Lang Lang’s artistic maturity shines at Kimmel concert

Eternally youthful but maturing in many of the best ways, Lang Lang, now 42, has emerged into artistic adulthood: Having zigzagged his way from his Curtis Institute student years, he has reached classical credibility after sidetracks (his Disney album) and sidelines (an extended injury-related hiatus).

Astute Lang Lang watchers — who date back to when he was among the first to make test recordings in the yet-unopened Kimmel Center and lived only a block away on Spruce Street — always knew he had it in him.

His Sunday Kimmel Center recital was standard repertoire, but there was nothing standard about the way he maintained a kind of objectivity that kept the focus on Schumann and Chopin rather than himself. His artistic lineage hails from great Vladimir Horowitz (1903-1989) in the form of a clear crystalline sonority and great interpretive specificity. Lang Lang explored the musical character of any given phrase but also projected a sense of meaning that was beyond his younger self. What once seemed like audience thrilling effects now leads deeper into the music at hand.

Schumann’s Kreisleriana, one of several great suites that came out of the composer’s best years, was played with a level of detail that became a road map of the composer’s polarized psyche. Each of the eight moments — inspired by a fantastical, eccentric character created by E.T.A. Hoffmann — was vividly projected like a behavioral mosaic. Often this piece is given a bipolar interpretation, but Lang Lang had fine gradations in between extremes, though the extremes were definitely there.

The opening passage was fast, dense and frenetic. As the piece went on, the left hand piano writing — often relegated to a secondary role — had its own mind, giving a constant edge of instability pointing to the mental illness that would eventually overtake Schumann. The music tumbled rather than flowed. But the lyrical moments also had their due; Lang Lang’s trademark protracted conclusions kept listeners waiting for final resolutions. A few explosive passages seemed to come out of nowhere, suggesting that any sense of stability had broken down completely if momentarily.

The program’s second half of Chopin mazurkas — 12 of them, (including Op. 17, Nos. 1, 2, 4, Op. 33, Nos. 2 and 4) — has its hidden challenges. Folksy charm goes a long way in these pieces, but one almost has to have danced these pieces to deliver their sense of Polish authenticity. Instead, Lang Lang probed beneath the surfaces, sometimes invasively and lacking much sense of dance.The program ended with a thundering rendition of the Polonaise Op. 44 that made you fear he might be hurting himself.

Lang Lang’s great coloristic sense — so apparent in past performances of Chinese music — was particularly welcome in French repertoire such as Faure’s Pavane that began the concert. One of the encores, Debussy’s Clair de lune, was even more magical. Also among encores was a Disney selection — his own playfully dissonant version of “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?” No harm done.

Now that he doesn’t act like a rock star, the audience, ironically, greeted him like one.