Please, come home and practice the piano

Chapter 1197 457. Tie! Tang Zhongfu's advice and guidance
"Hello, hello, thank you for your painting. I have never had the chance to thank you in person."

"Teacher Li, you are too polite. I was in a hurry and didn't finish the painting. The little guys have grown taller now."

"They have all grown taller. I saw in the photos Xiaoxing sent that he has grown taller too. One year has passed in the blink of an eye."

Seeing the two of them chatting enthusiastically as soon as they came up, Mr. Tang was confused for a moment.

This has to go back to last year’s summer camp.

As soon as the last music session of last year’s summer camp ended, Xiaoxing was picked up by brothers Tang Qianfeng and Tang Jingren.

Before leaving, Xiaoxing gave Li Ang a simple drawing, which showed a septet of teachers and students performing together on stage.

This painting was painted by Tang Jingren in the audience seats when seven teachers and students were playing Vivaldi.

It is now hanging on the wall of Ang Lee's study.

It turned out to be the case.

Tang Zhongfu smiled when he heard this. It turned out that there was such a story last year.

"Teacher Li, please sit down and have some tea. We'll talk later."

Today's meal was prepared by Tang Jingren himself.

"You're tired."

Li An had not expected that he would be treated like this today. He originally thought that the nanny or something like that would cook for him.

I looked around but didn't see anyone else.

However, the paintings on the wall of the living room are particularly eye-catching. I think they were probably painted by Xiaoxing’s father.

What an artistic family.

"Uncle Tang, isn't Xiaoxing's mother at home today?"

"Her mother is on tour right now and won't be back until next week."

"Oh, Uncle Tang, whose house is this? I'm a little confused."

Li An initially thought that he was going to have dinner at Tang Qianfeng's house today, and in the car he thought he was going to have dinner at Tang Zhongfu's house. Now it seems like this is Tang Jingren's home.

Tang Zhongfu was amused by Li An's question and laughed out loud, "Whoever lives here is the owner of the house. Usually no one lives here. Jingren comes to clean it up every once in a while. I think it's more convenient to live here than anywhere else. They don't let me live here alone."

Li An nodded. He had heard from Boss X that Xiaoxing's grandmother died of stomach cancer a few years ago.

"Well, I didn't want to live with them, so I bought another house near them."

As Tang Zhongfu was speaking, Li An's cell phone rang.

"Sorry Uncle Tang."

"You take yours."

The call was from Boss X, who said he would be there a little later.

"Brother Yan said he would be here later." Li An quickly put away his phone after answering the call.

"What did he do this afternoon?" Tang Zhongfu asked.

Li An didn't know the details, "It seems like something happened at Sister Xiaoxiao's house, so she went to help her brother-in-law."

Tang Zhongfu: "Then let's not wait for them, you come."

"Hey." Li An also knew where to go, so he followed Tang Zhongfu all the way to the east wing.

“I used to read the score here.”

Tang Zhongfu said as he took a record from the shelf on the wall.

Li An looked around and exclaimed: "This is a treasure house."

The four walls were filled with various records and sheet music, there was an upright piano on the east wall, and a record player on the only mahogany desk.

In the entire courtyard, Tang Zhongfu was most proud of this study room which was once his. He was naturally very happy to hear what Li An said.

"Jingren will be here for a while, let's listen to some music first."

“I thought of this version when I was listening to you play it just now.”

Li An also became interested after hearing this, "Then I have to listen carefully."

Tang Zhongfu carefully put the record into the record player, and after a moment, the piano lead came from the speaker.

When the first movement of Beethoven's Fourth Symphony sounded, Ang Lee blurted out, "Backhaus."

Tang Zhongfu glanced sideways in surprise: "I've heard this version before."

Ang Lee nodded. "Well, this version should be the one he recorded with the Vienna Orchestra. The audio I listened to at the time was not clean and the quality was a little worse than this one. But I thought it was so good at the time. Backhaus's Beethoven is different from everyone else's. Listening to his Beethoven, it's as if Beethoven is supposed to be like this."

Tang Zhongfu: "Do you know who conducted this version?"

Lee An: "I don't know, is it Bohm?"

Tang Zhongfu: "Knappertzbusch, you may not know this conductor."

Li An smiled ashamedly: "It's the first time I heard of it."

Tang Zhongfu: "Kerner was best at conducting Wagner's works. Apart from Kleiber, the only conductor who could fully convince the Vienna Philharmonic was Kerner."

Just then, there was a noise outside the door and Li An looked over.

"Qianfeng is back, don't worry about him."

Tang Zhongfu reminded and then asked, "What do you think of Backhouse's speed in this work?"

Li An immediately regained his attention, he knew that Tang Zhongfu was about to start teaching him.

"Slow." Li An thought for a moment and replied.

Tang Zhongfu smiled and said nothing more.

When the first movement ended, Tang Zhongfu paused the record player: "Except for being slow."

Li An pondered for a moment, "Dignified."

Tang Zhongfu nodded: "Solemn, this will make the speed more specific."

Li An nodded and learned it.

"Ding ding ding."

There were three knocks on the door, followed by Tan Qianfeng's voice, "Eat in the study tonight?"

Hearing this, Tang Zhongfu turned around and said to the outside, "You and Xiao Feng, move the table over here."

Li An wanted to help but was stopped by Tang Zhongfu, "Start from the beginning. You need to enter the listening state before the piano enters."

Li An nodded again, took a few deep breaths, and closed his eyes for a moment.

After a few seconds he opened his eyes again.

At this time, Tang Zhongfu started from the beginning. After a brief silence, the piano sounded.

“Ding—”

This time, Li An felt that the air flow slowed down the moment the first chord came in.

"Keep breathing."

"Follow the music, the band is about to enter."

Following Tang Zhongfu's gestures, Li An was completely immersed in the music.

One minute later.

Tang Zhongfu paused the music again and asked Li An: "How do you feel?"

At one point, Ang Lee wanted to express so much, but he didn't know where to start.

"Relax," Tang Zhongfu smiled and pointed to the piano behind him, "You can give it a try."

"Uncle Tang will be eating soon," Li An really wanted to try it, but he was a little embarrassed.

"It's okay," Tang Zhongfu personally lifted the piano cover for Li An, and Li An immediately followed him and sat down in front of the piano.

I kept repeating to myself, "slow down, take it easy, be more focused," and after a moment I put my fingers down.

"when--"

As soon as the piano started to sound, Li Ang stopped and shook his head. No, no, no, this is not the feeling.

"Relax, relax."

This was the third time in two minutes that Tang Zhongfu reminded Li Ang to relax.

Ang Lee tried it twice more, but it still didn't feel right. He thought that the feeling he had just felt when he listened to it was the feeling he could play.

Now it seems that this is not the case at all. Could it be that I was wrong? Or did I misunderstand Mr. Tang's meaning?

Li An fell into deep thought. Tang Qianfeng and Assistant Feng came to the study room with a table, and they couldn't help but smile when they saw this.

Tang Qianfeng didn't know how long it had been since he had seen the old man teach in this classroom.

Assistant Feng sighed that Teacher Li was so lucky. As far as he knew, everyone who had taken classes with the old team leader in this room is now an elite in the industry.

It can be said that anyone who has taken classes in this room is Mr. Tang’s disciple.

In this circle, who wouldn't want to have even the slightest connection with Mr. Tang?

But our teacher Li didn't know all this at the moment, he was still thinking hard.

Just then, "Lee An."

This was the second time that Mr. Tang called Ang Lee by his name today. The first time was when the two met at the entrance of the concert hall.

Li An turned his head.

Tang Zhongfu prompted: "What is the most special thing about number four, compared with the first three."

Lee Ang: “Beginning.”

There is no need to think about this question. The biggest difference between the fourth piece and the first three is that the fourth piece is played by the piano first, followed by the orchestra.

And usually the concerto begins with the orchestra.

Tang Zhongfu: "Okay, now we have to face another choice. Do you want to start with the commander or yourself? Don't be in a hurry, think about it slowly."

At that moment, Ang Lee seemed to have grasped something.

At this time, Tang Qianfeng's smiling voice came from outside the door: "Relax, play it the same way you played on the stage this afternoon."

Li An smiled bitterly and thought that no one could completely relax in this situation, because the person standing next to him was Tang Zhongfu.

In fact, when he was on stage in the afternoon, he chose two different ways to start.

The first time was started by Tang Qianfeng.

The second time he started it himself.

The difference between the two performances mainly lies in the speed, and the difference in speed leads to two performances with completely different personalities.

The first version, led by Tang Qianfeng, was faster in tempo and lighter and sweeter in style.

The second time he led the performance was at a relatively slow tempo, trying to bring out every ups and downs of the music.

In Li An's opinion, this might be the reason why Mr. Tang Zhongfu said that he thought of Backhaus's version when listening to his own performance.

Shamelessly comparing him to Backhouse, there are some similarities between his slowness and that of Backhouse.

And then the old man kept repeating the beginning, not only asking him to listen to it again, but also asking him to adjust his breathing repeatedly.

What does the old man want me to feel?

Let yourself choose again who to start with?
As he was thinking about it, a very interesting idea suddenly popped into his mind.

If the person asking the question is replaced by the conductor Kner in the recording, and if I am replaced by Backhaus.

What choice will Backhaus make when faced with this question of command?
It is rumored that Backhaus is a very humble performer, and Kerner is a conductor who can drive the Vienna Philharmonic. This means that Backhaus will most likely follow the conductor's advice.

So judging from the recording, the conductor's suggestions were slow.

At the same time, the conductor represents the orchestra. In other words, this slowness also means the slowness of the orchestra.

However, there is another problem here. The band leads the piano slowly, but the band appears behind the piano.

This is somewhat contradictory.

unless!!
Got it!

Li Ang's eyes suddenly lit up, and everything connected!

He understood what Mr. Tang meant!

"Teacher Tang, could you please play the beginning again?"

Seeing that Li Ang was confident, Tang Zhongfu walked to the record player with a smile on his face.

To be honest, Tang Zhongfu was not sure whether Li An had fully understood his intention. It was not easy to realize this.

And only Ang Lee himself must experience it in order to maximize the benefits.

If he told Ang Lee the conclusion directly, it would lose its meaning.

"Are you ready?"

"Ah."

The record started playing again, and before the piano lead sounded, Ang Lee started listening first.

It was as if the band had already started.

He sang the introduction motive in his heart until he heard the piano following the sang in his heart, and he got the answer he wanted.

Tang Qianfeng brought two plates of food to Tang Zhongfu, and together with the old man, they looked at Li An who was sitting motionless in front of the piano.

moment.

"Teacher Tang, could you please replay it again, starting from the part where the band enters?"

After hearing what Li Ang said, the father and son beside the record player looked at each other subconsciously.

Then Tang Zhongfu started playing with the band according to Ang Lee's request.

The first movement of Beethoven's Fourth Symphony, which begins with the orchestra, does not sound strange, as if this piece is supposed to be like this.

Just like the most common concerto format, the orchestra enters first.

And just as the string section finished playing the part that was supposed to be led by the piano, Ang Lee, who was sitting in front of the piano, had already raised his hand and started playing.

"when--"

The piano that blends naturally into the orchestra's accompaniment seems to have traveled through three quarters of a century, and everything seems so natural.

Li An stopped his hand, stood up and thanked him: "Thank you, Teacher Tang."

Tang Zhongfu smiled and said, "I understand."

Li An nodded: "I understand."

Tang Qianfeng was happy: "Then let's prepare to eat. You, you just haven't worked with the orchestra enough. Play for another three to five years and you will understand everything you should understand."

Soon, the table was filled with food.

Tang Jingren worked all day to prepare these ten dishes for Li Ang. Boss X, who arrived late, also brought two bottles of white wine.

Including the two bottles of white wine that Tang Qianfeng brought, there are four bottles in total.
-
"cheers!"

After talking with Mr. Tang, Ang Lee knew where the problems lay in his performance of this piece.

Just as Tang Qianfeng said, he simply has too little experience.

Whether starting with the conductor or the soloist, Lee Ang made a mistake in this piece.

The question is not who starts, but no matter who starts, the beginning of the piano part is not the real beginning.

The piano part is just the first part written on the score and needs to sound first, that's all.

In terms of Beethoven's iconic sense of musical structure and the inner tension of the music, the piano that sounded first was not the first stroke of the structure. It was just that Beethoven performed a magic trick and let the music start from the piano.

In other words, the beginning part of the piano carries a part of the invisible musical texture, which cannot be heard but must be reflected.

If the performer demonstrates this, it is a successful start.

If the performer only plays the piano part, it would be a disconnected beginning from the whole music.

This is also why Ang Lee couldn't play the sound in the recording the first time he played on the piano.

He clearly felt it, but the result was completely different from what he felt.

The most important thing is that there is a lack of a feeling that the music has already started. He joins the music that has already started by having the piano play first.

Just as Mr. Tang Zhongfu reminded him at the beginning.

Thinking back on it now, he still couldn't help but admire it from the bottom of his heart. This is the realm of a true old artist.

After the old man's advice, the problem of La Er that had been bothering him was solved.

“Start from the beginning. You need to be in a listening state before the piano even enters.”

"Uncle Tang's words are enough for me to think about for the rest of my life."

Boss X: "Why don't you drink another one!"

Li An just raised his glass when Tang Zhongfu slowly stopped him, "Li An, put the glass down first."

"I have to give you a few more of my personal thoughts."

In an instant, the dinner table became quiet again.