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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