Lang Lang may have been the prodigy in his hometown of Shenyang, but if you want to play on the world stage, you've got to get out of town first. "Because I thought, I mean, I always played really good. It's a lot of responsibility, but Lang Lang says he "didn't feel the pressure at that time." And so, like a generation of mothers and fathers living under China's one-child policy, they sacrificed everything and placed their dreams into the hands of their only hope. But their ambitions died an untimely death when they became victims of China's cultural revolution. Lang Lang's mother wanted to be a professional dancer his father hoped to travel the world as a musician. She said she wanted to become a performer herself: "When I was young, that was my dream." His mother played classical music to him while he was still in her womb. In fact, Lang Lang's destiny was conceived not long after he was. Lang Lang's father spent half his yearly salary – $300 – and bought his son a piano when he was a toddler. So it was like, today, he would learn 'Doh.' Tomorrow, he would learn 'Re' -– 'Doh, Re, Mi.'" "I would draw on the ground and teach him the musical scale. When he was about 1 year old, I took him out on walks," recalls his father. His father says he decided that Lang Lang was going to be an international star at the age of 2. It's where 60 Minutes found Lang Lang's parents. Like so much of the country, it's poised somewhere between its past, and its future. Shenyang is Lang Lang's hometown, an old, overcrowded industrial city. And if you're wondering who raised such a boy, you've got to follow Lang Lang to the northern Chinese city of Shenyang. At 5, barely able to reach the pedals, he was making Mozart look like child's play. Lang Lang began formal lessons when he was 3. What distinguishes him from the large number of very talented pianists? "I started early," he says. People come to his concerts now expecting a catharsis, an epiphany, rather than a musical performance." Tommasini says, "I don't think it does Lang Lang any good to have his very powerful record company promoting him the way it is right now: 'The future of classical music has arrived, Deutsche Gramophone says. He skewered Lang Lang in a ruthless review, calling his playing "slam bang crass." He's like a hammy actor," says Anthony Tommasini, chief classical music critic for The New York Times. "There's something about Lang Lang's playing now where he calls attention to himself, to his own feelings. But some critics find his showy style indulgent, and say those dreamy swoons get in the way of the music. Lang Lang's acrobatic mastery of the keyboard is undisputed. He plays the piano like a cat with 11 fingers." "I'm sure he didn't show you, but you know, he has 11 fingers. "I can't describe him as a pianist, because you will only hear in my sentence the jealousy that I and all his colleagues feel," says Barenboim. Lang Lang's mind is never very far from his music, which helps when you're working with the best in the business - as he did on a remarkable recording with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and maestro Daniel Barenboim.
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