Lang/Philharmonia/Salonen, Royal Festival Hall, review: Lang Lang comes across as an over-assertive party guest

There never was any problem with his technique, but the implicit message of his playing in the first movement was ‘look at me’

Lang Lang performed Mozart (Xun Chi)

When Lang Lang comes on stage it’s with the gravity of an elder statesman: hand on heart, then extended in brief salute, before getting down to business - in this case Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 42 in C minor K491, which he conducted mutely while waiting for Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia Orchestra to finish their opening business.

When he came in, it was with lapidary clarity, but also a disconcerting emphaticness; continuing to conduct whenever he had a free hand, he came across not as a partner, but as an over-assertive guest at the party.

There never was any problem with his technique, and there isn’t now, but the implicit message of his playing in the first movement was ‘look at me’. The lovely Rondo which followed was efficient, but neither soloist nor orchestra seemed alive to its beauty; the concluding variations were brilliantly executed, but cold.

Then it was encore time: Chopin’s Grande valse brillante, distorted with relish, and turned into a vehicle for Lang Lang’s superabundant vanity. While Salonen looked impotently on, he accepted his plaudits with practised finesse, and a look in his eyes which seemed to say ‘No, really, you are too, too kind!’