Please, come home and practice the piano

Chapter 1389, Section 609: A Brief Account of the Picture Exhibition! The Meaning of Effort

At 4:30 p.m., after dropping off Mr. Tang's parents at the hotel, Ang Lee and Chen Xuan headed to the shop.

He and Old Tang's father had been chatting on the way back from the airport.

He's a rather interesting older man.

It was completely different from the rigid image he had imagined.

Old Tang's mother even brought him two boxes of tea, which made him feel quite embarrassed.

Back at the shop entrance, Chen Xuan went straight upstairs to practice her flute.

Ang Lee went to refuel Xu Li's car and brought back some cooked ham.

He was definitely going to be working late at the shop with Chen Xuan tonight, so he wasn't in a hurry to practice the piano.

After cleaning downstairs with Wang Meili for a while, he told her to go home.

After making tea at the water bar, he leisurely took out his phone and started scrolling.

"What the hell?"

Seeing Wang Xiaohu's posts in half an hour on his WeChat Moments, he thought he was seeing things.

Text: 【I'm a stupid dog!!!】

That’s all.

The accompanying picture was actually a photo of him and Wang Xiaohu?
There are also a bunch of likes below.

Li An brought up the panel and glanced at it. There was no problem. Wang Xiaohu had practiced piano for six hours today.

I wonder what's wrong with that brat again.

Ang Lee casually gave it a thumbs up.

After scrolling through his phone for another twenty minutes, Ang Lee used the remote to close the front door and went upstairs.

Teacher Xiaomi is practicing on stage.

Ang Lee didn't interrupt; he just listened quietly from below the stage.

Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" was originally a piano suite, but it has been adapted into various versions due to its grand passages and romantic melodic colors.

The version of "Gaze Quintet" to be performed at the Rong'ai Music Festival is an arrangement by Winkelman.

It fully includes all ten paintings and four walking themes from the original work.

Speaking of which, Ang Lee didn't have much of a connection with this piece; he originally had the opportunity to perform it on stage when he was a junior in college.

He personally greatly admires this kind of fantasy work.

The work may seem to be fragmented, but in essence, it tells the story of a pair of eyes strolling through a gallery and appreciating paintings.

The ten paintings naturally correspond to different musical styles.

The flute, as a melodic and embellishing instrument, is of unparalleled importance.

This also means that the woodwind quintet in this work places the highest demands on the flute player.

Technology comes first.

The fingers move rapidly, producing various sounds, a complex array of chromatic scales and ornaments, and frequent changes in speed and rhythm.

Performers must first solve the above-mentioned personal technical problems; otherwise, they will have no way to participate in professional-level performance rehearsals.

Even a high-achieving international student like Teacher Xiaomi cannot be careless during practice.

For example, the sixth painting she is practicing right now—the Dance of the Chicks.

The flute here needs to use special timbre and playing techniques to simulate the calls of birds, which involves glissando and vibrato.

While Chen Xuan was taking a break to drink water, Ang Lee joked, "Can Old Comrade Yang really brag about this?"

Chen Xuan: "Yes."

Ang Lee: "Really?"

Chen Xuan: "Don't underestimate these veteran comrades, especially in the symphony orchestra. You can even tell whether the veteran comrade holding the oboe on stage is a former suona player."

Ang Lee: "They are interconnected."

Chen Xuan: "Wind instruments are all about one breath."

Ang Lee: "String instruments are like a bow."

Chen Xuan: "If I'm not mistaken, Teacher Yang Ling must have started out playing the bamboo flute. This afternoon, Sister Ma sent me a video of their last rehearsal, and there are some parts that I might not be able to play as well as him."

Ang Lee: "Take this part you just practiced, for example."

Chen Xuan: "His imitation of bird calls is really amazing." Li An understood. When it comes to grand works like concertos, the older generation is definitely inferior, but when it comes to these niche techniques, the younger generation still has a lot to learn.

but.

and many more.

Ang Lee suddenly realized, "Wasn't the bird call in this part imitated by the clarinet?"

Chen Xuan asked in surprise, "You know about this?"

Lee An-lo: "I've even played it!"

Chen Xuan: "Anyway, Teacher Yang Ling asked me to polish this part carefully. It's probably because Sister Ma's clarinet playing is not very reliable. I also think she may not practice the clarinet much anymore."

Ang Lee: "I can understand. At this age, what's the point of practicing? It's all for work."

Chen Xuan: "But I have to practice my part well. They are them, and I am me."

Ang Lee: "Keep it up! I've already bought the food. Call me if you get hungry."

After finishing their conversation, Chen Xuan drank her water and returned to the stage.

Ang Lee then went downstairs, randomly picked up a display piano, and started playing the scales.

For a moment, it felt like the two of them were back in the days at Yudong Office Building.

It wasn't until almost nine o'clock, when it was completely dark outside, that Chen Xuan went downstairs and ate something with Li An.

They then continued practicing upstairs.

This practice session lasted until almost midnight.

At 12:30 a.m., the two finally dragged their exhausted bodies home.

Ang Lee was exhausted, and he knew Chen Xuan was even more tired than him, but Chen Xuan still wanted to look through the rehearsal notes for the "Gaze Quintet" that Grandpa Tang had given her.

"Go to sleep first."

"Hey, I'm on my phone in bed anyway. Let's do it together. I'll study this piece too. Maybe I can even make a piano duet version someday."

This is probably what it means for couples in the same industry to support each other at work.

Less than five minutes later, Ang Lee fell asleep on the sofa with his phone in his hand.
-
Chen Xuan felt like it was dawn as soon as she closed her eyes after only a few hours of sleep.

The alarm clock rang at 5:30. She got up, washed, put on makeup, and changed clothes. While eating breakfast, she flipped through her notes for a while.

She set off by car an hour before the rehearsal was scheduled to begin.

She was the first performer to arrive at the rehearsal venue today, and then she packed her instrument and went on stage to practice long notes.

As the other performers arrived one after another, Fang Yongbo also arrived at the scene at 07:25.

"Now that we're all here, let's begin. Let's start with the art exhibition."

While the singers were on stage checking their notes, Fang Yongbo took the full score and walked onto the stage, unfolding it on the music stand.

moment.

He took out his baton, raised his head, and scanned the room before his gaze fell on Chen Xuan.

"Have you all finished practicing?"

This assertive tone put some pressure on the other four people on stage.

"We're done practicing."

After hearing Chen Xuan's answer, the four of them felt much more at ease.

They weren't worried about the rehearsal schedule.

Rather, if Chen Xuan doesn't practice well, causing frequent problems during rehearsals, based on their understanding of Lao Fang, Lao Fang usually wouldn't publicly criticize a newcomer participating in a small group rehearsal for the first time.

If they wouldn't say "newcomer," who would they say?
It's so hard to guess.

So Chen Xuan put their minds at ease.

But as rehearsals officially began, they belatedly realized that they had put their minds at ease too early.

Is this a sign that she's mastered the skills?!
This looks like they've practiced!

As Fang Yongbo once again stopped the senior bassist, everyone felt quite helpless.

At this moment, they even suspected that Lao Fang had deliberately brought Xiao Chen over to give them a warning.

When Lao Yang was bragging before, everyone could relax and enjoy themselves together.

They're all pretty much the same anyway.

But after Xiao Chen joined, the art exhibition seemed to really start to move around.