with Katy Perry when she recently played in China (this would have enhanced Perry's profile, rather than his).

The Chinese Tiger Parent is an archetype that makes Western parents experience simultaneously guilty their children will be left behind and smug at their lack of pushiness. We've all heard most Lang Lang's father telling his nine-year-old son to kill himself when his playing wasn't good plenty, read about Amy Chua demanding six hours of daily music exercise from her daughters, and violinist Vanessa Mae, whose mother reportedly slapped and hit her when her playing wasn't up to scratch.

In comparing, Yundi's story is disappointingly undramatic – simply nonetheless extraordinary. Born in provincial Chongqing in Sichuan province, his steelworker parents, he says, were always "supportive and loving", even if his female parent did have to cajole him sometimes to exercise.

"She wouldn't beat me, instead she promised me a toy similar a car every bit a reward. It's true there are Chinese parents who punish their children, but Sichuan is a very relaxed region, its culture is very elegant, more poetic – like the Chinese philosophers. Our people don't subscribe to this idea: 'You lot must.' "

It wasn't equally if music featured in their plans for their son. His mother enjoyed Chinese ballet, just his male parent was completely unmusical. Yundi, however, ever loved singing along with the radio and when he was 3 he spotted an accordion in the local mall and, subsequently a demonstration from the store assistant, insisted on learning to play.

At seven, "very late, very late age", his teacher encouraged him to quit lessons with her and move on to the piano. Even though his hands were likewise small to span an octave, within a few months Yundi had progressed then much his teacher declared he was no longer worthy to teach him.

Information technology was the late Eighties and the piano was rarely heard in provincial China. "My father and my piano teacher were non allowed to make music during the Cultural Revolution," he says. "There was no connection with the West – no tapes, no CDs, no Western musicians came to China. Information technology was very difficult only to imagine how your music should exist played just not to see it. I was e'er hungry for more than data."

His begetter drew on savings of their extended family unit to buy him a 2nd-hand piano for $500 – 40 times his monthly bacon. "It was like buying a firm," he later recalled. At xiii, the family moved to the state capital Shenzhen so Yundi could report at the conservatoire, his mother giving up her chore, his father starting his ain business organisation to support him.

Today, thousands of Chinese families foster musical ambitions for their offspring, but his parents were simply bemused. "We had no idea about fame, how could nosotros imagine how Horowitz's or Rubinstein'due south life was? In that location was no security in what I did, it was all about my passion. My parents just wanted me to be happy."

Everything changed in 2000 when he beat 93 contestants to the Chopin prize. "Suddenly I was a national hero, coming together our prime government minister and president, anybody'southward attention is on me, it was all engagements, interviews, invitations." He signed with Deutsche Grammophon, but refused the expected road of non-stop touring and recording, instead moving to Hanover for 5 years' more than report.

"I wanted to slowly develop, to focus without disturbance." DG was frustrated by his reluctance to cash in. Yundi smiles. "Practising for 6 hours a day, so much fourth dimension solitary with yourself, just with music. It makes me very strong."

While most classical musicians are pushed into playing any and every genre in an endeavour to woo the masses, Yundi refuses to dilute his repertoire. "I don't practise crossover, I don't change my style," he says firmly. "I share what I do with immature people; if they want different music they tin find it in a different area."

It's hard not to read such comments equally digs at Lang Lang, Yundi'southward long-continuing rival and verbal contemporary. Rumour has it that Lang Lang's begetter reportedly told 1 symphony orchestra manager that his son would not play with them if a future concert was booked with Yundi and in 2009 the male child from Beijing had Yundi dropped by Universal (Deutsche'due south parent characterization), saying the label only had room for one Chinese pianist.

The following year, yet, Lang Lang defected to Sony. In a counter-strike, Yundi returned to Universal for $3 million, the exact figure that tempted Lang Lang to defect. Lang Lang's "team" is said to be responsible for scurrilous rumours about Yundi's personal life.

Now the Chinese media gleefully pits the pair against each other, like the Beatles versus the Stones. While flashy Lang Lang is the Party's and international favourite, the shyer – also seen every bit more poetic – Yundi is the Chinese people'south favourite. As arts critic Norman ­Lebrecht summarises: "Lang Lang is a global brand, Yundi a national dish."

The mention of Lang Lang's proper name is the only time Yundi becomes mildly agitated. "I don't know him, we've been at the same event just we've never met, I've never seen him play," he says. "Talent comes through the work. There'due south a lot of skilful talent out there and we support everybody." He then adds, meaningfully, that his favourite pianists are Israeli.

As I see it, Lang Lang relishes the spotlight – and the rivalry. Yundi, on the other mitt, has become increasingly adept at playing the marketing game, only would be ­happier without it. "Only music can define me," he ­says passionately.

This may be so, simply the flailing classical world is hyping him as a potential saviour, with all its focus existence directed towards the Chinese market. Last yr, 10 per cent of Prc'southward music sales were classical, and the figure is rising, compared with three per cent in the Us.

"I'm very happy that so many children are learning the pianoforte because of me," Yundi says. "Music is magical and information technology shouldn't be something kept far away in a museum. Information technology's similar black and white in style, some people see it as boring, but it will never go out of style."

Yundi's latest album, 'Beethoven Emperor Concerto/Schumann Fantasy in C Major' is out at present on DG/Mercury Classics

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Source: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/classicalmusic/10863146/Lang-Lang-Weve-never-met.html

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