Lang Lang galumphs

Jabberwock puppet by Sarah Snowden
Jabberwock puppet by Sarah Snowden

No need to report every time a Jabberwocky word is used somewhere, but this was a good one. Alex Ross, The New Yorker’s classical music critic (and author of the excellent musical/political history of the 20th century The Rest Is Noise), in the middle of complaining about the flood of anniversary-year Chopin recordings, describes a showy pianist’s contribution thus:

Lang Lang, the other big Chinese virtuoso, galumphs through the two piano concertos on [Deutsche Grammophon].

Whether Ross means it in the sense of moving “heavily or clumsily” (Wiktionary) or in the more Carrollian sense of triumphant galloping, is up for interpretation. LCSNA blog followers, keep watching for interesting modern uses of Carroll coinages!

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