The Chopin Album -- Lang Lang's third album for Sony Classical -- includes the second set of Chopin's Études (op. 25), the Andante spianato & Grande Polonaise and a selection of shorter works that he has long enjoyed performing, including three Nocturnes and the Waltz op. 64 no. 1, popularly known as the "Minute" Waltz.

Chopin "speaks with such a universal voice," Lang Lang says. "I genuinely believe he's a true ambassador for classical music among the great composers. He appeals to everyone."

Chopin has accompanied Lang Lang throughout his career. One of the first pieces he learnt was the Grande Valse brillante in E-flat major op. 18 (included on this album), and it was Chopin's music that also carried him through a number of career-changing competitions, including Ettlingen (Germany) in 1994 and the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians in Sendai (Japan) in 1995, when he took First Prize performing Chopin's Second Piano Concerto. And it was with the Chopin Études that Lang Lang made his now-renowned Beijing Concert Hall recital at age 14 -- a performance that led to his studying with Gary Graffman at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia.

"The reason that Chopin's Études hold such a special place for pianists", says Lang Lang, "is that they provide the training for so many different elements of technique. But they're not just studies, not just normal exercises -- not just for your fingers -- they help you develop how your mind works, and how you control the different layers of your emotional response."

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Directed by Lee Stimmel

I'm very happy to be here for the second time, But the first time I wasn't on the stage.

And yeah, so I prepared some morning songs for you to wake up.

I will start with 1 of the very beautiful nocturne.

So hopefully we will get really weak after 20 minutes of performance.

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Hello, I'm Jeff Spurgeon from WQXR, New York's classical station, 105.9 FM, online at wqxr.org.

You may not know, because nobody told you, this is Long Long.

He's a classical pianist, reasonably well-known all over the globe.

And it's Quite a wonderful thing to hear you play.

Let me ask you, what was your warm up for this, just this morning?

When did you, time you touched the piano?

I woke up around 10.20, I'm like, oh God!

And I'm really grateful that you are here today, waiting for me.

It's extraordinary to have all that music just in your hands, just at your command.

Like what Rubinstein said, 1 of the greatest pianists.

And he said he has like 60 piano concertos in his head and basically Doing his 70s or 80s.

He said just call me up make me up in the middle of the night like let's say 4 a.m And I can play whatever piece you want in concert level.

He's had a little more practice over time than you so far.

In China, Lang Lang is credited with influencing some 40 million kids to take up classical piano.

Now, I know that 40 million is not maybe a huge number at Google, but still, it's a reasonably large number of people to persuade to take up and when you think about all the pianos that have to be made and all the music that has to be printed and all the lessons that we paid for I would say that you are without question classical music's greatest job creator I don't think there's anybody who's going to do more than that than you are.

Longlong's new album on the Sony label is the Chopin album.

It contains at its heart the Opus 25 set of a dozen études, studies for piano, that you have been studying since I think you were what, 8 is when you started to play those things?

Yeah, I started to play the Chopin Etudes when I was 8.

And took them on the road when you were 12 or

Yeah, I played the complete Etudes when I was 13.

And it was very tiring to play those pieces.

I mean, it drives me nuts and drives my neighbors nuts.

And recently, I started practicing in my apartment here and started practicing Chopin Etudes.

And then my neighbor knocked on my door, and said, could you stop?

No, no, there's 1 neighbor who knows who I am, so she's always like, oh, that's really wonderful.

But then another neighbor, I think, living downstairs, and because I always like to practice after 11, you know, to find inspiration.

And this lady, I think she hates me all the time.

Well, so you've been playing these since you were 8, playing them in public since you were 13.

Maybe the wine will mellow a little more in the bottle.

I mean, since I'm 30, I like to do some more repertoire which I played a lot when I was a kid, and also putting some new pieces.

I actually thought to do the 24 etudes, the complete cycle.

But I actually thought maybe I should do something not just technical pieces, but also very artistic pieces combined for the Chopin first solo album for me to record.

And also, to hear, I was actually watching the video that I did when I was 13, playing the complete etudes.

But now, playing a few of those pieces, like the Winter Wind and Ocean Etudes, now it feels slightly easier.

17 years of practice, my technique is going somewhere.

But more importantly, it's the musical sense.

There are so many new things I'm trying to interpret in this album, to try to find different colors like you have here, different levels of colors, and the combination of the styling of Chopin, the romantic period of repertoire.

And especially last year, I did the list.

So I thought this was a nice momentum to do Chopin.

Next year I will do Prokofiev and Bartok.

There's some unusual pieces on this album.

The Andante Spionato and Gran Polonais, big favorite of yours, done with orchestra sometimes, but there's the solo version.

Because no matter how great the work are, there are so many pianists playing the same piece, not in a very good level.

And so that exactly happened when I was a kid.

I heard so many interpretations of this piece, I got totally overwhelmed.

Then I came to America, and I studied at Curtis in Philadelphia.

Anyway, so in Philadelphia, a boy from Kiev, He also studied with the same teacher as me, Gary Grafman.

I'm like, wow, this piece is spectacular.

And then I started to loving this piece, and thanks to him, of course.

And So sometimes, 1 amazing performance really changes your entire view of a work.

And that's what happens in the Spanato and Grand Polonaise.

You played, actually, a wonderful cross-section of the album just a few minutes ago.

There's a piece on this album, it's the last selection, it's called Tristes, and it features a singer named Oland, who is from?

She lives in Williamsburg, because most people do.

And can you tell me the story of this, because it's from a film.

We did a film during the Chopin year called The Flying Machine.

So it's basically an adept novel kind of about Poland today and just compared the Chopin days.

So I Actually, I was an actor in this movie.

My partner was Heather Graham from All-Stars and Powers, the girl.

And so that film actually was quite inspiring, because it was Chopin's music and takes the journey of a piano.

Actually, the piano became a flying machine.

And so the theme song, we actually thought the Trustees, which is opus 10 number 3, etudes, is such a beautiful melody, which I played.

And so we transcribed that to the theme song.

So in the beginning, I didn't know she's a, I mean, it's a he or she.

When I heard the voice, I'm all certain it's she.

And Chopin, lots of people, a lot of popular songs have been written on Chopin themes.

Your foundation, let's talk about that because that's such a big deal.

The Long Long International Music Foundation, it's going great Guns.

You had some kids, I think, from part of that program on The Tonight Show?

4 minutes of classical music on network television.

it's hard to get classical music on the...

Anyway, I mean, Jay is a good friend and yeah, I mean, his name is Jay Jay now, you know, after...

So we actually had a very fortunate selection of wonderful tenants from Los Angeles area.

And they were, I mean, some of the kids, actually, I know them before, because they performed with me, my condition.

So Long Long played, you played some La Campanella and the E-flat waltz that you heard part of here.

And then 10 kids, 5 other Steinways around in the room, and they all joined you for the Mozart Rondo alla Turca.

And it was so beautiful that I really enjoyed working with them, but the way they played it was magnificent.

I mean I thought everyone watching our next generation perform, it's a special moment and for me it's very inspiring.

And that's what our foundation wanting to do, to work with the next generation of artists and to helping them, to support them to achieve their dreams.

Just like many of the mentors helped me when I was very young.

So it's about helping the next generation, not necessarily about classical music?

I mean, it is classical focused, I think.

Yeah, it will be a focus on classical and piano, but in the same time, we will also to do some event, let's say, with Grammy people and, you know, VHI people.

So we are trying to try to break the boundaries through this wonderful project.

That's also a great job creator too, just for the movers.

I mean, yeah, the movers were quite happy about it.

And the reason we wanted is that as a pianist, we always practice by ourselves.

You're in a dark room, much darker than this room.

And for a kid, it's important to have a partner.

So like 2 kids on 1 piano, so they can talk a little bit.

It's like doing your homework, that type of thing.

And then the teachers can teach them how to play together, and then in the end, we all get together to play and enjoy the music.

October 30th at Carnegie Hall, the Long Long International Music Foundation is having a big benefit concert and evening with Joshua Bell and Didi Bridgewater and the formerly mentioned Oland.

Just a big bunch of music making, I guess?

Are you doing something with Didi Bridgewater?

And then with Josh, we played the Greek violin and piano sonata.

And then in the second half, we start with 4 hands, 6 hands, 8 hands, and 10 hands.

Well, you'd know each other very well by the end of the piece.

At the age of 30, you are a master recognized around the globe.

I know you've done a little bit of work with Daniel Barenboim.

When you see them, do you play for them and ask them for their thoughts?

How does it work at this level where you are in your stage of artistry with these older mentors, I guess you'd call them?

I mean, my teachers were, and still are, Gary Grafman, Christoph Eschenbach, Daniel Barnum, and they helped me tremendously.

was going to say, they're not going to say, you missed the E flat and the 40th bar.

But because the great musicians like those names, They're much more focused on the understanding and also on the traditional interpretations.

So they will show you how the traditional sound.

And then we will start to discuss about new possibilities of how we recreate those moments, the traditional lines.

And then they will help me to find out my ways.

I will start to explore some of my ideas on those passages, how I'm going to do it.

And obviously, we know that music, there's certain style, but there's not certain rules.

So basically, there are a lot of alternatives.

And the important thing is how to organize the alternatives and how to balance them, having the right pulse.

And this is the challenge, because you can do a lot of interpretations, but if it doesn't balance, if it doesn't, in the end, doesn't make sense, then all those feelings are wasted.

And so, first you should explore, and then you need to limit your interpretations into certain ways.

And then in the concert, you start everything new again.

You know, try to get inspired from the actual stage and to recreate new feelings, new emotion, but aware of that tradition lines, which will hold every, you know, interpretations in the right speed and right pulse.

Yeah, well, you're part of that tradition.

You're recreating it and making it at the same time.

I should say, too, that there's time for questions from all of you here at the end.

And I've wondered about the transition from Chinese culture to Western culture for you in music as well.

Because you grew up playing this music for a very long time.

For me, Chinese classical music is a little bit strange and maybe a little bit difficult to listen to, because I haven't had as much experience with it.

Do you hear them the same way or do you switch sort of from 1 to another?

And you've put them together too, because you've done lots of piano transcriptions of traditional Chinese pieces that weren't thought of on the piano.

It's just like this, you know, when you hear American music, when you hear German music, when you hear African music, it's different.

But in the same time, it's all called music.

In the end, we try to express similar subjects, similar feelings, but using different wording and different language.

I mean, obviously, you need to switch fast with the taste of the music making.

But in the end of the day, For example, I grew up both in Chinese traditional music and Western classical, because my father plays erhu, which is Chinese violin.

Recently, I found a different, interesting thing of the difference between fork and chopsticks and the difference between Erhu and violin.

1 of the things with your foundation, you're helping people to explore classical music.

Do you feel like you can make people like classical music?

I always, I feel like sometimes it's a sales job.

Nobody says, oh my God, you've got to hear rock and roll.

But about classical music, sometimes people say, oh, well, if you haven't heard it, you should maybe listen to a little bit of it.

Do you feel like you're ever having to sell it?

I mean, my experience I got was pretty funny.

The first, I was in America, and then I talk about China.

So first in America, I came when I was 15.

And then I was in a regular high school in Philadelphia.

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