Album: Chopin, Piano Concertos – Lang/Mehta et al, (Deutsche Grammophon)

Anna Picard
Sunday 11 January 2009 01:00 GMT
Comments

This is a bad combination of artists and material. Lang Lang has something to say about Chopin, a natural facility for the fussiest passages, and a pleasant swing to his phrasing in the first movement of the F minor Concerto.

But instead of sparkle and delicacy, he offers full-beam brilliance and neon cupid's darts. Add a lacklustre, lazy performance from the strings of the Vienna Philharmonic and some grotesquely vulgar phrasing and sluggish tempi from Zubin Mehta, and the E minor Concerto is lost.

Pick of the album: A curate's egg 'Larghetto' from the F minor Concerto

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