2015-02-28

【Aiden in English】

        Every year, my piano teacher, Lena Chen hosts a recital at Jacobs Music in PA. It’s so that we students can hear other music, and even more importantly, to practice before the huge event for me coming up tomorrow.

        I’ve been to the Golden Key Music Festival of USA two times before, and the feeling is very natural already. The fest is a competition to place and evaluate to a player face to face, determining the skill by grading him or her. There are four award levels: gold, silver, Super Bronze (bronze), and Bronze Achievement. So this performance would sort of be a practice run for my audition tomorrow. My teacher always says that the product I produce today will be the same as whatever I do tomorrow. 

        Here I was suffocating in dress suits, waiting for my time to shine… … and fail. I went over my piece again in my head, thinking each note and trying to calm my nerves. I was playing Sonata in G Major, Op. 49 No. 2 1^st Movement by Beethoven. When my turn was up, I walked on stage, bowed, and sat down in front of the piano. It was a Steinway & Sons piano, the best kind there was. The one I practiced on at home was a Yamaha, and they’re two completely different things. Yamaha pianos are easier to play soft notes, especially precise notes, while Steinway & Sons can have large variations with the tiniest of effort. 

        As I readied my hands, these facts flew through my mind in a split second, considering the options on which way to play the best. Steinway & Sons’ pianos also took more effort to press down, which could be critical for my soft notes. I often made the mistake on these pianos when I played too gently, and no sound appeared from the piano, making the moment pretty awkward, especially when it’s the first note. This time I was sure to play slightly harder on my first note to get the feel. As I pressed down, a huge loud G major chord rang though the room. On the inside, I winced. I quickly adjusted playing softer, and entering the rest of the piece as soft and slow as possible. In general, the tempo is sped up when someone plays a loud note, and what I just did was no different. The speed increased in the first measure enormously, and I totally thought it was obvious. There were no problems for a long time, and I got into the rhythm. 

        This wasn’t like Beethoven’s other pieces where the notes were pounded out of the piano. No, this was far from it and quite the opposite, in fact. It was jolly and dandy, nothing too extreme. Nice, lovely rhythm, but nothing too fast. I breezed through the first three pages, and then crashed into a bump. This wasn’t as obvious as the first one, so I learned after I was done when the teacher gave comments. The mood of the piece flipped, and on came a minor version of what this was before. This part was mostly just about the scales, up and down the keyboard my right hand went. Soon, a chord appeared, and I completely rushed through it as if it wasn’t there. Instead of holding 3 beats, my hands held 1, and then moved on. It sounded like the smallest hiccup that set my head ringing alarms. At the time, I let it pass, but knew I needed to grab some last minute practices. From now on, I’ll want to practice, not negotiate with mom to cut me some slack. “Thirty more minutes!” “No mom! Ten is long enough.” “Alright the, twenty it is!” “How about fi-” “Stop wasting time!” Usually that last statement comes with a blast of annoyance from mom. Just a typical Chinese mom, if you ask me. 

        So there I was playing the piece like nothing happened, and the minor scales returned to the major positive variation. This was flowed by more scales, and then the final chord. I bowed, smiling the best I could, although inside that’s not what I thought.

        Whatever product I produce today will be the same thing I do tomorrow. That’s what I said. So now let rephrase it. Whatever product I produce today will likely be the same thing I do tomorrow. 

【紅霞譯文】

        每年我的鋼琴陳倫茜老師定期在賓州雅各布斯音樂室舉行音樂會，使得我們每一位學生都有機會在觀摩同伴施展技藝的同時開拓音樂視野。關鍵在於，這場演出還是我明天參加重要活動之前最後一次實戰練習。

        以前我曾連續兩次參加美國金鑰匙音樂節，早已熟知其活動內容。音樂節採用比賽方式，對參賽選手的技巧水平進行一對一個別評判，並按照得分高低分出四個獎勵名次：金獎、銀獎、超級銅獎、成就銅獎，所以說今天的表演可被視為我明天比賽的一次預演，陳老師一直為我加油打氣，只要努力終會收穫成功。

        西裝革履全部行頭武裝在身，壓得我透不過氣來，前面等待自己的不是成功……便是失敗。上台前，我默默地重溫了一遍曲子，試圖把握每個音符，這樣心裡感覺輕鬆一點，今天我帶來的曲目是《貝多芬·G大調奏鳴曲作品第四十九號第二首第一樂章》。該出場了，我走上舞台，先向觀眾鞠躬示意，然後在琴旁坐好。眼前這台鋼琴是雅各布斯音樂室質量最好的施坦威牌鋼琴，跟我在家常彈的雅馬哈牌鋼琴算不上一路貨。雅馬哈音區清晰，擅長輕音彈奏，尤其適合表現單音；而施坦威則音質渾厚，彈什麼都悅耳動聽。

        我抬手擺好姿勢，腦海里飛速閃現兩種鋼琴的不同特點，以求最快最好地拿捏觸鍵強度。施坦威鋼琴需要用勁按鍵，無疑對彈奏輕音至關重要，我一直把握不好，該重的時候往往彈得過輕，以至於需要輕彈的地方，聲音弱得聽不出來，尤其是第一個音符，顯得怪裡怪氣。正因如此，這回我稍微提高了第一個音的力度，可剛出手按鍵，G大調和弦立刻響徹整個演奏大廳，把嚇我了一大跳，我趕緊降低音強，將後面剩餘的部分儘可能彈得又輕又慢。一般情況下，琴聲彈得越大，速度就會越快，對我也不例外。因此當意識到第一小節速度過快後，我努力調整音量，逐漸控制表演節奏。

        與貝多芬其它充滿激情的作品不同，這首G大調奏鳴曲既活潑華麗，出手不能過重；又柔和優雅，節奏不能過快。我追隨作曲家流暢的旋律，一口氣彈完三大篇樂譜，不料快要結束的時候因為大意而出了一點疏漏，失誤很小，完全不及開頭第一小節那麼明顯，要不是陳老師及時指點出來，恐怕連我自己都難以察覺。這部分音樂表情變化明顯，由色彩明亮的大調和弦轉換成溫馨抒情的小調音階，需要用右手沿鍵盤上下起伏。有一個和弦時值三拍，而我因操之過急，結果只完成兩拍，最後一拍被忘得一乾二淨，聽起來好像中間打了聲嗝，感覺不太對勁。表演的時候我只能隨它去了，但事後要抓及時間糾正這毛病。從現在起，我真得多加練習，不能再跟媽媽討價還價。“再來卅分鐘！”“不行，媽媽！最多十分鐘。”“好吧，那就廿分鐘！”“五…”“別再浪費時間！”通常媽媽說到這裡懶得理會下面的答案，典型一位中國媽媽的做法。

        我若無其事地繼續彈奏全曲，從小調音階迴轉到大調旋律，自然表現出更多音階變化，最後以和弦結束整個表演。我鞠躬謝幕，儘量面帶笑容，雖說並非真正發自內心。

        “今天的努力終會收穫明天的成功”，話是這麼說，現在讓我來重新組合一下語序，“今天的努力極有可能收穫明天的成功”。