2016-11-05

【Aiden in English】

        I’ve stressed a lot about the upsides of music. Now it’s time to realize why many children quit playing instruments.

        So far in my music “career”, there hasn’t been any major slip-ups on stage quite yet. Not to jinx it, but there really is no reason to mess up things you practice over and over again. Right?

        Today the recital of Dorothy Sutton Performance Festival I was going to in West Chest Univ. was not the most “professional” which was hosted by Philadelphia Music Teacher Association, in the sense that things seemed to be done rather ruggedly. These types of performances are more for the experience than anything since it is one of the rare performances where difficulty doesn’t matter. This provides ups and downs for the performance. Some good qualities this brings to the table include an opportunity for everybody, but at the same time, it makes the show quite boring. Unfortunately for me, although this performance was very laid back, my private teacher saw this as a perfect opportunity to test us under pressure. I say “us” because the song my friend and I were performing was Sonata in D Major K448 3^rd Movement, and it was the only composition written for two pianos and four hands by Mozart.

        Yeah, it may be laid back, but performing never is quite like practice. My friend and I played it in two different pianos. Before I list all the mistakes we made under pressure, I would like to say in defense that practice together with my partner was limited, since we don’t live close together or have two pianos in either of our houses. So with this in mind, it kind of covers many reasons why areas in the piece went sour. Luckily, we could recover somewhat after each mistake. It began with a hiccup on my partner’s part, messing up a solo because he choked. Grinning with satisfaction that nobody was perfect since my mother always claimed my friend was always better than I was(he still is), I botched up my follow up melody very badly. The rest of the song went around like a plane ride: we reached the destination, but not without turbulence and being delayed several times at the airport. Finishing with a flurry, we stepped off the stage, blood pumping through our faces.

        After the performance, mother brought me to Manayunk, a famous neighborhood in the outer rim of Philadelphia, to see an old friend of hers. We had lunch in a great American restaurant Winnie’s LeBus Manayunk, as I tried to forget the day’s problems. There were going to be some very stern words said about the performance at home, but until then, I can run from the issue all I want. After all, the real competition comes in January 2017.

【紅霞譯文】

        好的音樂給我帶來不少心裡負荷，現在真該審視為什麼青少年們放棄彈奏樂器。

        就本人音樂“生涯”而言，到目前為止尚未在舞台上出現大起大落的場面，且不說什麼晦氣話，你哪肯讓那些經過自己千錘百鍊的作品帶有任何瑕疵，對不？

        今天我來西切斯特大學參加由費城音樂教師協會舉辦的多蘿西•蘇頓藝術節匯報演出，其實算不上最“專業”水準的音樂會，從某種意義而言無非就是現場獻藝，凡事重在參與，既然這種表演並非追求技巧難度，因此演奏水平參差不齊，這裡只不過為所有演員提供一個展示琴藝的交流平台，難免擺脫稚嫩無聊的作品。雖然表演本身無拘無束，但我的鋼琴私教老師卻把它當成考驗我們學生承受壓力的絕好機會，我只好積極響應。前面所提到的“我們”是因為我和朋友一起演奏D大調奏鳴曲作品K448第三樂章，這是莫扎特創作的唯一一首雙鋼琴四手聯彈曲目。

        沒錯，音樂會固然氛圍輕鬆，但是演出畢竟有別於練習，何況我和朋友要在兩架鋼琴上分別彈奏同一部作品，在羅列壓力當前醜態百出之際，我想藉機先解釋一番，哥倆各居異地，誰家都沒有兩架鋼琴，因此平常共同練琴的機會相當有限，如此說來臨場出點狀況情有可原，好在失誤之後我倆都能拾起下面要彈的東西。這回因為朋友咳嗽而打亂他自己的獨奏節律，我母親曾一直誇他彈得比我棒（本人仍然這麼認為），而我確實處理不好旋律變化，但智者千慮難有不失，人無完人。接下來我倆如同駕馭飛機：經過上下顛簸起伏反覆延誤降落時間，最終還是抵達目的地，結尾部分拿捏過急，待謝幕走下台來，我倆亢奮得滿臉通紅。

        表演完畢，母親帶我到費城郊區著名社區──馬拉楊克面會她的老朋友，大家來到當地一家口碑不錯的美式餐館“溫妮捲筒”共進午餐，我設法忘掉音樂會上出現的種種失誤，針對那些忠言逆耳的講評還是留待回家再說，眼下我要儘量干點自己想做的事情，不然轉眼就到了明年一月份正式比賽。