Lang Lang Played Emperor

Last evening, Lang Lang performed Beethoven's fifth concerto with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and Jean-Marie Zeitouni at the podium.  Opposite to what many professionals say, he did extremely
well . . . a beautiful performance and even better with Liszt's Romance as the encore.

Vancouver Symphony was excellent as always, but the conductor was not at the level of VSO, did not succeed in getting a nice sound--as Maestro Tovey does--from the orchestra.  Many times, some string played pizzicato today, some others the day after!  And the second movement of the symphony was too slow, very boring!

A few quick notes:

- Opposite to most soloists, Lang Lang was looking at the front row audience most of the time.  He is a good actor too!

- The volume of the sound of Dale (concertmaster) was too high, almost like a solo.  He and the conductor should control it in the future.

- Nick is doing quite well in place of Brent (principal second) although Brent is really different, both in the leading role and as a gentleman.

- Jeanette was perfect in absence of Karen (assistant second) too.

- It was good to see that Jennie (assistant concertmaster) fixed the colour of her hair (it was half red half black for a few months) which was only good for a rock band!