Lang Lang's first concerto album on the Sony label unites the world’s greatest International music stars: Lang Lang, Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. This highly awaited collaboration resulted in a recording which will mark one of this year's most important core classical releases in the music industry.
Recorded at Berlin's Philharmonie, the album presents two mile stones of the 20th century piano literature: Prokofiev’s explosive Piano Concerto No. 3, (one of the great show stoppers in the concert literature), and the Bartók Concerto Nr. 2, probably the most technically challenging piece ever written for piano and orchestra.
Comes in luxuriously designed photo-loaded deluxe packaging.
An up-close and highly personal TV documentary (Working Title: "At the Highest Level") will accompany the release. The film will give an exclusive insight into processes that are normally hidden: the preparations of the musicians, the recordings at the Philharmonie in Berlin and the struggle to get the best sound, as well as the post-production phase.
Produced by award winning company BFMI (Bernhard Fleischer Moving Images) and directed by Christian Berger the 60” TV documentary “The Highest Level” gives an exclusive insight into processes that are normally hidden: the preparations of the musicians, the recordings at the Philharmonie in Berlin and the struggle to get the best sound, as well as the post-production phase. The viewer gets unusually close to the stars of the film.

01 Piano Concerto No. 1 in D flat Op. 10: First movement: Allegro brioso 6:57
02 Piano Concerto No. 1 in D flat Op. 10: Second movement: Andante assai 4:34
03 Piano Concerto No. 1 in D flat Op. 10: Third movement: Allegro scherzando 4:31
04 Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 3 Sz119: First movement: Allegretto 7:22
05 Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 3 Sz119: Second movement: Adagio religioso -(poco più mosso) - tempo I 10:45
06 Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 3 Sz119: Third movement: Allegro vivace - (presto) 6:50
07 Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Op. 26: First movement: Andante - Allegro 9:43
08 Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Op. 26: Second movement: Tema: andatino - Variation I: L'istesso tempo - Variation 2: Allegro - Variation 3: Allegro moderato (poco meno mosso) - Variation 4: Andante meditat 9:39
09 Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Op. 26: Third movement: Allegro ma non troppo - meno mosso - Allegro 9:51

This recording completes Pierre Boulez's highly acclaimed survey of Bartók's major orchestral works on Deutsche Grammophon. Boulez has once again gathered an extraordinary team of musicians: Yuri Bashmet, Gidon Kremer, Pierre-Laurent Aimard--with his long-term recital partner Tamara Stefanovich--and two of the world's most esteemed ensembles: the Berliner Philharmoniker and London Symphony Orchestra. These all-new recordings present less well-known works by the Hungarian composer in riveting performances that will surely become benchmarks. DG exclusive artist Aimard teams up with Boulez in an intensely powerful and thoughtful performance.

This recording was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Awards for "Best Classical Album" and "Best Instrumental Solosist(s) Performance (with Orchestra)."
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Boulez, and Béla Bartók have become a winning combination. Three of the Chicago/Boulez Bartók recordings which preceded this one received Grammy Awards. Boulez has developed his relationship with the Chicago over Bartók's music, through countless rehearsals and performances. The results are stunning, time and time again. Here, young violinist Gil Shaham is added to the mix for performances which strike directly to the works' cores.
The Second Concerto comes from the early days of World War II and is a delicious blend of modal touches, Hungarian flavors, and crunchy not-quite-diatonic harmonies. The two Rhapsodies were written almost ten years earlier--originally for violin and piano, but orchestrated soon after--and evoke Hungarian and Romanian dances and tunes. Shaham tears into the solo parts with tremendous energy, and their virtuosic passages fairly fly off the page. Boulez and Chicago back him with power and sensitivity, their command of the music (or, perhaps, the music's command of them) complete. The recordings were made following a series of highly acclaimed concerts in late 1998, and DG would seem to have produced another winner.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording
Since its release on LP in the mid-1950s, Fritz Reiner's rendition of the Concerto for Orchestra has stood as the standard against which all other recordings of the work are measured. Even after all these years, the recording remains just as convincing and authoritative. Reiner's superb control of his orchestra and of Bartók's rhythms and textures is still unsurpassed, even by dozens of subsequent conductors in the digital age. Likewise, the Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta shows just what an incredible ensemble the Chicago Symphony was under Reiner's direction. This umpteenth reissue, in RCA's Living Stereo series, promises to be the one to have, its sonics noticeably improved over the earlier CD release in 1989. --David Vernier

Viktoria Mullova, violin
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Esa-Pekka Salonen

CD

Piano Concerto No. 1
Krystian Zimerman Piano
Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Piano Concerto No. 2
Leif Ove Andsnes Piano
Berliner Philharmoniker

Piano Concerto No. 3
Helène Grimaud Piano
London Symphony Orchestra

Pierre Boulez Conductor