How Lang Lang, the hottest piano artist on the planet, really lighted up a city

Months ago, Nestor “Tong” Padilla, the architect of Rockwell’s success, made music lovers’ hearts skip a beat when he told us over cocktails during a cultural event: “Lang Lang is coming to Manila!”

Weeks before the actual concert last Jan. 30 at Rockwell’s Proscenium Theater, tickets had been sold out. After all, Lang Lang is one of the world’s biggest superstar pianists. The New York Times hailed him as “the hottest artist on the classical music planet,” playing to packed concert halls all over the world. 

Lang Lang has been called “the JLo of the piano.” But after hearing him play at Proscenium Theater, I would rather call him “a poet of the piano.”

He had such energetic charisma onstage, but the 43-year old Lang also had that boyish charm that could make the piano reach out to the audience’s soul with poetic magic. He played Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt, Albeniz and Granados before an audience that fell into a silent hush before giving him standing ovations.

At the end of his concert of almost two hours, Lang said: “I am honored by the presence of First Lady Liza Marcos and Chinese Ambassador Jing Quan. And I would also like to greet Mr. Tong Padilla a happy birthday.” What a unique celebration for a visionary who started it all.

“When Rockwell began building the Proscenium Theater, we were guided by a quiet but ambitious idea that it should be a place where the world’s finest music could truly be heard,” explained Tracey Castillo, vice president of Rockwell Land. “From its natural acoustics and orchestra shell to the Steinway piano chosen for this stage, the theater united Lang Lang’s artistry with technical brilliance.”

On her Instagram page, First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos wrote: “What a treat to see Lang Lang live in Manila! A beautiful evening of music, mastery, and shared moments with so many who came to simply listen and feel his magic.”

Concert pianist Zenas Lozada, a trustee of Drown Free Philippines, which produced the concert, said: “Music brings people together. It opens hearts, invites reflection and reminds us of what truly matters.”

Project director Cecile Roxas declared: “Lang Lang has redefined what it means to be a classical artist in the 21st century.”

The day before his concert, Lang held classes with four very young students. He said: “Through music, I want children to see a different dimension of life. I want to show them how music can help them achieve their dreams.”

Well said by a pianist who started playing at age three, gave his first public recital at five, and won First Prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians at 13. He got the genes. Both his parents were musicians who were displaced to work on rice farms in the country during China’s Cultural Revolution before Lang was born. 

It was the Tom and Jerry episode “The Cat Concerto” which features Liszt’s Hungarian Episode No. 2 that motivated the three-year-old Lang to learn the piano.

An interesting Wikipedia entry says that when Lang was nine, he was expelled from his piano tutor’s studio for “lack of talent.” Lang explained that upon learning of this, his father flew into a rage and told him “he shouldn’t live anymore,” ordering him to jump off the balcony of their 11th floor family apartment. 

Talk about persistence and determination, especially when you are gifted with true talent. After being berated by his father, a music teacher at his school asked Lang to play the second movement of Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 10. But of course, it was his father who brought Lang to the US in 1997 to pursue music studies in Philadelphia. And from then on, countless concerts and awards came his way not just in China but in other countries such as Japan, the United States, Germany and other European countries.

Lang has played before heads of state like Pope Francis at the Vatican, US president Barack Obama, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles, Vladimir Putin and president Nicolas Sarkozy.

When Time magazine included Lang in its list of the 100 most influential people, a music critic described his playing as “so sensitive and so deeply human… you hear him play, and he never ceases to touch your heart.”

What is phenomenal is for a classical artist to be able to communicate with the younger generations. Lang “thinks outside the box, and steps into different musical worlds.” His music is found in video games. His Grammy Awards performances with Metallica and Pharrell Williams have connected him with millions of young viewers. He has also performed with Korean artist PSY, and played piano on the Coldplay song Clocks in Central Park, New York.

Among the music lovers who trooped to Proscenium Theater for the concert was pianist Norma Francia who talked music with Lang, telling him how she missed his concert years ago while she was in New York.

Concert goer Evelyn Mate told Lang that he played the piano with such forceful intensity, she joked: “Were your fingers bleeding?” To which Lang laughed and showed Evelyn his fingers, all clean and intact.

Lang arrived in Manila the day before his concert, during which he enjoyed a welcome lunch hosted at Hapag of Balmori Suites. Then he had a chance to walk around Power Plant Mall. He loved how Rockwell was “a city within a city” and everything was convenient and accessible. He was happy to see Rockwell’s signature lights at night, and even took photos of the lighted buildings.

If he only knew how his concert likewise lit up the mood and opened hearts in the city within a city.