UPC: 886978293329
Format: CD
Release Date: Dec 13, 2010
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Liner Note Author: Lang Lang .
Recording information: Avatar Studios, New York City, USA (07/17/2010).
Photographer: Olaf Heine.
One doesn't usually think of the soundtrack music for a video game being performed by a classical pianist, but then there aren't that many classical pianists under 30 who like to turn up on their album covers in leather jackets, as Lang Lang does for Gran Turismo 5. Notwithstanding that image, however, the soundtrack consists entirely of his piano performances of some very familiar classical pieces, done in traditional style. Things start slowly with Liszt's Liebestraum No. 1 "Hohe Liebe," but the music becomes gradually livelier, notably in the playful version of The Nutcracker No. 14 Pas de Deux "Var. 2 Danse de la Fée Dragée" by Tchaikovsky and the appropriately martial Polonaise Op. 40 No. 1 "Military Polonaise" of Chopin. Lang missteps with his version of Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer," playing stiffly and formally when the ragtime requires swing and swagger. But his version of III. Precipitato from Piano Sonata No. 7 in B-flat Major, Op. 83 by Prokofiev is confident in presenting its complex, atonal passages in speedy fashion. It's hard to say how all this works as accompaniment to the game, but the classical playing is accomplished. ~ William Ruhlmann
Recording information: Avatar Studios, New York City, USA (07/17/2010).
Photographer: Olaf Heine.
One doesn't usually think of the soundtrack music for a video game being performed by a classical pianist, but then there aren't that many classical pianists under 30 who like to turn up on their album covers in leather jackets, as Lang Lang does for Gran Turismo 5. Notwithstanding that image, however, the soundtrack consists entirely of his piano performances of some very familiar classical pieces, done in traditional style. Things start slowly with Liszt's Liebestraum No. 1 "Hohe Liebe," but the music becomes gradually livelier, notably in the playful version of The Nutcracker No. 14 Pas de Deux "Var. 2 Danse de la Fée Dragée" by Tchaikovsky and the appropriately martial Polonaise Op. 40 No. 1 "Military Polonaise" of Chopin. Lang missteps with his version of Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer," playing stiffly and formally when the ragtime requires swing and swagger. But his version of III. Precipitato from Piano Sonata No. 7 in B-flat Major, Op. 83 by Prokofiev is confident in presenting its complex, atonal passages in speedy fashion. It's hard to say how all this works as accompaniment to the game, but the classical playing is accomplished. ~ William Ruhlmann
Tracks:
1 - Liebestraum No. 1 "Hohe Liebe"
2 - Etude Op. 10 No. 3
3 - Orchestral Suite No. 3~Air on the G String
4 - Planets, Op. 32~Jupiter, the bringer of jollity
5 - Nutcracker~No. 14. Pas de Deux "Var. 2. Danse de la fée dragée"
6 - Polonaise, Op. 40 No. 1 "Military Polonaise"
7 - Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor, Op. 31 No. 2 "Tempest"~3. Allegretto
8 - Entertainer
9 - Waltz in D flat major, Op. 64 No. 1 "Minute Waltz"
10 - Piano Sonata No. 7 in B flat major, Op. 83~3. Precipitato
11 - Cantata BWV 147~"Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring"
2 - Etude Op. 10 No. 3
3 - Orchestral Suite No. 3~Air on the G String
4 - Planets, Op. 32~Jupiter, the bringer of jollity
5 - Nutcracker~No. 14. Pas de Deux "Var. 2. Danse de la fée dragée"
6 - Polonaise, Op. 40 No. 1 "Military Polonaise"
7 - Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor, Op. 31 No. 2 "Tempest"~3. Allegretto
8 - Entertainer
9 - Waltz in D flat major, Op. 64 No. 1 "Minute Waltz"
10 - Piano Sonata No. 7 in B flat major, Op. 83~3. Precipitato
11 - Cantata BWV 147~"Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring"