Five Beethoven Concertos Anchor Lang Lang’s New Album

Lang Lang has recorded all five of Beethoven’s piano concertos for the first time as a complete cycle. The album, Beethoven · The Piano Concertos, pairs him with conductor Andris Nelsons and the Gewandhausorchester, whose history with Beethoven’s music reaches back to the composer’s lifetime. Deutsche Grammophon will release it on March 5, 2027, ahead of the 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s death on March 26.

Lang Lang began learning the concertos as a teenager and recorded Nos. 1 and 4 for Deutsche Grammophon two decades ago. After years of performing the works and discussing Beethoven with musicians including Christoph Eschenbach, Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Daniel Barenboim, he decided to record the full set. “You need to be more mature, to have more experience of life,” he said, “to understand Beethoven’s music more clearly.”

The three-disc CD and digital editions will be joined by a limited five-LP vinyl release and collector’s editions with signed art cards. Concerto No. 5 was recorded using both digital and analogue technology. For the limited Pure Analogue edition, engineer Rainer Maillard recorded directly to magnetic tape using seven microphones and vintage Siemens V72 tube microphone preamplifiers. The AAA LP will include the digital version on CD. Lang Lang said digital offers “more vibration, more colors, a greater dynamic range,” while analogue can bring “greater directness and perhaps a richer sound.”

The album’s solo performances also include Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 30, Op. 110, which Lang Lang played when auditioning for the Curtis Institute of Music, and transcriptions of the Allegretto from Symphony No. 7 and the “Ode to Joy.” Lang Lang will also tour the concertos with Nelsons and the Gewandhausorchester during the ensemble’s Beethoven Festival in Leipzig in May 2027, with further performances in Europe in May and June.

Pre-save the album here.