In my channel surfing last night, I hit Great Performances, a series I
usually find wildly misnamed.  The Mostly Mozart Festival was playing some
piano concerto with the young Chinese pianist Lang Lang as the solo.  I was
enthralled.  It was the best Mozart playing I've heard in quite some time.
And then, of course, I found out he wasn't playing Mozart, but the Mendelssohn
first piano concerto.

I've long thought Mendelssohn's music got a raw deal, but not when it came
to his piano concerti, which always struck me as providing fodder to those
who considered Mendelssohn a flyweight.  But WOW!  Lang Lang sure changed
my mind.  He then did an encore of Liszt's loopy, knuckle-busting Fantasy
on themes from Don Giovanni, in which he showed that he had the requisite
ten fingers (including thumbs).  It wasn't the most musicianly Liszt I've
ever heard, but I didn't really care.  It had all the spectacle of Motorcross
racing.

For those of you more attuned to the current classical scene than me, I ask
whether Lang's general rep is rapturous or mixed.

Steve Schwartz