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Lang Lang
Lang Lang became one of the most commercially significant classical pianists of his generation, and his 2008 performance at the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony, watched by a global television audience of hundreds of millions, gave classical piano an unprecedented level of mainstream international visibility. His energetic, physically expressive performance style, incorporating dramatic gestures and visible emotional intensity uncommon among more restrained traditional classical performers, has drawn both significant popular acclaim and some critical debate over whether the theatricality detracts from more purist interpretive standards. Lang Lang's extensive music education initiatives in China, including establishing a foundation to bring classical music instruction to underserved communities, reflect his significant role in expanding classical music's reach within a country experiencing rapidly growing interest in Western classical music education. His combination of genuine technical virtuosity, his unprecedented mainstream visibility through high-profile performances, and his significant music education advocacy has made Lang Lang one of the most commercially and culturally significant classical pianists of the 21st century.
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Glenn Gould
Glenn Gould's 1955 recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations became one of the best-selling classical piano recordings in history, and his unconventional, highly personal interpretive approach to Bach's keyboard works established him as one of the most distinctive and idiosyncratic classical pianists of the 20th century. His decision to retire entirely from public concert performance in 1964, at just 31, to focus exclusively on studio recording reflected Gould's stated belief that live concerts were an outdated performance format, a genuinely radical position for a pianist at the height of his concert career. Gould's eccentric personal habits, including his practice of humming audibly while playing and his insistence on using a specific low, custom chair for every performance regardless of venue, made him one of classical music's most distinctively idiosyncratic public figures. His combination of genuinely innovative interpretive approaches to canonical repertoire and his radical rejection of live concert performance in favor of studio recording has made Gould one of the most intellectually and stylistically significant classical pianists of the recording era.
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