1990: Starting from Baojia Street

This year, because they have to prepare for the Forbidden City Concert and will come to Hong Kong later, the orchestra has not arranged too many series of concerts.

Before May, I was basically preparing for the Forbidden City concert. From May to July, I was preparing for several concerts in Hong Kong.

After this event in Hong Kong is over, various series of concerts will begin, and they plan to split into two groups and perform separately.

After all, their orchestra has more than 200 members, and in terms of scale, it is definitely the largest orchestra in China today.

There are relatively few symphony orchestras in China, and generally there are no more than a hundred people. If there are more than a hundred people, the orchestra is considered to be very large.

In fact, there is no orchestra in the world that can match the scale of the Piano Youth Orchestra.

There are indeed some orchestras in Europe and the United States with hundreds or thousands of members, but these orchestras have basically no professional attributes. Many of their members are amateurs who just get together to have fun.

These people either have no salary or receive subsistence allowances. There are very few professional performers who actually receive high salaries.

It is very difficult to support more than 200 professional performers, and few orchestras can afford it.

Even if we can afford it, it would be a waste to have so many since there are no performances.

Of course, the reason why the Piano Youth Orchestra has so many people is mainly because there are two bands, and the main musicians of these two bands add up to more than a hundred people.

The orchestra's income is considerable, far exceeding that of an ordinary symphony orchestra, so it can afford to support so many people.

Moreover, Zhou Yan doesn't care even if the income and expenditure cannot be balanced. The purpose of forming this orchestra is to perform his own works. As long as his works can still be sold, the orchestra can be maintained.

In the early days, the orchestra also operated at a loss, and the ticket sales of the few concerts a year could not cover the orchestra's operating costs. However, as the number of performances increased, the income increased.

The series of concerts that Zhou Yan will arrange for the orchestra in the future will probably be more often held overseas.

Last year, the China National Orchestra went on tour in the United States, and the results were very good. Now, American mic companies are paying close attention to Chinese folk music. Several companies have contacted us, wanting to invite the Piano Youth Orchestra and Folk Music Band to go to the United States for a special folk music theme tour.

……

Zhou Yan didn't say much. Today's opening was already quite long.

After saying these words, he stepped back.

Soon, the bell rang.

As soon as this bell sounds, music fans know that "Memories of the Forbidden City" is about to be played. People who often listen to Zhou Yan's concerts know that the opening song of the concert is basically this song.

Therefore, hearing this bell means that the concert has begun.

Zhou Yan has many works, and most of them are well-known to people, so the repetition rate of works between different series of concerts is not particularly high.

Unlike many orchestras, they basically perform the same few songs in every concert.

Of course, this is normal. After all, most of Zhou Yan’s works are relatively simple and do not require musicians to spend a lot of time to maintain them.

Unlike some orchestras that perform repertoire that is too difficult, musicians must maintain stable training. Otherwise, if they don’t practice for a period of time, they may not be able to maintain their form.

Moreover, these orchestras would like to arrange certain works particularly well. If they want to arrange the works particularly well, the number of rehearsals is the most important.

But it is not like that for piano orchestra, they only need to maintain individual pieces, and other pieces do not need to be practiced at high frequencies.

The folk music band should pay attention to pieces like "Fragrance in the Dark" and "Journey to the West Fantasy", while the orchestra should focus on pieces like "Eternal Night" and "Xu Sanguan".

Because "Time Traveler" has been very popular in Hong Kong recently, Zhou Yan specially arranged a suite performance of "Time Traveler". He put the six songs in the movie together to make a suite.

……

Wu Guanzhong and his lover sat in the first row, watching the performance on the stage. He couldn't help but sigh. It was really surprising and delightful that such an outstanding figure as Zhou Yan suddenly emerged in the Chinese music scene in the past two years.

It's really a wonderful fate. This time he was invited to Hong Kong to participate in an event, but he didn't know in advance that the exchange group of the Piano Youth Orchestra and the Writers Association would come.

And just yesterday, when he was talking on the phone with a good friend in France, they talked about Zhou Yan.

In the 1940s, Wu Guanzhong went to France to study and stayed in Paris for several years. Most of his friends in France were made during that time.

He hadn't been to France for a long time, and he learned from his good friends that Zhou Yan's popularity in Europe has reached an unimaginable level.

Wu Guanzhong, who had spent several years in France, knew very well that Europeans knew very little about China. If you asked anyone on the street if they knew where the capital of China was, at least half of them would answer that they didn't know, and few of the other half could answer correctly.

They know even less about the Chinese. Even if they know a few, they are basically historical figures who have long passed away, such as Confucius.

Or, there are movie stars like Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan.

As for the people in today's literary and artistic circles, they are naturally little known in France.

In the past two years, Yu Hua was quite well-known in France, but this was only good compared with other writers.

Zhou Yan’s popularity is on another level.

A friend described Zhou Yan's current popularity in France as similar to that of Tom Cruise.

In fact, the description of "friend" is not appropriate, because Wu Guanzhong didn't even know who Tom Cruise was. But from his friend's tone, Wu Guanzhong could hear that Tom Cruise should be a very famous person and should have a great reputation in France.

Since his good friend compared him to Tom Cruise, it naturally shows that Zhou Yan's fame in France has reached a remarkable level.

In addition to his French friends mentioning Zhou Yan, Wu Guanzhong also heard Zhou Yan's name countless times in Hong Kong during this period.

Probably because he is also from mainland China, many Hong Kong people will mention Zhou Yan intentionally or unintentionally after meeting him.

In the eyes of Hong Kong people, Zhou Yan has become a very eye-catching business card of the mainland. When they chat with mainlanders, they will naturally mention Zhou Yan.

Just like when people from the mainland chat with people from Hong Kong, they always like to talk about stars like Jackie Chan and Stephen Chow.

Everyone was discussing Zhou Yan's music, Zhou Yan's movies, and everything about Zhou Yan.

To the extent that Wu Guanzhong already knew a lot about Zhou Yan, a young man he had never met.

I met Yu Hua today, and when we talked about Zhou Yan, Wu Guanzhong expressed his interest in the concert, and Yu Hua took the opportunity to offer him tickets.

Wu Guanzhong declined for a while, but finally accepted it. He really wanted to listen to the concert live. When Wu Guanzhong heard the first piece of music at the concert, he laughed.

He originally thought that although Zhou Yan was famous, his works were in a different world from his. Now he realizes that Zhou Yan's works are everywhere in life.

Just like the song at the beginning, Wu Guanzhong had heard it many times on TV, but he had never paid attention to what the song was called or who composed it.

Wu Guanzhong seemed to have heard the following pieces before. For some of them he could still remember where he had heard them, but for others he simply felt familiar but could not remember where he had heard them.

His wife Zhu Biqin, who was standing next to him, had a similar reaction, and had basically heard all of these songs.

Only then did Wu Guanzhong completely understand why Zhou Yan was so popular. It turned out that the beautiful music he often heard in his daily life was all from Zhou Yan.

Especially when "Journey to the West Fantasy" was played, Wu Guanzhong's eyes showed excitement, as this piece of music was particularly to his taste.

Looking at Zhou Yan on the stage, Wu Guanzhong couldn't help but take out his pen and sketchbook.

Zhu Biqin, who was standing nearby, saw her husband taking out his painting tools and couldn't help but whisper, "Do you want to paint now? There's no light."

The light under the stage is relatively dim, and the conditions for painting are not very good.

At this time, Wu Guanzhong's hands were already moving, "This light is enough."

Zhu Biqin smiled and shook her head, letting Wu Guanzhong go. Over the years, the old man could sit down and paint anytime and anywhere, but this was the first time he painted while listening to a performance in a concert hall.

Sitting next to Wu Guanzhong was Zhang Xueyou's wife Luo Meiwei. She turned her head to look to the side because of Zhu Biqin's muttering just now, and then saw Wu Guanzhong writing and drawing on a notebook with a pen, but she couldn't see clearly what he was drawing.

Luo Meiwei curled her lips. Who would paint while listening to a performance in a concert hall? What a strange old man.

Eight or nine minutes later, Luo Meiwei turned her head again and immediately widened her eyes.

Just now she saw the old man just scribbling some lines on the paper and couldn't see clearly what he was drawing. But now, with the dim light, she could see at a glance that what was drawn on the paper was the scene on the stage at the moment.

The most amazing thing is that it seemed very vivid at a quick glance, but when she looked at it carefully, she found that there were still those simple lines on the paper.

It is these seemingly simple lines that make up a picture of a stage performance.

Even though Luo Meiwei didn't know much about art, she knew that the old man next to her was no ordinary person.

The key point is that it has only been a few minutes. Luo Meiwei did not look at her watch, but based on the performance progress of "Journey to the West Fantasy", less than ten minutes should have passed.

This old man's hands are so fast that he finished a picture like this in just ten minutes.

Sure enough, it’s not easy for anyone to sit in the first row today.

When Luo Meiwei came in, she found that all the audience in the first two rows were extraordinary. In addition to the big names in the film and television and music circles, there were also many politicians. However, there were basically no big names in the business world. After looking around, she only saw a jewelry tycoon, Chen Chongwei.

The reason why Chen Chongwei was able to sit in the front two rows was probably not because of his identity as a jewelry tycoon, but because his daughter Kelly Chen had worked with Zhou Yan before, otherwise he would not have had a ticket.

According to Zhou Yan, the number of tickets sold from the first two rows today could be counted on two hands, and those tickets were basically bought by rich and famous people, such as Alan Tam, who took one.

By now the old man had finished the painting and then wrote his signature in the lower left corner.

Luo Meiwei leaned her head to see what the signature was, but the signature was too small and the light was bad, so she couldn't see it at all.

On the contrary, her movements were a bit too big and were seen by Wu Guanzhong.

Wu Guanzhong noticed Luo Meiwei's gaze, but didn't say anything. He just smiled and closed the sketchbook.

Meeting Wu Guanzhong's eyes, Luo Meiwei smiled awkwardly. What she did just now was indeed a bit impolite.

She actually wanted to talk to the old man, but the performance was still going on on the stage, so she couldn't open her mouth.

……

During the entire concert, Wu Guanzhong drew two sketches in total, one was drawn during the "Journey to the West Fantasy" and the other was drawn during the "Bauhinia March".

When Wu Guanzhong was drawing the second sketch, Luo Meiwei did not look at the stage, but focused all her attention on the tip of Wu Guanzhong's pen.

She wanted to see how the painting was made.

After she watched the whole process, she felt even more amazed. At the beginning, she felt that the old man was just scribbling on the paper with the pen in his hand, and all that came out were some messy lines. She had no idea what the old man's intention was.

But as the old man continued to paint, Luo Meiwei felt something was wrong. The scene on the stage suddenly appeared among those messy lines, vivid and lively.

The old man was clearly holding a pen, and it was only black, but Luo Meiwei felt that the light in the painting was very strong. How was this done?

Can such a work be completed in just a few minutes using only a pen?
Who is this old man? Luo Meiwei became more and more confused.

It was not until the regular time of the concert ended and Zhou Yan walked off the stage that Luo Meiwei finally couldn't help asking, "Sir, are you a painter?"

"what?"

At this moment, the audience was applauding for the encore, and the noise was loud. In addition, Luo Meiwei was speaking Cantonese, so Wu Guanzhong couldn't understand what she was saying at all.

"I said..." Luo Meiwei raised her voice, then thought that the other party might not understand what she just said in Cantonese, so she switched to Mandarin and said, "Sir, are you a painter?"

Wu Guanzhong understood now, and he smiled and said, "I am a painter."

"Can I ask your name?"

"My name is Wu Guanzhong." Wu Guanzhong smiled and said his name.

Luo Meiwei felt that she had heard of this name, probably not long ago, but she just couldn't remember where.

But she had at least confirmed that the other person was a painter, and most likely not an ordinary painter.

The old man had a heavy accent, not standard Mandarin, so he must be from the mainland. As for where in the mainland he was from, of course Luo Meiwei couldn't tell.

Luo Meiwei wanted to ask something else, but the sound of encore became louder again. She wanted to talk to Wu Guanzhong, but she couldn't stay too far away, she had to get close to his ear.

Luo Meiwei definitely couldn't do this, so she could only wait. (End of this chapter)