Chinese superstar pianist Lang Lang joins the National Symphony Orchestra in this weekend’s concerts at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, beginning this evening. He was originally scheduled to give the premiere of a new piano concerto by American composer Jennifer Higdon (b. 1962). However, as announced by the NSO in late March, the composer and the pianist issued a joint statement, saying that “differences in interpretive viewpoints and styles have led us both to feel that the Concerto will be best served by the re-scheduling of the premiere.”

There is obviously more to this story. Higdon and Lang Lang knew each other as students when they both attended the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. As recently as February, when this interview was published, Higdon described the piano concerto project with Lang Lang as a “dream piece,” and this blogger familiar with the score still described it as “coming together” as late as February 20. What happened, exactly? Anyone with further knowledge should feel free to visit the comments section below.

The NSO will still perform a new piece by Jennifer Higdon this weekend, City Scape. This work for orchestra, an evocation of the city of Atlanta, where Higdon grew up, was premiered by the Atlanta Symphony in 2002. Lang Lang will still play the piano with the NSO, too, but he will perform an old warhorse instead, Tchaikovsky’s first piano concerto. The only piece that remains unchanged from the original program is Enescu’s second Romanian rhapsody.

Performances of this concert are scheduled for this evening (May 17, 7 p.m.), tomorrow (May 18, 7 p.m.), and Saturday evening (May 19, 8 p.m.). Tickets: $20 to $80. Full-time students with a valid student ID are eligible to buy $10 tickets through the Attend! program, but only for the Friday concert.

Photo of Lang Lang by Felix Broede / Deutsche Grammophon