Philharmonia/Salonen review – a highly persuasive performance

Royal Festival Hall, London
Lang Lang’s prodigious fingerwork gave Prokofiev’s third piano concerto tremendous impact, while Salonen oversaw a superb rendition of Scriabin’s Poem of Ecstasy

Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No 3 – completed in 1921, near the start of the composer’s exile from Russia – was an appropriate vehicle for the last of Lang Lang’s three concerto dates with a Philharmonia Orchestra that was always on top form. The piece was written as a pianistic showcase and so, since classical music has no flashier keyboard showman than Lang Lang, the combination was often irresistible.

Lang Lang’s tendency to wallow in contrasts suits Prokofiev’s wild ride from frenetic to languid and back again, and the mannerisms that appal when the pianist plays many other composers felt less inappropriate here. The sheer steeliness of the fingerwork was absolutely prodigious, and Lang Lang articulated the enigmatic gavotte and variations of the concerto’s second movement with just the right emotionally empty irony. There wasn’t much of an attempt to make a unified piece out of the concerto, but the instant impact of the performance was tremendous.

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