Saturday Evening Concert

Welcome to the Weekend and your Saturday Evening Concert. I have quite the program lined up for your entertainment this evening. 'The BBC Proms, or The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in London. Founded in 1895, each season currently consists of more than 70 concerts in the Albert Hall, a series of chamber concerts at Cadogan Hall, additional Proms in the Park events across the United Kingdom on the last night, and associated educational and children's events. In 2009 the total number of concerts reached 100 for the first time. In the context of classical music festivals, Jiří Bělohlávek has described the Proms as "the world's largest and most democratic musical festival".[1] (*source Wikipedia) 

The Proms in the summer of 2008 offered a very special performance by one of China's gifts to the world of Classical Music. On the occasion of his 26th Birthday, Chinese Piano Virtuoso Lang Lang was in Recital at Royal Albert Hall on a specially built dais raised in the center of the Hall. Lang Lang performed beautifully in his usual evocative style, surrounded by his mesmerized British fans. The program was rather lengthy and included:

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Piano Sonata in B flat major, K 333 Proms premiere
Sergey Rachmaninov - 10 Preludes, Op 23 No. 2 in B flat major & No. 5 in G minor
Chopin - Andante Spianato in G major, Op 22a
Franz Schubert - Fantasie in F minor, D 940
Claude Debussy - Préludes Book 1 No. 8 La fille aux cheveux de lin & No. 5 Les collines d'Anacapri
Traditional - Moonlight Reflections
Traditional - Spring Dance
Liszt - Hungarian Rhapsodies, S 244 (solo piano version)
Chopin - 12 Études, Op 10 No. 3 in E major - encore
Traditional - Two Horses - encore

The concert offered two very special moments. The first was during the Schubert Fantasie in F minor (arranged for Piano 4 Hands) where Lang Lang introduced his young protege and student Chinese American Prodigy Marc Yu. Marc then made his London concert debut playing alongside his mentor exhibiting how well he has absorbed the signature style and emotional caressing of the music to go along with his already superb technique. Marc and Lang met through Jay Leno and now Marc travels to China regularly for lessons at the hand of his idol. Not only is Marc a budding Concert Pianist, he is also a prize wining Cellist and all this at the tender age of 9.

The second very special moment came during the encore when Lang Lang introduced his Father, Lang Guoren. The encore was the Chinese Traditional melody Two Horses and Guoren joined his son, playing his instrument of choice, the Erhu, a two stringed bowed musical instrument whose sound is generated by the thrumming of the strings on the Python skin covering the front end of the resonator body (or sound box if you will). A delightful ending to a marvelous Birthday Celebration Concert.

Additionally you may join Vladimir Horowitz in Concert at the White House on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of his first appearance in America at Carnegie Hall in 1928 over on my tumblr. So an evening of great Piano Music which is to be complimented by the accompaniment of the fine art and other remarkable photographs in this scrumptious edition of Naked or Nearly So down below. Then there is the Hottie of the Day! who is 'A Real Sweetheart' over on my tumblr. Thanks for sharing a part of your Weekend with me, see you again on Monday for another week of Music Men and More! Until next time as always, enjoy!