Lang Lang embraces memories of childhood with ‘The Disney Book’

Piano virtuoso Lang Lang claims he might never have touched a keyboard, if not for the influence of Tom and Jerry. No, not the cocktail immortalized by Chicago’s venerable Miller’s Pub, located coincidentally just around the corner from Symphony Center. The infant Lang Lang was entranced by the eternally warring cartoon characters who grabbed his attention with a rip-roaring performance of Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2. ‘

That work drives the plot of the duo’s Oscar-winning short film “The Cat Concerto” (1947). And decades later, memories of that cartoon prompted Lang Lang to record “The Disney Book” (2022, Deutsche Grammophon), an ode to the soundtracks of animated films that sparked his early love for classical music. The pianist will perform works from that album when he joins the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and conductor Edwin Outwater in concert July 31 at Ravinia.

Adding to the musical merriment will be an ensemble of guest soloists. Yimiao Chen, in her Ravinia and CSO debuts, brings the expressive sound of the erhu, a traditional Chinese instrument. Plínio Fernandes, also in his CSO debut, showcases the acoustic guitar, blending classical techniques with Latin influences. Vocalists Celeste Morales and Edmond Rodriguez, both alumni of Ravinia’s Steans Institute, apply their considerable talents to the beloved Disney tunes.

“When I was 13, I visited Tokyo Disneyland," Lang Lang recalled in an interview on his label’s website. "It was the first time I had heard ‘It’s a Small World’ and the melody stayed with me all day — and long afterward.”

Fast forward to 2016; Lang Lang was performing at the grand opening of Shanghai Disney Resort with a rendition of “Let It Go” from “Frozen.” His thoughts turned to the power of animation to inspire young minds and its ability introduce millions to classical music.

“We had a really big success with [his DG album] ’The Piano Book,’ which reached a lot of people who were new to classical music after it was released in 2019,” he said. “So we began thinking, ‘What can we do to help them take the next step?’ Of course, we could have done a Piano Book 2, but that was not going to make a tremendous difference. Then we began thinking about animation because it had played the biggest part of my life as a kid.”

An upright piano was duly added to the family furniture and piano lessons to the three-year-old Lang’s routine soon after.

The power of animation to inspire young minds and introduce millions to classical music stands behind Lang Lang’s latest album for Deutsche Grammophon. The Disney Book taps into the legacy of one of the most influential cultural enterprises of the last century, a claim supported by the deep penetration of Disney soundtracks into childhood memories almost since the soundtrack was invented.

Animated characters are not constrained by national boundaries or cultural conventions. Above all, they satisfy every child’s need for fantasy. “Animation is this magical thing to kids,“ he said. ”If you’re teaching and tell them about a real person, I think that’s less effective than using animation. It’s like a magnet that takes them into a magical world, which is real but also a fantasy. This is what kids love the most.”

Lang Lang ran through a raft of cartoon soundtracks before finally settling on Disney. “We felt the album needed a theme. You cannot just jump around from Tom and Jerry, Looney Tunes, The Transformers, Japanese manga and The Flintstones. I would say Disney films are probably about 90 percent of our childhood. That’s why we decided on a Disney theme. Musically speaking, I think ’Mary Poppins’ is the best," he said, referring to the 1964 live-action film (with animated segments) starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. If you listen to all the film’s great tunes — ‘Feed the Birds,’ ‘A Spoonful of Sugar,’ all those things — nothing beats them. I think they’re probably the best ever.”

The Disney Book, released in time for the Walt Disney Company’s centenary year, covers a broad sweep of movie history and musical styles. Its tracklist stretches back to “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf” from Three Little Pigs (1933) and “When You Wish Upon a Star” from Pinocchio (1940) and embraces such contemporary hits as “Remember Me” from Coco (2017) and Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from Encanto (2021). There’s inevitably room for Elsa’s earworm ballad “Let It Go” from Frozen (2013) and the equally catchy “It’s a Small World” (1964), which Lang first heard as a 13-year-old visitor to Tokyo Disneyland.

The combination of Lang Lang and Disney demanded and received extravagant musical arrangements. The pianist recalls learning from the experience of making his New York Rhapsody album, in which he often played second fiddle to the recording’s raft of vocalists. “This taught me a huge lesson,” he observes. “Sometimes you make mistakes, especially in a new area which you’ve never explored before. But for The Disney Book, I said to my team, ‘We need to find the best transcribers.’ People like Stephen Hough, Thomas Lauderdale [of Pink Martini], Natalie Tenenbaum from the Juilliard School of Music, David Hamilton — the best musicians who can make the most amazing arrangements. We built up this army of incredible piano transcribers and then worked really hard to make sure that this album was not going to be like ballroom music.”

Any danger that the piano might fade into the background evaporated after Lang instructed his arrangers to keep in mind the keyboard transcriptions of Franz Liszt and Vladimir Horowitz. “We wanted those really virtuosic things for piano to be in it,” he said. “And in ‘Baby Mine’ from ’Dumbo,’ we have something that sounds like Debussy! I wanted all the classical piano skills to shine in this recording.”

Stephen Hough, a virtuoso concert pianist in his own right, transcribed ‘Feed the Birds’ in the style of a Rachmaninov prelude, while the passagework and technical challenges of Natalie Tenenbaum’s “Mary Poppins” Fantasy gave Lang Lang’s digits a serious workout. “Stephen did a really amazing job,” he said. “And Natalie’s great transcription is very hard to play. It really is like a combination of Liszt and Horowitz. My fingers got kind of a burn from playing it!”

“The Disney Book,” in both its standard version and extended deluxe edition, is packed with displays of pianism, some accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. It also features solo numbers or pieces recorded with guest artists including tenor Andrea Bocelli, guitarist Miloš Karadaglić, bandleader Jon Batiste, erhu player Guo Gan and Lang Lang’s wife, Gina Alice.

“If I had to choose one Disney melody, it would have to be ‘When You Wish Upon a Star.’ That’s so symbolic,“ he said. ”I originally asked Pharrell Williams to sing this track. He freaked out! He’s like, ‘You can ask me to do something else. But this song, I’m afraid to sing it. Everybody knows the melody — it’s really hard to sing.’ It seemed like nobody wanted to do it. So‘ I asked Gina, ‘What do you think?’ She said, ‘Look, I’m a pianist, not a real singer. Let’s do it.’ And she sings it beautifully!”