The Making of an Extraordinary Recording:
- Prokofiev’s piano concerto #3, and Bartok’s concerto #2.
Pianist Lang Lang joins Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in this important collaboration, 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, and the Bartók Concerto Nr. 2, probably the most technically challenging piece ever written for piano and orchestra.
- Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 26
- Full performance, filmed at the recording sessions in the Berlin Philharmonie
Bartok: Piano Concerto #2
Performed by Lang Lang (piano), with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Simon Rattle conducting.
This is a highly personal TV documentary. The film gives an exclusive insight into many of the 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.
Gramophone Magazine, November 2013, wrote:
“Lang Lang gives a persuasive account of the Prokofiev. His finely observed detail…, the full use of the piano’s sumptuous sonority and dynamic range and his effortless technical mastery would excite anyone’s admiration…[in the Bartok] Lang Lang and Rattle are hugely impressive but, for my taste, a shade too polite.”
Here is Lang Lang with the Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle in Prokofiev piano concerto n°3:
And next, at about minute 2.00, you can hear some of the concerto #2 by Bartok.
Tags: Lang Lang, Sir Simon Rattle, Berlin Philharmonic, Prokofiev 3, Bartok 2