Journey of a Thousand Miles: My Story by Lang Lang, David Ritz
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Book Reviews of Journey of a Thousand Miles: My Story
Book Review: Review of Journey of a Thousand Miles: My Story
Summary: 4 Stars
Book came in new condition. Took a little longer than expected to arrive. Haven't finished reading it yet, but so far a good read. It depicts the life of Lang Lang from his early childhood to his stardom as a pianist and all the harsh roadblocks he encountered throughout his journey. Some of the details probably got lost in translation when the author wrote the book, but nevertheless, a good read.Book Review: OK. But don't buy both books
Summary: 4 Stars
I have both books about Lang Lang.
Buy just one. They seem to be written from the same interview transcripts. This book has more details. The other books covers mroe events.
Book Review: A Bit Megamanical, and sometimes false facts - But still worth reading
Summary: 2 Stars
Although in my view Lang Lang is highly overrated as a pianist, Lang Lang does a great service popularizing piano, and I like his personality a lot. But I've heard some of his master classes and seen him perform in person and DVDs, and am not greatly impressed. He has a lot of potential, and talent (if Lang Lang stopped his charlatnism on the piano -- which every top professional like Josef Hoffman and Sergei Rachmaninoff abhorred -- he would certainly focus more on the keyboard and bring greater performances). Here is one example of incorrect "false facts" in Lang Lang's book. Lang Lang tells the story of how the Goldberg Variations were created by Bach because "Goldberg" had trouble sleeping. This is a false account, and will certainly be repeated by others because people assume that Lang Lang knows what he's talking about.
Here's the correct story from "The Book of Musical Anecdotes" by Norman Lechert: "Count Kaiserling, formerly Russian Ambassador at the Court of the Elector of Saxony...brought with him Goldberg (organist and composer) to have him instructed by Bach in music. The Count was often sickly, and then had sleepless nights. At these times, Goldberg, who lived in the house with him, had to pass the night in an adjoining room to play something to him when he could not sleep. The Count once said to Bach that he should like to have some clavier pieces for his Goldberg, which should be of such a soft and somewhat lively character that he might be a little cheered up by them in his sleepless nights. Bach thoguht he could best fulfill this wish by variations, which, on account of the constant sameness of the fundamental harmony, he had hitherto considered as an ungrateful task. Bu as at this time all his works were models of art, these variations alsom became such under his hand. This is, indeed, the only model of the kind that he has left us. The Count thereafter called them nothing but his variations. He was never weary of hearing them; and for a long time, when the sleepless nights came, he used to say, `Dear Goldberg, do play me one of my variations.' Bach was, perhaps, never so well regarded for any work as for this: the Count made him a present of a golden goblet, filled with a hundred Loouis d'ors."
In master classes, one can tell Lang Lang is more interested in showing off before audiences, instead of communicating with the young children he allegedly wishes to teach. And when he teaches, the content of Lang Lang's so-called teaching is often mediocre. In his demonstrations, he is sloppy, again more focused on showing off than teaching. Viewers should watch the youtube "Lang Lang Gone Mad" and see a typical example of unfocused playing which sounds extremely sloppy. Yes, he seems to be having a great time, and does make music fun. But he does little service to the composers and compositions he's suppossed to be playing.
In truth, one wonders why such a young and limited pianist has become so famous, and seems to consider himself the "number one" pianist in the world -- a leitmotiv in his book. To be sure, every generation has had such a pianist. Padereski was scorned by the top pianists, yet Paderewski filled the piano halls, and became prime minister. Lang Lang is today's equivalent of Paderewski and Blind Tom -- a musical attraction pushed onto American and international audiences because of his liberace-like showmanship.
Yet despite of these reservations, Lang Lang fulfills an important task: popularizing piano. In this respect, I have great admiration for Lang Lang. Like Mohammed Ali -- who also proclaimed himself to be "the greatest" (but lost 5 times, and is now punch-drunk) -- Lang Lang fulfills a vital role in popularizing piano. In this sole respect, he really is the greatest advocate for piano today.
I would love people to come out with a DVD of Arcadi Volodos, the great Russiang young pianist.
Book Review: Hollow and clunky - a missed opportunity
Summary: 2 Stars
While recognizing that he is still early into his career, and as someone who appreciates the piano work of Mr. Lang, I was surprised at how hollow, clunky, and one-dimensional this autobiography came across -- even with an English-speaking co-writer. The difficult relationship between Mr. Lang and his father, who overzealously pushes his son to an almost abusive level, is the predominant narrative here -- while there is little about Mr. Lang's love of particular pieces of music, his vision for bringing Chinese musice to Western audiences, or anything of depth written about his art itself.
Too bad. I would have liked to have read those things. Mr. Lang does so well in interviews in making classical music accessible to audiences, often his enthusiasm doing most of the talking! That doesn't come across here.
Nor does one really get a sense of Mr. Lang as a person. One gets the sense that his father has trained him to be a piano-playing machine -- cut off from anything resembling real life, asexual, and flat. Where is the living, breathing man? One fears that the sterility of life as depicted in "Journey of a Thousand Miles" will only have a negative impact on his art in the long run -- unless there's much more to Mr. Lang than what is conveyed here in this autobiography. If so, it's a missed opportunity, and doesn't make for an interesting read.
Book Review: lang lang revealed
Summary: 2 Stars
Reading this book makes me think Lang Lang is crazy. Let's start with the back cover. Lang Lang talks about "number one" being drilled into them, but it gives the feeling the book is all about him, and no one else. Sure, there are stories about his family, but when you read this book, you just get a lot of angst, which suggests that Lang Lang is probably good entertainment when he is at the piano, but probably wouldn't be an interesting person to talk to or relate to because the only thing he knows is piano. He is an incredibly boring person. The stories are concocted, and ghost written by someone other than Lang Lang.