The Well-Tempered Ear
Can American film director Ron Howard make a sensitive and accurate biopic of Chinese superstar pianist Lang Lang? Or is it a cultural appropriation that deserves to be condemned?
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By Jacob Stockinger
The self-appointed PC diversity police have struck again.
This is getting silly and tiresome, insulting and embarrassing.
Some advocates of cultural diversity are crying foul over the latest project of the American and Academy Award-winning Hollywood film director Ron Howard: making a biopic of the superstar Chinese classical pianist Lang Lang (below).
The script will be drawn from the pianist’s bestselling memoir “Journey of a Thousand Miles” — which has also been recast as an inspirational children’s book — and the director and scriptwriters will consult with Lang Lang.
It seems to The Ear a natural collaboration, as well as a surefire box office hit, between two high-achieving entertainers. Check out their bios:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lang_Lang
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Howard
But some people are criticizing the project in the belief that because Ron Howard (below) is white and Western, he cannot do justice to someone who is Chinese or to Asian culture.
Here is an essay, found on the website of Classic FM, by one objector. She is Chinese film director Lulu Wang (below), who says she has no interest in doing the project herself: https://www.classicfm.com/artists/lang-lang/pianist-biopic-ron-howard-faces-criticism-lulu-wang/
Talk about misplaced alarm over “cultural appropriation.”
Don’t you think that Lang Lang will have a lot to say about how he is depicted?
Do you wonder if Wang thinks cultural appropriation works in reverse?
Should we dismiss Lang Lang’s interpretations of Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev and Bartok simply because he is non-Western and Chinese rather than German, French or Russian?
Of course not. They should be taken on their own merits, just as the interpretations of any other Asian classical musician, and artists in general including Ai Weiwei, should be.
But however unfairly, cultural appropriation just doesn’t seem to work in reverse.
Mind you, The Ear thinks that cultural appropriation is a valid concept and can indeed sometimes be useful in discussing cross-cultural influences.
But it sure seems that the concept is being applied in an overly broad and even misdirected or ridiculous way, kind of the way that the idea of “micro-aggressions” can be so generously applied that it loses its ability to be truthful and useful.
Take the example of the heterosexual Taiwanese movie director Ang Lee. He certainly proved himself able to depict American culture in “The Ice Storm” and the gay world in “Brokeback Mountain.”
Let’s be clear. The Ear is a piano fan.
But if he objects to the project, it is because he doesn’t like Lang Lang’s flamboyant playing, his Liberace-like performance manners and showmanship, and his exaggerated facial expressions.
Yet there is no denying the human appeal of his story. He rose from a young and suicidal piano student (below) who was emotionally abused by his ambitious father – shades of the lives of young Mozart and Beethoven and probably many other prodigies – to become the best known, most frequently booked and highest paid classical pianist in the world.
Yet not for nothing did some critics baptize him with the nickname Bang Bang.
Still, the Curtis Institute graduate does all he can to foster music education, especially among the young and the poor.
And there is simply no denying his virtuosity. (See Lang Lang playing Liszt’s Paganini etude “La Campanella” in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
So there is plenty to object to about Lang Lang the Piano Star besides the ethnicity of Ron Howard, who also did a biopic of opera superstar Luciano Pavarotti, in telling his story.
What do you think?
Is it culturally all right for Ron Howard to direct a film about Lang Lang?
Do you look forward to the movie and seeing it?
What do you think of Lang Lang as a pianist and a celebrity?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: #AcademyAward, #AGermanRequiem, #AiWeiwei, #All-Russian, #AmericanCulture, #AngLee, #ArtsandEntertainment, #AsianCulture, #BangBang, #BelaBartok, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BrokebackMountain, #Children'sBook, #ChinesePianist, #ClassicalPianist, #ClassicFM, #ConcertPianist, #CulturalAppropriation, #CulturalDiversity, #CurtisInstitute, #EmotionalAbuse, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FilmDirector, #FranzJosephHaydn, #FranzLiszt, #FranzSchubert, #FredericChopin, #HighAchieving, #HumanAppeal, #IceStorm, #JacobStockinger, #JohannesBrahms, #JohannSebastianBach, #LangLang, #LGBTQrights, #LGBTRights, #LookForward, #LucianoPavarotti, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #LuluWang, #MusicalInterpretation, #MusicCritic, #MusicEducation, #NiccoloPaganini, #PeterIlyichTchaikovsky, #PhysicalAbuse, #PianoConcerto, #PianoStudent, #PoliticallyCorrect, #PopularSuccess, #RobertSchumann, #RonHoward, #SergeiProkofiev, #SergeiRachmaninoff, #SergeiRachmaninov, #SmashHit, #TaipeiTaiwan, #TheEar, #TheIceStorm, #ThePolice, #VirtuosoPianist, #WesternCulture, #Wikipediabiography, #WolfgangAmadeusMozart, #YouTubevideo, ability, abuse, abused, Academy Award, accurate, advocate, Ai Weiwei, alarm, ambitious, American, Ang Lee, appeal, applied, artists, Arts, Arts and Entertainment, Asia, asian, Asian culture, audience, autobiographical, autobiography, award, award-winning, Bach, bad, Bang Bang, baptize, Bartok, Béla Bartók, Beethoven, bestselling, bio, biography, biopic, blog, Book, booked, box office, Brahms, broad, Brokeback Mountain, Business, celebrity, children's book, China, Chinese, Chopin, Classic FM, Classical music, classical pianist, collaboration, composer, concept, Concert, concerto, condemn, criticize, criticizing, critics, cross-cultural, Cry, cultural, cultural appropriation, Curtis Institute, Curtis Institute of Music, deny, depicted, depiction, deserve, discuss, diversity, do, draw, embarrassing, emotion, emotional abuse, emotionally, entertain, entertaining, Entertainment, essay, ethnic, etude, exaggerate, exaggerated, example, expression, extreme, Facebook, facial, fan, fanatic, father, film director, flamboyance, flamboyant, forward, foster, foul, France, Franz Joseph Haydn, Franz Liszt, Franz Schubert, Frédéric Chopin, gay, generously, German, Germany, graduate, Haydn, hear, herself, heterosexual, high achieving, highest, Hollywood, homosexual, human, human appeal, ice, ice storm, insulting, interest, interpretation, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, journey, justice, Lang Lang, LGBT, LGBTQ, Liberace, life, like, link, Liszt, lives, look forward, Luciano Pavarotti, Ludwig van Beethoven, Lulu Wang, manner, market, memoir, merit, micro-aggression, miles, misdirected, misplaced, movie, Mozart, Music, music critic, Music education, natural, nature, Niccolo Paganini, nickname, non-Western, object, objects, opera, Orchestra, overly, Paganini, paid, Pavarotti, PC, People, performance, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, physical abuse, Pianist, Piano, piano student, pic, playing, police, politically correct, poor, popular, post, posting, prodigies, prodigy, profit, profitable, project, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Rachmaninov, recast, reverse, ridiculous, rise, Robert Schumann, Ron Howard, Russian, say, Schubert, Schumann, script, scriptwriter, see, seem, self-appointed, sensitive, Sergei Prokofiev, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Sergei Rachmaninov, shades, share, showman, showmanship, silly, smash hit, Sojourner Truth, Sonata, storm, Student, suicidal, superstar, surefire, symphony, tag, Taiwan, Taiwanese, Tchaikovsky, The Ear, The Ice Storm, think, thousand, tiresome, truthful, unfair, United States, use, useful, virtuosity, want, Western, white, Wikipedia, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, wonder, work, world, young, YouTube
Classical music: The Ear learns some lessons from violinist Ilya Kaler and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra at a terrific opening concert
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By Jacob Stockinger
By any measure the opening concert last Friday night of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (below) under music director Andrew Sewell was a complete and compelling success.
It left The Ear with several big lessons:
- The same piece played by a chamber orchestra and a symphony orchestra is not the same piece.
The Ear remembers hearing one of the first Compact Discs commercially available: a recording of the famous “Eroica” Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven performed by the popular chamber orchestra, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields under its recently deceased founder and longtime conductor Sir Neville Marriner.
Was it going to be Beethoven Lite after all the versions from the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein and the Berlin Philharmonic under Herbert von Karajan?
Not at all.
It turned out that symphony orchestras are about power while chamber orchestras are about subtlety. The same work sounds very different when performed by the two different kinds of ensembles.
So it was with the Violin Concerto by Peter Tchaikovsky with Russian prize-winning soloist Ilya Kaler and conductor Andrew Sewell. The WCO players performed beautifully, and with the chamber orchestra you felt a balance and an intimacy between the soloist, the orchestra and conductor Sewell (below).
You could hear with more clarity or transparency the structure of the concerto and the dialogue of the violin with various orchestral sections – the flutes and clarinet stood out – that often get drowned out by bigger accompanying forces.
So when you see the same work programmed by the Madison Symphony Orchestra and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, do not think of them as duplications you have to choose between. Go hear both. Listen for the differences. You will not be disappointed.
That’s what The Ear did and he came away enthralled and enchanted with this smaller-scale Tchaikovsky.
- There are many great and more affordable soloists whose names we do not recognize. But don’t underestimate them just because you haven’t heard of them.
The world has more first-rate musical talent than ever. Ilya Kaler (below), the only violinist ever to win gold medals at the Tchaikovsky, Paganini and Sibelius competitions, is a case in point. We owe a big thanks to the WCO for finding and booking him. He is right up there with the American violinist Benjamin Beilman, whom the WCO booked last season.
Kaler’s playing was first-rate and world-class: virtuosic, both lyrical and dramatic, but also nuanced. His tone was beautiful and his volume impressive – and all this was done on a contemporary American violin made in Ann Arbor, Michigan. (You can hear Kaler play in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
The Ear says: Bring Kaler back – the sooner, the better. The Ear wants to hear him in violin concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Philipp Telemann, Antonio Vivaldi and other Italian Baroque masters like Francesco Geminiani and Arcangelo Corelli. Classical-era concertos by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart would be wonderful. More Romantic concertos by Ludwig van Beethoven, Felix Mendelssohn, Nicolo Paganini, Johannes Brahms and Robert Schumann would also be great. And how about the Violin Concerto No. 2 by Sergei Prokofiev and the neo-Classical Violin Concerto by Igor Stravinsky?
But anything will do. Kaler is a violinist – he records for the Naxos label — we should hear more often. These days, we need fewer big stars and more fine talent that makes attendance affordable. The Ear will take young and talented cellists Alisa Weilerstein and Joshua Roman over such an overpriced celebrity as Yo-Yo Ma, great as he is.
- Second-tier composers can teach you about great composers.
The WCO opened with a rarely heard eight-minute work, the Symphony No. 5 in D Major, by Baroque English composer William Boyce (below top). It was enjoyable and The Ear is happy he heard it.
True, it comes off as second-rate Handel (below bottom). Why? Because as composer John Harbison explained so succinctly at the Token Creek Chamber Music Festival he co-directs here every summer, the music by George Frideric Handel has a hard-to-explain “heft.” Just a few notes by Handel make memorable music that somehow sticks in your memory.
So The Ear heard the pleasantness of Boyce and ended up appreciating even more the greatness of Handel. What a two-fer!
- Concerts should end on a high note, even if they also start on a high note.
The rarely played Symphony No. 4 “Tragic” by Franz Schubert received an outstanding reading. But it ended the concert and left the audience sitting in its seats.
The Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, by contrast, got an immediate standing ovation and an encore – a wonderful rendition of an unaccompanied Gavotte by Johann Sebastian Bach — and they ended the first half triumphantly.
Maybe the Schubert and Tchaikovsky should have been reversed in order. Or else, what about programming a really energetic symphony by Mozart or Beethoven to end the concert on an upbeat note. Just a thought.
If you went to the season-opener by the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, what thoughts and impressions did you have?
Do you agree or disagree with The Ear?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: Alisa Weilerstein, Antonio Vivaldi, Arcangelo Corelli, Artistic director, Arts, Bach, Baroque, Beethoven, Boyce, Chamber music, Classical music, Compact Disc, concerto, Franz Schubert, Gavotte, Geminiani, Georg Philipp Telemann, George Frideric Handel, Igor Stravinsky, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, John Harbison, Joshua Roman, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Music, Niccolo Paganini, Orchestra, Sergei Prokofiev, solo, symphony, unaccompanied, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Violin, Violin concerto, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Yo-Yo Ma, YouTube
Classical music: The Ear gets totally immersed in two-piano music by the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, and loves it. Now he looks forward to “drowning” this weekend in European concertos and South American tangos, then piano trios and works for piano, four-hands.
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear thinks of it as the Berlitz Method of learning a language, only applied to music.
It’s called “Total Immersion.”
Each June, the Madison-based chamber music ensemble the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society always offers a lot of variety of outstanding music over three weekends, each featuring two different programs in three different venues. (This year’s theme, for the 23rd annual season is “23 Skiddoo.”)
But one thing I especially look forward to is that usually there is a chance to immerse yourself in a special style or genre or sub-category that you often don’t hear. That allows for added enjoyment and informative comparisons.
This summer’s immersion started this past opening weekend. This coming weekend and the weekend after that promise an immersion in Western European classics, especially concertos, and in Latin American music, especially Argentinian tangos.
For more details and information, including programs and tickets, visit:
www.bachdancinganddynamite.org
Some of that kind of immersion stems from the BDDS programming philosophy. Some of it probably also comes from the fact that BDDS hires guest artists for a weeklong stint and so must seek out repertoire to spotlight them.
In any case, this is the summer not only of Latin American music but also of two-piano works.
This is not to say I didn’t love the outstanding performance of Claude Debussy’s sublime Violin Sonata, his last work, by New York violinist Yura Lee (below) because I did.
And I also liked the BDDS debut of Icelandic soprano Disilla Larusdottir (below) in her superb readings of “Five Popular Greek Melodies” by Maurice Ravel and especially contemporary American composer Aaron Jay Kernis’ Renaissance-based “L’arte della danssar” (“The Art of the Dance,” 2011).
I also thoroughly enjoyed the vivacious and captivating Introduction and Allegro for Flute and Piano by Carlos Guastavino with BDDS co-founder and co-artistic director Stephanie Jutt (below), who is also principal flute of the Madison Symphony Orchestra.
Personally, The Ear is generally less enthusiastic about harp music, so the Celtic-themed sonata by Arnold Bax left him feeling half-hungry, despite a terrific performance (below) by Stephanie Jutt and the gifted guest harpist Heidi Krutzen. Even the Quartet by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach struck me as not especially inspired, but rather a pretty run-of-the-mill Classical work that, despite a fine performance, has charms but not genius.
To The Ear, the true stand-outs stand-outs of the first weekend were Jeffrey Sykes, the pianist who co-founded and co-directs the BDDS with Jutt and who teaches at the University of California-Berkley; and guest piano virtuoso and Van Cliburn Competition prizewinner Christopher Taylor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, who has a national and international reputation.
And The Ear, himself a devoted amateur pianist, sure got an earful of great, first-class piano playing through four very difficult works for two pianos.
Such concerts are not easy to stage. To get two pianos on stage at The Playhouse in the Overture Center and the Hillside Theater famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin compound in Spring Green involves a lot of difficult and expensive logistics.
But it was done, and the results were terrific.
Critic John W. Barker thought so too. Here is a link to his review for Isthmus:
http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=42978&sid=2d270176d08b03b104e01230f4e31d17
As almost always happens with BDDS, there were pleasant surprises.
I really didn’t think I would love Maurice Ravel’s popular and over-programmed “Bolero.”
But I did.
Jeffrey Sykes was completely right when he said that the two-piano version is drier and more modernistic, more like the work of Igor Stravinsky, than the better-known orchestral version, which has its more old-fashioned charms and colors as the melody bounces less percussively around various sections. (You can see for yourself in a YouTube video at the bottom. Let me know if you agree or disagree.)
On the other hand, it was something to see the insistent rhythms make the always physical and impressively dynamic Christopher Taylor (below) rock out and to watch how a single repetitive note gradually worked up to five-finger chords.
There was 20th-century Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski’s biting and percussive Variations on the famous theme by Niccolo Paganini that was also used by Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms and Sergei Rachmaninoff.
There was Ravel’s “La Valse,” a grandly elegant and overblown nostalgia trip to the society embodied by the waltz as it came to its chaotic end in World War I.
And in the end there were Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, his last composition that is filled with luscious melodies, infectious rhythms, unusual harmonies and astonishingly virtuosic and precise playing. (The two-piano version was premiered by Rachmaninoff himself and Vladimir Horowitz. Now THAT would have been something to hear and see!)
Now the two-piano part of the BDDS season is over. But The Ear can’t wait for this coming weekend, which will bring a Concerto for Two Cellos by Antonio Vivaldi as well as the lovely Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major, K. 488, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart plus the great Clarinet Trio by Johannes Brahms and selected tangos by Astor Piazzolla with tango pianist Pablo Zinger (below), who performed with Piazzolla’s band, from Argentina.
During the week there will be piano trios by Dmitri Shostakovich and Antonin Dvorak and performed by the exceptional San Francisco Trio; more tangos by Piazzolla; and works for one piano-four hands by Darius Milhaud and William Hirtz with Sykes and frequent guest pianist Randall Hodgkinson, who teaches at the New England Conservatory of Music.
The Ear intends not to miss any of the four programs in the two coming weekends. And neither should you.
They mean more immersion, even if it is not quite as total.
Tags: 23 Skiddoo, Aaron Jay Kernis, Antonín Dvořák, Arnold Bax, Arts, Ástor Piazzolla, Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, BDD, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Carlos Guastavino, Cello, Chamber music, Christopher Taylor, clarinet, clarinet trio, Classical music, Claude Debussy, Darius Milhaud, Debussy, Dmitri Shostakovich, Dvorak, four-hands, Frank Lloyd Wright, Franz Liszt, Iceland, Jacob Stockinger, Johannes Brahms, Latin America, Liszt, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Maurice Ravel, Milhaud, Mozart, Music, New England Conservatory, Niccolo Paganini, Overture Center, Pablo Zinger, Paganini, Piano, Piano Trio, Randall Hodgkinson, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich, Sonata, South America, Spring Green, Taliesin, Total Immersion, two-piano, United States, University of California-Berkeley, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Violin, William Hirtz, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube
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