Weekend Classical Music Picks: 2 Pianists, 1 Time Slot

By Alexander Hough in Arts & Entertainment on Apr 7, 2010 7:30PM

Fans of classical piano will have a difficult choice to make this Sunday when the legendary Maurizio Pollini and the budding superstar Lang Lang each kick off their respective concerts at 3:00 p.m. just a few blocks from one another.

Maurizio Pollini
Pollini will play a recital devoted to the music of Frédéric Chopin, the pride of Polish classical music. This year marks the 200th anniversary of Chopin's birthday, and there's actually been plenty of celebration around town so far (despite the short shrift we've given it, so far). Pollini's career broke when, as an 18-year-old, he won the 1960 International Chopin Piano Competition. Maybe the foremost classical music competition, the ICPC convenes every five years to see who has the best Chopin chops. Pollini has spent the following five decades establishing that he can master the music of many other composers, but, fortunately for Chicago this Sunday, Chopin has remained in his repertoire. For fans of symmetry, there's the added bonus that pianists accepted into the 2010 Competition will start their preliminary auditions the day following Pollini's recital.
Sunday at 3:00 p.m., Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan, $31-$70

Lang Lang
Lang Lang will make his only Chicago stop this season, performing two concertos with the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra. Lang Lang last appeared in Chicago last summer at Ravinia, playing with jazz great Herbie Hancock in a program that was a mix of written-out and improvised music. (Lang Lang's professional debut back in 1999 was with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia.) His Ravinia stay also included a performance of Sergei Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3 conducted by Christoph Eschenbach, and Lang Lang and Eschenbach will repeat the piece this Sunday. Like Pollini did, the younger Lang Lang is also trying to expand his repertoire, although he's still in the "prove it" phase. Having already won accolades for his interpretation of Romantic works, he's now trying to show he can play music from the Classical period as well. To that end, he'll also perform Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 17.

And don't sell the orchestra side of the concert short. The Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival is a summer-long residency for some of the world's best classical musicians under the age of 27. After auditioning, they spend the summer studying and performing at the gorgeous Salzau Castle in northern Germany, then touring the globe during the following season. The Festival Orchestra will also play Sergei Prokofiev's Symphony No. 1 and Beethoven's "Leonore No. 3" Overture.
Sunday at 3:00 p.m., Harris Theater, 205 E. Randolph, $45-$110