Zhou Yan was not surprised to see Sting in London, but what surprised Zhou Yan was that Zhang Youan was standing with the Stings.
Zhang Youan initially worked in the record industry, but he was basically familiar with the music market in Hong Kong and Taiwan. I didn’t hear that he had any resources abroad.
And I have never heard Zhang Youan say that he knew Sting before. When Zhang Youan came the night before yesterday, he never mentioned Sting.
“Hello, you two.” Zhou Yan smiled and shook Sting’s hand, “Welcome to my concert.”
Sting is a little taller than Zhou Yan, and usually You should also pay attention to exercise regularly, and your body is a bit bigger than Zhou Yan. He held Zhou Yan's hand and said with a smile, "It should be that we welcome you to London. Music masters like you also add more to London." ”
Zhou Yan didn't expect that a rock star like Sting could speak so officially, just like a department-level cadre.
In fact, singers like Sting also have many fans in China. Some domestic singers who are more exposed to British rock and roll, in addition to liking the Beatles, are also famous as Sting. Singer-songwriters will also come into their sight.
Perhaps, those rock singers in China will be disillusioned when they see Sting like this, because Sting looks completely different from their mental state.
Freedom, love and peace, anti-this, anti-that, are not seen at all in Sting.
Sting is a very sophisticated young man when he is not on stage.
When chatting with Zhou Yan, Sting would also take the initiative to stir up topics, and he was very smart and knew how to talk about classical music with Zhou Yan.
He talked about some of Zhou Yan’s songs and expressed his liking for them.
It can be heard that Sting has a pretty good classical background.
Sounds pretty good, naturally compared to ordinary singers. There is still a big gap between him and professional singers.
Sting’s classical foundation comes from the teachings of his mother. It is said that his mother began teaching him piano performance and music theory when he was very young.
As for Sting's songs, the style is more complicated. Although the core is rock, when he was in the band before, it had a strong reggae flavor.
After his solo career, his style became richer, including reggae, classical, rock, and jazz, and he liked to blend various styles together and take a more avant-garde approach.
If you want to experiment and innovate, you will most likely lose some of your listenability. Therefore, Sting’s current fan base is not wide. In the past few years, his only song that has been out of the circle is "This Killer Is Not Too Cold." "Theme song "shape of my heart".
It is precisely because Sting is involved in many music styles that he can feel Zhou Yan's power even more. Every time the two of them talk about a music style, Zhou Yan can say some insightful words. One listen and you can tell he knows these genres very well.
This shows that Zhou Yan has a thorough understanding of the underlying logic of music.
Sting's wife is also a very sociable person. Although she rarely interrupts the conversation between Zhou Yan and Sting, she always maintains a decent smile and chimes in at the right time, making the entire conversation smoother.
A good communicator does not necessarily have to show his or her chatting skills on any occasion. Sometimes it is also a very good ability to play a supporting role well.
A few people kept chatting until the concert was about to start. Zhang Youan said, "You two, the concert is about to start. Let's go and sit down in front."
Sting Only then did he realize that he had taken up too much of Zhou Yan's time, and he quickly stood up and said, "I'm very sorry for wasting your time."
"You're welcome, you can go and take your seats first."
"Okay, then I'm looking forward to your wonderful performance."
After Zhang Youan took Sting and the others away, Zhou Yan was still a little curious as to why Zhang Youan brought these two people over. Just now, the Stings and his wife Now, Zhou Yan didn't have the chance to ask.
......
The Stings and Zhang Youan walked to the front. Styler looked at the front row and said to her husband, "I seem to have seen Emma Thompson."
"Really?" Sting also looked in the direction of Emma Thompson.
Zhang Youan explained from the side, "Zhou Yan collaborated with Emma Thompson on a movie, as well as directors An Li and Alan Rickman."
"Oh, An Li is also here." Styler said unexpectedly.
"Who is An Li?" Sting was more curious about who An Li was. He had never heard of this name before.
“A director who is quite famous recently.”
After all, Sting is in the music industry and doesn’t know much about interpersonal relationships in the film and television industry. But Styler is different. She is an actress. In the past two years, I have started working as a producer again, so I know a lot about the film industry.
"They should be filming Sense and Sensibility," Styler added.
"Sense and Sensibility" is a British literary classic. This book is going to be remade into a movie, and Styler has also heard about it.
“Yes, it’s this movie. Zhou Yan is the soundtrack director of the movie.” Zhang Youan said.
Style nodded, "How about we go say hello."
"Okay, I will take you there."
Zhang Youan took the Stings with him to greet An Li and the others, introduced each other, and after a brief chat, the Stings returned to their seats.
Here, An Li waited for Sting and the others to leave, and asked Emma Thompson, "Is Mr. Sting very famous in the British music scene?"
"Of course he is famous, before. The theme song of "The Killer Is Not So Cold" is his song," Winslet replied.
An Li doesn’t know much about these people in the music industry, but he became more familiar with them after hearing “This Killer Isn’t Too Cold”.
Emma Thompson looked at it in the first row, and then muttered, "It seems that apart from the Stings, Zhou Yan did not invite other celebrities."
An Li smiled and said, "The concert hall is so big. If too many people are invited, ordinary music fans will not be able to buy tickets."
A few people chatted for a while, and the lights in the concert hall suddenly dimmed. They didn't speak anymore, because they knew that the concert was about to start.
At half past seven, the lights on the stage came on, the orchestra and conductor were already in place, and the audience applauded the performers.
At this time, Zhou Yan slowly walked up from the stage holding a violin.
When he arrived on the stage, Zhou Yan bowed to the audience, and then walked to the violin and took his seat without saying anything.
After standing up, Zhou Yanchong directed Yue Lin to nod, and Yue Lin signaled, directly raising his hand to shoot.
Since the concert is named after The Sixth Sense, there will definitely be a lot of music from the "Sixth Sense" movie today, and the first song played today is when the male protagonist realizes that he is dead. Accompanied by "Phantom".
The song was originally not long, but Zhou Yan made some arrangements and the length became more than six minutes.
While listening to the performance on the stage, Emma Thompson had some surprises in her heart. She recognized it as the soundtrack from "The Sixth Sense", but she did not expect that this piece of music was played in the concert hall. The effect turned out to be so good.
No, it’s still different.
The live version is still much more complicated than the one in the movie, with greater emotional ups and downs and more momentum.
Although there is no movie scene to match the live performance, the immersive feeling and the more complex arrangement can quickly bring out the emotions.
Many details cannot be experienced when watching a movie, but at the scene, every note rushes into the listener's ears firmly, like a tide, making people immersed in it.
After "Phantom" ended, Zhou Yan played "Tears".
This piece of music was specially written by Zhou Yan for "The Flying Piano Boy". It is a piece of music that he played after the death of the young hero's grandfather.
This song is relatively soothing and does not have big mood swings. It is the opposite extreme of the previous song "Phantom", but this song is quite popular in the UK.
Many British music fans really like the tune of this song.
When An Li was discussing the soundtrack with Zhou Yan before, he even proposed whether "Tears" could be paired with strings and placed in "Sense and Emotion".
But this proposal was rejected by Zhou Yan.
When An Li listened to "Tears" being played on the stage, he felt that it would be pretty good if this song was included in the movie "Sense and Sensibility".
After "Tears", the orchestra played "Morning, First Snow, Red Sun", "Kite", "Forever Together", "Reunion" and other songs.
When these pieces were played, less than half of the concert had passed, and the orchestra's position had been slightly adjusted.
During the performance of the first two songs, "Reunion" and "Forever Together", Zhou Yan was in charge of playing the piano, but this time he stood up, took a triangle and walked to the middle of the orchestra. Principal pianist Zhang Zuoquan, who was playing the piano, came over to change his shift.
The audience in the front row saw Zhou Yan holding a triangle and were a little confused. What song was the next song? Zhou Yan could play the violin even if he didn't play the piano. As for holding a triangle?
As a long-time fan of Zhou Yan, Hiramatsu Kazuhiro guessed it right away. He whispered, "Are we going to play "Eternal Night"?"
The companion next to him heard his voice and couldn't help but ask, "What?"
Hirasatsu and Hiro shook their heads and said nothing. It was not suitable to talk at the concert.
The reason why he guessed like this was because he knew that the piece "Eternal Night" was very difficult, and it would be very difficult for people with insufficient skills to play it.
This piece of music was written by Zhou Yan, but Zhou Yan himself could not perform it well.
Hiramatsu and Hiro guessed it right, the song they played next was "Eternal Night".
When the stormy piano sound poured out, many audience members were shocked. What the hell is this music? Why do I feel a little short of breath?
This rapid piano sound lasted for about twenty seconds, and the rhythm began to slow down. Just when the audience thought the music was going to slow down, the rhythm stopped at a certain point and did not drop any further.
Although it is no longer as urgent as it was at the beginning, it is still very fast.
This song "Eternal Night" is very different from the first version written by Zhou Yangang. In recent years, Zhou Yan has made many modifications to "Eternal Night". While it is technically more mature, it is also more Return to nature. "Eternal Night" is a very crazy piece of music. When Zhou Yan first wrote it, the teachers in the department said that although Zhou Yan looked gentle and elegant, he was quite thin, but he was wild and uninhibited at heart.
This piece of music is full of questions about the heaven and earth, and it has a sense of wanting to compete with God.
When Sting heard the song "Eternal Night", he was shocked. This song has such a strong personality and is also very technical.
Gorgeous, majestic, and full of incomparable arrogance, this is Sting's impression of this song.
This is completely unlike the music composed by the introverted Zhou Yan. In Sting's impression, people who can write this kind of music should be the kind of lonely artists.
Also shocked was Emma Thompson. Although her view of Zhou Yan had changed a lot, she still didn't expect that Zhou Yan's talent could reach such an extent.
There is one thing about the song "Eternal Night" that is better. Even listeners who don't understand classical music may find it enjoyable and the listenability is pretty good.
Some of these passages can even become popular sketches if taken out alone.
At the end of the performance of the song "Eternal Night", Zhang Zuoquan, the lead piano player, also breathed a long sigh of relief. This piece of music consumes a lot of physical energy.
But he was in good shape tonight, and his temporary performance in some places was also very good.
The audience in the audience also began to breathe heavily. When "Eternal Night" was played on the stage just now, they became very careful when breathing.
Some viewers were almost starved of oxygen.
"Eternal Night" is like a turning point, bringing the tension of the concert to its highest point, and the following songs gradually become more relaxed.
Today's concert basically finished playing all the soundtracks from "The Flying Piano Boy" and "The Sixth Sense".
But not a single song in "Mysterious Kingdom" was played.
When the last song "Awakening" was played, Winslet in the audience muttered with some disappointment, "I thought there would be a bamboo flute playing."
After all, Alan Rickman had more experience. He smiled and said, "Don't worry."
At this time, Zhou Yan and conductor Yue Lin greeted the audience together, and then walked to the edge of the stage. .
After that, it was time to go through the process, and the audience began the first encore.
Zhou Yan stayed at the edge of the stage. He waited for the audience to encore before re-entering the stage.
This time on stage, someone handed the bamboo flute to his hand, and at the same time, Ma Dongfang also walked up holding the erhu.
Seeing the bamboo flute in Zhou Yan's hand, Winslet looked at Rickman and smiled, "You're right, Colonel Brand."
Rickman also smiled, "Let Let's look forward to Zhou Yan's bamboo flute together."
Zhou Yan was not in a hurry to play on stage. He held the microphone and smiled, "Thank you all for coming to watch the Piano Youth Orchestra's performance tonight. The Piano Youth Orchestra came to Europe, the UK, and London for the first time. In the past two hours, I fully felt your enthusiasm.”
In fact, more than half of the people who came to the scene today. All are Asians with dark hair.
However, this does not mean that European locals don’t like Zhou Yan’s music. It’s just that many locals bought tickets late and did not buy them.
Most Asians are very active in buying tickets, and many of them know that it is difficult to buy tickets for Zhou Yan.
"Friends who have watched my concerts before should know that my concerts usually have several pieces of oriental-style music, but I did not present them to you today. Now since you still want to listen, then we I will use the bamboo flute and erhu to show you the Eastern music style. This song is called "Drinking the Water of the Yangtze River Together". I hope you will like it."
After that, Zhou Yan nodded to Ma Dongfang, and then the two of them. People started to sing.
After listening to piano, violin and other musical instruments all night, I suddenly heard the sound of bamboo flute and erhu. Not to mention whether it sounded good or not, at least it was fresh enough.
The bamboo flute has a melodious tone, while the erhu has a slightly sad tone. The two play together, like weeping, complaining, resenting and admiring, and the sense of the picture comes out at once.
The sounds of the two musical instruments chase each other and never meet, making people feel full of disappointment when listening to it.
The emotions given by music are very direct. Although everyone thinks of different things in their minds, the emotions conveyed are very similar.
Hearing this piece of music, An Li thought of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, while Alan Rickman thought of Romeo and Juliet.
Beautiful love ends in tragedy.
Of course, not everyone will think of love, some people will think of family ties and friendship, but no matter what kind of emotion they think of, it is definitely sad, because the theme revealed in the song is separation.
Everyone has similar feelings about separation and separation.
Although the music is simple, Zhou Yan’s bamboo flute is of a very high standard and his performance in details is very good. Ma Dongfang’s erhu is naturally no problem, and he has a big heart and has no stage fright at all on stage. Zhou Yan cooperated very well.
At this time, the advantages of the small concert hall are also highlighted.
The volume of the duet will certainly not be too loud, but because the concert hall is relatively small, the listening experience of the audience is still guaranteed.
The only flaw is that there are two men playing on the stage. After all, it is not interesting to play a love song with a same-sex ensemble. If there are two performers, one man and one woman, the effect will definitely be better. .
Of course, this is Britain after all, so a same-sex ensemble might be a good choice.
Many people in the audience don’t even know what the erhu is or the bamboo flute, but that doesn’t stop them from falling in love with this piece because the melody is really catchy.
There are also some people who became interested in the bamboo flute because of Zhou Yan’s playing.
Although there are two musical instruments and two musicians on the stage, from a visual point of view, Zhou Yan is obviously more handsome playing the flute, and they came to see Zhou Yan in the first place, so they must have a filter for Zhou Yan .
When the performance of "Drinking the Yangtze River Water Together" ended, the audience applauded.
Next, it is the same old process, Zhou Yan goes down, then the audience encores, and then Zhou Yan comes up again.
I did this back and forth five times.
After stepping down for the sixth time, Zhou Yan went directly to the backstage without stopping.
After arriving backstage, Zhou Yan thought he could breathe a sigh of relief. He was still thinking about making some midnight snacks when the accompanying staff came running over.
"Teacher Zhou, do you want to take a few people outside for an encore performance later?"
Zhou Yan frowned and said, "Didn't I say before that there would be no encore?"
"But a lot of people gathered outside."
"Really?"
" Yes, I roughly counted, there must be four to five hundred people. Moreover, they heard the news from somewhere, saying that there will be an encore performance outside after the concert tonight, and they are not willing to leave. ”
Zhou Yan scratched his eyebrows, could it be news spread by the concert hall? The organizer should not spread such false news, it will not do any good for them to sell tickets.
It is possible that Zhang Youan did this, but if it was Zhang Youan, he would definitely inform them in advance and let them prepare in advance.
But now is not the time to dwell on this matter. Now that the matter has come to this, we can only take people out to perform a few shows.
Zhou Yan thought for a while and said, "Go and call Ma Dongfang, Fang Xiu, Li Biru... these people."
He named more than a dozen people at once. The staff didn't remember, "Teacher Zhou, why don't you write it down? I... can't remember."
Zhou Yan thought for a while, shook his head and said, "Forget it, call everyone in the orchestra, no matter what What kind of extra music will we perform? We need to have a big battle.”
The staff member smiled and said, "Teacher Zhou is right."
Not long after the staff left, Zhang Youan and the Steen couple came over again.
"Congratulations, tonight's concert was very successful. You and your orchestra brought everyone an unforgettable night." Sting said with a smile.
“Thank you for your compliment.” Zhou Yan smiled, “But I have to go out for an extra performance soon, so I’m afraid I won’t have time to accompany you.”
Sting shook his head, “It’s okay. You are busy with your business, don’t worry about us.”
His wife Styler said with a smile, "We just happened to have heard enough, so we can listen together."
...
When Zhou Yan took the orchestra members out, he found the concert hall There were far more than four or five hundred people outside, it must have looked like more than a thousand.
Of course, the concert is over now, and many of the audience are coming out of the concert hall.
Although they have listened to the concert for two or three hours inside, they don’t mind listening to free concerts outside.
Ma Dongfang followed Zhou Yan. When he saw so many people present, he couldn't help but muttered, "There are more spectators outside than inside. Many people have not received their ticket money."
Zhou Yan He joked: "Why don't you go find an iron basin and knock on it while asking the audience for money. There are thousands of people here. If everyone gives you one pound, that's thousands of pounds."
"Don't tell me, senior brother, I'm quite moved by the method you mentioned."
Zhou Yan sneered, "Go ahead!" (End of Chapter)