How Lang Lang got from "Tom and Jerry" to Chopin

Yes, it's true: Pianist Lang Lang's sensational, globe-trotting career began with a "Tom and Jerry" cartoon.

"I was 2 years old," says Lang Lang (pronounced "long long") by phone from New York. "It was a cartoon called 'The Cat Concerto.' I was amazed that Tom could extend his fingers so much on the keys. He was playing Liszt's 'Hungarian Rhapsody,' which I like to play now."

He certainly does, as one can plainly see from the 26-year-old musician's ubiquitous presence on YouTube. Celebrated as one of the great pianists of our time, Lang Lang has become a classical-music superstar; his rapturous facial expressions while performing have become familiar in the media and in concert halls worldwide.

Lang Lang has appeared on "The Tonight Show" and "60 Minutes," and played for millions of TV viewers this past summer during the Olympics' opening ceremonies in Beijing.

Tuesday, he will make his second Seattle Symphony appearance of 2008, playing a pair of Frédéric Chopin works.

"Tom and Jerry" aside, the young pianist's destiny arrived when his parents spent half their 1984 income in Shenyang, China, to buy their toddler a piano. He played his first recital at 5, and entered Beijing's Central Conservatory of Music at 9.

In 1995, Lang Lang took first place at the Tchaikovsky International Young Musicians' Competition in Japan, playing Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra.

He will play the exquisite concerto, as well as Chopin's "Andante Spianato et grande Polonaise," at Benaroya.

"Chopin was in love with a girl when he wrote it," says Lang Lang. "I was 13 when I first performed it, so it was hard to relate. My father said, 'Think about your mother instead.' Now, I think about romantic stuff when I play it. It's a truly beautiful work, with a very personal connection for me."

Seattle Symphony music director Gerard Schwarz has been following Lang Lang's musical development since the latter, at 15, began studying with Gary Graffman at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia.

"Gary would call me regularly," Schwarz says. "He told me extraordinary stories of Lang Lang's ability to learn and musically digest great works practically overnight. When I first worked with him, I realized Gary was not exaggerating. Lang Lang's a man of amazing technique and a continually expanding musical understanding."

The pianist's musical journey from a young age involved self-doubt.

"I had a teacher who hated and criticized me in Beijing," Lang Lang says of a pre-Conservatory tutor. "If you're pushed and criticized, your love for something becomes hopeless. I was kicked out of my teacher's studio, told I'd never play piano again. Later, I started playing again because I found that I wanted to. Life changes when you want to do something."

Watching Lang Lang draw sound from a piano can be a privileged experience, like witnessing a sculptor coax from stone a figure he knows is in there.

"Lang Lang has an uncanny ability to color music," says Schwarz, "to draw something out of the black notes on the page."

"Everyone has their own sound and interpretation," says Lang Lang. "The important thing is to be connected to music, and to always improve. For me, music is everything."

Tom Keogh: tomwkeogh@yahoo.com