This much we know to be true: Lang Lang is an unusually gifted young pianist. Also undeniably true is that Lang Lang was considerably overhyped by a classical marketing machine desperate to find the next Joshua Bell or Yo-Yo Ma to make up for the considerable losses the industry has been taking. But the backlash against the Lang Lang hype seemed to crystallize remarkably quickly last fall, in the wake of the pianist’s Carnegie Hall recital, and David Patrick Stearns is a bit suspicious of the motives of his detractors. Could Lang Lang’s race have been a factor? Or is it simply that he doesn’t fit into any of the pre-fab pigeonholes that music writers have set aside for hot young soloists?