The God of Conducting Starting from Absolute Pitch

Chapter 351: The First Shot in Europe

Has your music become stronger?
To be honest, Su Yue didn't feel anything about it.

In other words, many people don’t really feel that deeply about whether their music is getting better.

After all, when performing, everyone is thinking about whether the strength of their performance in this area is a little lacking, whether the emotions of the part they are about to play are in place, and whether they will make any wrong notes.

As for whether I have become stronger, this is not something I can feel.

This is especially true for those who can handle any kind of music.

If someone else followed her and said this, Su Yue would probably just take it as a simple compliment.

But it was Chen Qiu who told himself that his level had improved a lot.

Her originally calm heart suddenly quickened a little.

She looked at Chen Qiu and nodded slightly.

"It's normal to be tired studying here. In two months, I have to work on a set of concert works. In addition to professional music, I also need to be exposed to other works such as jazz, pop, modern music, and other styles. In this year, I have been exposed to more works, but as for whether I have grown, I'm not sure."

"Well, don't worry, he has definitely grown up. I can tell. Don't you believe my ears? My ears are better than most people's."

Chen Qiu replied with a smile.

"For example, your breath control, your musical rhythm, and your emotional expression are much more mature than before, and your timbre has become softer. If your performance in the orchestra was 90 points before, your performance now should be around 99 points."

Su Yue chuckled: "Not full marks?"

"I can't help it. You just joined the orchestra. Although you have helped the wind band to advance, it is obvious that we haven't worked together for such a long time. You and I need more time to get used to each other. If we can get full marks now, how can we improve later?"

Chen Qiu raised an eyebrow at Su Yue.

"You can't wait until the score is increased to 120 or 150, then your previous 90 points will be unqualified. I dare not say that your previous performance failed, after all, you are the champion of Geneva."

“The champions of Geneva don’t get many special privileges, so that’s all.”

Su Yue shook her head slightly and said helplessly.

She put the instrument in her hand behind her back and said to Chen Qiu.

"Let's go out for a walk."

"okay."

Chen Qiu followed Su Yue happily, completely unaware of the people who were eavesdropping behind them.

After leaving the theater, the two walked towards the outside of the city.

Su Yue said to Chen Qiu as she walked.

"I actually always thought that if I won the world championship like Fu Diao, my future would be as smooth as his. But it was obviously not the same. Fu Diao was very strong during the performance. He was signed by Deutsche Grammophon before the performance was over, and then started the European tour. But I didn't get much preferential treatment."

"why?"

Chen Qiu followed Su Yue curiously and couldn't help but ask.

“Because they discriminated against you?”

"It has nothing to do with discrimination. It's just that my performance was not good enough for those people to chase me and sign me."

Su Yue shook her head.

She walked steadily towards the forest not far from the city.

The sunlight above shines through the gaps between the leaves onto the ground, with a dazzling glow in the dimness.

The sunlight falling on Su Yue's head was like a saintly general, making it difficult for people to take their eyes off her.

Su Yue also walked into the huge forest. After feeling the fresh smell in the forest, she felt much more relaxed.

Her pace also changed from steady at the beginning to a little bit excited.

She spoke with light steps.

"In fact, many competitions are not as simple as determining who is better. Even if you win the world's first place, many people will not admit it. This is normal."

"For the judges, the basis for their scoring is to see whether the contestant's performance is in accordance with the content of the score and whether his performance is similar to what he imagined. The more similar it is, the higher the score he can get. The more different it is, the lower his score will be. You should also be aware of this."

"Obviously, in that performance, my performance was very similar to what many judges thought. They were very happy to see my performance, but... they had no way to influence those management companies. Although they saw some bright spots in me, they felt that there were already many people like me in the market, and I didn't have a particularly big advantage over them."

"One of the management companies found me and discussed the follow-up development with me. He told me that the only way they could think of to promote me was to find a strong Asian female clarinetist. Apart from that, they couldn't find any other way to promote me."

"Chen Qiu, if it were you, would you accept such a promotion?"

Su Yue turned around, looked back at Chen Qiu, and asked calmly.

The sunlight fell on her eyelashes, illuminating her pupils and making her face slightly blurry.

It was difficult for Chen Qiu to see what Su Yue was thinking from her eyes.

After a long silence, Chen Qiu finally spoke slowly.

"No, no, I find this kind of promotion method difficult to accept. I only want my music to be accepted by the audience. I don't want them to pay attention to me just because of my identity."

"Sure enough, I have similar ideas to you."

Su Yue smiled at Chen Qiu, then turned around again, put her hands behind her back, and walked slowly in the forest.

Walk along the road.

"I also told the agent about this. He just expressed regret. Apart from that, there was no more talk. It was obvious that I was not selected by them. Even when I participated in some international competitions later, the same thing happened to me. They did not take a fancy to me."

Chen Qiu was stunned: "So, how many world championships have you won in this year?"

"It's just an ordinary world championship, some small competition, a meaningless competition. Even if it is called the International Clarinet Competition, most of the participants are only from Europe. There are not many people from the United States or even Asia. Therefore, it does not count."

Su Yue shook her head and explained to Chen Qiu.

"I am the champion of the Geneva Competition now, mainly because I am not old enough. When I am old enough, I plan to try ARD. Perhaps, the double championship will make them notice me, but..."

"but?"

"But no one knows what the final outcome will be."

Su Yue said slowly.

Although she is very confident in herself, it is not easy to become a professional clarinet artist.

It's not that I participated in a few international competitions, won the championship, and then became world-famous, toured everywhere, and enjoyed life.

Many things require an opportunity.

Just like these brokerage firms.

They don't like to do business at a loss.

They have also been in a rather conflicted state regarding Su Yue.

They are not quite sure what Su Yue's future will be like.

From what they have seen so far, apart from her strong abilities, there is nothing else about Su Yue that attracts them.

Take a very simple example.

For example, Lang Liangyue who plays the piano.

Now put the unknown Lang Liangyue and the unknown Li Diyun together and let an agent make the choice.

After listening to the music of both of them, their first choice will always be Lang Liangyue, not Li Diyun.

It’s not that Li Diyun’s ability is not as good as Lang Liangyue’s, but that Lang Liangyue leaves a particularly deep impression on people.

As long as you listen to Lang Liangyue's performance, you will be attracted by the feeling in his music, and you will know that this is Lang Liangyue.

You don't even have to go to see his extremely magical performance, you can simply draw the curtains and watch it.

You will also be able to discern Lang Liangyue's very distinctive tone and expression.

This characteristic is not messy. When I say that I have a characteristic, it is a characteristic of my characteristics.

This feature is convincing, clear and attractive to the audience.

Even though many people may not like Lang Liangyue very much and think his performance is too artificial.

But we are just discussing his music, his level and his style.

I have to admit that Lang Liangyue is so attractive.

The same is true for Fu Diao.

The first time you hear him, you can hear the extremely pure and unique sound of the sea.

Just like the sea embraces all rivers, it accepts everyone.

Some people even cried after listening to Fu Diao's performance.

This is his characteristic.

You could even say that as long as Fu Diao participated in such competitions, he would appear in the eyes of those agents.

Even if he didn't win the championship, even if he just entered the finals of the Chopin International Piano Competition, he would still be able to get to where he is now.

It's just that you may go slower and have more bumps along the way.

The agency will probably let Fu Tiao participate in more competitions and achieve higher results because of his brilliant resume.

Of course, these are all conjectures.

After all, Fu Diao's strength is there. He won the championship, successfully signed a contract with an agency, and attracted more audiences after several performances, becoming the most sought-after top pianist in Europe.

Although Su Yue won the championship and her ability is indeed impressive, her performance style is too similar, or she has too few of her own things.

This also makes it difficult to attract agents to sign her.

Compared to her, if Qin Xian stood up, he would be lucky enough to sign a contract and his chances of doing so would be higher than Su Yue's.

Chen Qiu was listening to Su Yue's words and was struggling over whether to comfort her, when Su Yue slowly exhaled and said softly.

"But, for me, it doesn't really matter. After all, I've performed so many times and I've found my answer."

"Hmm? Your answer? What answer? What answer?"

"secret."

Chen Qiu approached Su Yue curiously and kept asking questions, but Su Yue just shook her head and said nothing.

The two of them wandered around in the forest, one in front and one behind.

Just follow the path trampled by people and walk slowly.

The other people following behind them looked at Chen Qiu and Su Yue with strange expressions.

Huang Xin looked at Chen Qiu with an expression of disappointment.

If it was her who was standing next to Su Yue just now, she would have been able to take Su Yue down now.

Su Yue had just shown a bit of weakness, and you went straight up to her, hugged her, and said something like...

"They don't want you, but I want you. I'm your eternal harbor and I'm always waiting for your return." Such lousy love talk.

Even if you don't win it directly, at least you can increase their favorability.

And yet you just stand there like an idiot?

Standing there in a daze?

No wonder everyone says that Chen Qiu has been single for more than 20 years.

With this method of pursuing girls, if Su Yue had not been merciful enough to take a liking to Chen Qiu, Chen Qiu might have been born another ten years later.

Oh no, not necessarily.

After all, there are those who are thieving cats. They will take advantage of Su Yue's absence to confront her head-on and confess directly. If they are lucky, they might be able to win over Chen Qiu?
So, Chen Qiu seems to be a pretty good person, or at least quite innocent?

Huang Xin looked at Chen Qiu with great conflict, not sure whether he should go up and remind Chen Qiu at this moment, as their military advisor, to advance the development of the plot.

Rui Jia, who was held by Huang Xin, was full of curiosity.

She just came here to enjoy the show.

The same was true for Zhao Xi and Li Miaomiao next to them.

As a later member of the orchestra, Li Miaomiao originally thought that Chen Qiu was a workaholic, the kind of person who couldn't think of anything else except music.

But I didn't expect that Chen Qiu actually had someone he liked.

It's really, shocking.

Among the group of people following Chen Qiu, only Qin Xian was lost in thought.

He had just been listening to what Su Yue said.

Su Yue said that it is useless for the band to be strong in level. The most important thing is to attract audiences to listen to your music.

If you say so.

This seems to be what Chen Qiu has been doing.

He doesn't care much about the strength of the orchestra, as long as the orchestra can complete the performance normally.

What Chen Qiu cares about most is the team spirit of the band.

This is what many people often say, that you can tell it is the sound of a harmonious symphony orchestra as soon as you hear it.

Sure enough, it’s worthy of being Chen Qiu.

As expected, the orchestra still cannot do without Chen Qiu.

If Chen Qiu had not led them to cultivate their own team spirit, they would probably still be in an ordinary symphony orchestra.

But then again...

Is team spirit really that useful?
He seemed to remember Chen Qiu sighing and saying that he had never seen someone who could gather the team spirit so easily.

If her abilities were not so poor and her understanding of music was totally inadequate, she would definitely be qualified to be the top conductor.

Who was that person?

Qin Xian fell into deep thought.

However, Chen Qiu and Su Yue, who were standing in front of them, did not stay for too long.

The two chatted, then took out their phones and found a nearby path, planning to make a detour back to the city.

Because we haven't seen each other for a long time and the previous meeting time was too short, we basically left after meeting for a few minutes. Everyone had a lot of things to do and didn't have time to have a good chat.

Now we finally have time to stand together and chat.

Naturally, the two of them didn't want to waste this perfect time.

They talked about the development of the orchestra, the theory of music performance, their understanding and views on music, and analyzed the characteristics of some top orchestras.

The two chatted all the way from the forest to the city.

Then, according to the location given by Li Miaomiao, they found the hotel that the band had booked for tonight.

After entering the restaurant, the two of them naturally sat in the corner, leaving enough space for other people in the band.

After all, they are still the persons in charge of the orchestra.

Even though the management of the orchestra is extremely loose, everyone is almost on the same level.

But as the person in charge, there are still some people who feel uncomfortable and may not even enjoy their meals.

In order to make everyone comfortable, Chen Qiu and Su Yue took Qin Xian and other people who were not very integrated into the orchestra to sit at the same table. After happily ordering a completely unauthentic but super delicious German meal, they left the restaurant rubbing their stomachs.

Among these restaurants in Europe, Italian food is the most accessible to ordinary people and the most popular one.

Almost everyone can make a lot of that kind of Italian pasta.

As for the roasted pork knuckles in the German restaurant, which good person would eat this stuff on a regular basis?

As for the Germans that Chen Qiu knew, they were either pure vegetarians, or ate mashed potatoes, or ate bread with sausages.

All in all, the food was extremely horrible.

Apart from the sausages sold in restaurants and supermarkets, which can barely be considered normal food for Germans, nothing else is eaten normally by Germans.

Most of the dishes sold in this kind of German restaurant have strong French or Italian elements, rather than German cuisine.

After all, who would be a good person and eat big elbows every day?

However, although Germans don't eat in this kind of German restaurant, it is undeniable that this kind of pure carnivorous food is indeed very enjoyable.

After taking the orchestra members to eat and drink, Chen Qiu went to listen to a concert of another symphony orchestra before returning to the hotel to rest.

That symphony orchestra seemed to be a local B-level symphony orchestra in Germany. There were more than ninety people sitting on it, and the performance was extremely magnificent.

However, its strength is average, and there seem to be many amateur musicians, which cannot be compared with the Harmony Symphony Orchestra.

After hearing how poorly the band performed the day before, the confidence of the band members was boosted.

Everyone returned to the hotel contentedly to rest and prepare for the next day's performance.

……

The next morning.

It was about five o'clock and the sky was already getting light.

Chen Qiu got up from the bed, rubbed his arms, slowly exhaled, stood in front of the mirror in the hotel, looked at himself in the mirror, and the corners of his mouth slowly rose.

"This is the first shot in Europe, so..."

"come on!"

(End of this chapter)