The next day, when Zhou Yan and the others set out for the concert hall, the girls in the orchestra circled around Wei Yuru.
Zhou Yan walked over and took a look. It turned out that it was for tonight's performance. Wei Yuru specially wore a Chinese dress. The white satin skirt was embroidered with many peonies, and the skirt had wide sleeves, making it look like a ruffled dress. Fluttering, very touching.
“This is so beautiful.”
“Like a fairy.”
“The peony embroidery on it is so exquisite.”
All the girls expressed their envy.
Wei Yuru was embarrassed by their praise, "This was prepared for me by the group."
"Wow, your group is really good."
"It's not us. It’s a folk orchestra, but our piano youth orchestra,” Wei Yuru explained.
“Ah, it was prepared by our group.” The girls exclaimed.
Wei Yuru originally had a performance costume, which was also a Chinese dress, but it was not as exquisite as this dress.
At the end of October, Zhou Yan specifically asked Wei Yuru if they had performance costumes. Wei Yuru replied that they did, but Zhou Yan felt that their previous costumes were not eye-catching enough, so he asked Dong Wenmiao to help make one. clothing.
Not only Wei Yuru, but also the Chinese tunic suit Wang Ciheng wore was designed by Dong Wenmiao. The Chinese tunic suit was slimmer and more simple than what Wang Ciheng had worn before.
People rely on clothes and horses rely on saddles. The effect of a concert performance does not only rely on music, but clothing is also a very important part. Since this concert will highlight the two of them, the costumes must not be a hindrance.
Zhou Yan smiled and said: "What are you envious of? Don't you also have performance costumes?"
The Piano Youth Orchestra has uniform performance uniforms. Boys all wear suits. Girls wear Western instruments or folk instruments. Players of Western instruments wear normal performance attire, while players of folk instruments wear Chinese-style attire.
However, the Chinese-style dresses worn by the girls in the folk band are a combination of tops and pants, and they are indeed not as good-looking as Wei Yuru's.
After all, every girl wears this kind of skirt with wide sleeves. If everyone sits together, it will be very obstructive and not conducive to the performance.
"Our clothes are not as good-looking as Teacher Wei's." A girl muttered.
Zhou Yan said with a smile, "If any of you have a solo or concert performance in the future, I will ask Qizhi to design a dress specially for you."
"Really?"
"Of course, it depends on whether you can live up to the expectations."
"Then we will have motivation."
Zhou Yan couldn't help but curl his lips, "As a performer, your motivation comes from your clothes, right?"
A few girls said confidently, "Of course!"
Zhou Yan rolled his eyes, "Let's go to the concert hall."
......
When Jessica and Hardison arrived outside the concert hall, it was already past six forty. .
“Fortunately, I caught up.” Hardison breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the ticket had not been checked yet.
Today is the middle of the week. They were supposed to come here directly after school, but on the way Hardison discovered that he got the wrong ticket. They had to go back to get the ticket, which wasted a lot of time. .
Because Jessica liked Zhou Yan very much, Hardison bought the tickets in the front row as soon as the tickets were released for the concert, and he bought them for three consecutive shows.
When he went to school this morning, he got the ticket for the 14th in a daze.
Because there was no ticket checking, there were many spectators waiting to check in at the door. Hardison looked around and said with a smile, "Y's market is quite good, not as bad as the news said. ”
Two days ago, they saw on the news that the tickets for Zhou Yan’s concert were not sold well, so they thought it would be bad. But after they came, they found out that it was not that bad. .
“It’s still not as good as the one in London. I’ve seen reports of the London show. There were more people gathered outside than today. You know, the concert hall in London is not big, and the seats are only one-third of the ones here. One less time.”
"It's understandable that Y still has relatively little publicity here, and Londoners probably like to attend concerts more than people in Los Angeles."
"Maybe."
The two were chatting. , a female reporter came over with a photographer, "Hello, I am Linda, a reporter from "Billboard", can I ask you a few questions?"
Hardison looked at the people next to him. Jessica waved her hand and said, "Sorry, it's not convenient."
He knew that Jessica didn't like to be disturbed.
But Jessica said, "It doesn't matter, just ask."
Seeing Jessica agree, Linda smiled. He just saw that the young couple looked good-looking, so he came here.
In interviews with passersby, the appearance of the interviewee is also very important.
“Are you two locals?”
Jessica nodded, “Well, we are both from Los Angeles.”
"Are you still in school?"
"We are classmates, now in high school."
"Can I ask why you came to this concert?"
This question actually sounded a bit confusing to Jessica, but she still answered, "Because I like Y's music very much."
"Can you tell me when did you start paying attention to Y-chou? Music? ”
"After the movie "The Flying Piano Boy" was released, I was deeply impressed by the soundtrack of that movie. Later, I listened to Y's other music and found that he is a very powerful musician. In addition to music, I also pay attention to his movies. When "The Sixth Sense" was released, I also went to the cinema to watch it."
"We watched it together," Hardison quickly added.
Linda smiled and said, "It seems that you are loyal fans of Y. "Sense and Sensibility" will be released in the United States in a few days. This movie is also scored by him. You will go and watch it. "
"Of course, we have already bought the tickets."
Linda gave a thumbs up: "It seems that you really like Y-chou, I believe you will like it very much. This movie, especially the soundtrack, is wonderful.”
Hardison said in surprise, "Have you seen it?"
This movie has not been officially released in the United States, so Hardison was very surprised how this reporter knew about it.
“Because I was also present at the premiere in Toronto yesterday, Y also went there yesterday, and I also interviewed him.” Linda explained.
"Really? How is he?" Hardison asked curiously.
“He is a very gentleman, and he looks better than in the video.”
Hardison smiled and said, "We bought tickets for the front row, so we can see him up close today."
Linda raised her eyebrows and couldn't help but sigh, this young couple really likes each other. Y, he even bought front-row tickets. As far as Linda knew, front-row tickets for this concert were not cheap. The price seemed to be over two hundred dollars.
If Linda knew that Hardison bought six tickets for more than two hundred dollars, she would definitely be even more surprised.
Linda wanted to ask a few more questions, but she heard a commotion not far away. She turned her head and looked, and then her eyes lit up.
"Backstreet Boys!"
After that, she didn't care about Jessica and Hardison, and ran directly to the Backstreet Boys with the photographer.
By the time they arrived in front of the Backstreet Boys, several reporters were already surrounding them.
After all, they are a new group, so several members of the Backstreet Boys were very low-key and humble when facing reporters. Captain Kevin led the members to smile at the reporters, answering questions while walking towards the concert hall. .
Seeing the Backstreet Boys appear at the concert, Hardison and the others were not very surprised. After all, the Backstreet Boys' hit "yellow" was written by Zhou Yan.
The celebrity appeared, and many spectators gathered around, wanting to join in the fun.
Although Jessica liked the song "yellow" very much, she did not join in the fun and just watched from a short distance away.
When the members of the Backstreet Boys entered the concert hall, the scene had just calmed down and became lively again.
“Mariah Carey!”
This time, people’s response was even more enthusiastic. After all, compared to the Backstreet Boys, Mariah Carey has a lot more fans. And recently Mariah Carey's new album is so domineering, "Young and Beautiful" has topped the singles chart for ten consecutive weeks.
Mariah Carey was much more comfortable facing reporters. She did not waste time answering reporters' questions. Instead, she smiled and waved while walking towards the concert hall. After a while, Went in.
After Mariah Carey entered, the formal ticket checking for the concert began, and Jessica and Hardison took their tickets and lined up.
After entering the concert hall and finding his seat, Hardison was quite excited, because several members of the Backstreet Boys and Mariah Carey were sitting in their row, not too far away.
Some viewers could no longer control themselves and started chatting with them.
Mariah Carey didn't pay much attention to the chatter from the audience, but several members of the Backstreet Boys went to chat with the surrounding audience very enthusiastically.
For a new group like the Backstreet Boys, audience connection is really important, and those who can sit in the front row are relatively high-quality audiences.
However, the audience was relatively restrained. When the ticket check was almost over, they stopped talking because the performance was about to begin.
......
When the concert was about to start, Wang Ciheng went to the front to take a look. After returning, he was very emotional, "The concert hall is almost full."
Ma Dongfang bared his teeth and said with a smile, "I heard that today's concert was the worst ticket sales ever."
"The worst?" "At this point before, everyone must have been full. I heard that only more than 2,600 tickets were sold this time, and 600 tickets were not sold.”
Wang Ciheng couldn't help but be stunned. This is Los Angeles, and the tickets for this concert are not cheap. More than 2,600 tickets have been sold. Are you still not satisfied?
Before, I only heard that Zhou Yan’s concerts were very popular abroad, but Wang Ciheng had no intuitive understanding, but now he can actually feel it.
"I heard that less than 2,000 tickets have been sold for tomorrow's show so far." Li Biru said on the side.
“There’s no way, if we turn it on continuously, it will definitely be affected.”
"Brother, you won't lose money this time."
"Definitely not. Brothers in foreign concerts all get guaranteed bonuses. Even if a single ticket cannot be sold, I can only say no. Making money, but definitely not losing money.”
“Oh, I’ll be relieved then.”
Actually, what Ma Dongfang said is not entirely right, if the box office of these three concerts is not good. Ideally, Zhou Yan will lose money. To be precise, Tomson Company will lose money, because the guarantee they signed cannot cover all expenses.
The main reason is that there are too many people coming, and the travel expenses, accommodation, etc. together cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
But in the current situation, losing money should not be possible.
For Tomson and Zhou Yan, the income from the concert is divided into two parts. One part is the guaranteed bonus signed with the organizer, and the other part is the subsequent copyright income.
……
After a while, the musicians came on stage and took their seats.
At half past seven, the stage lights came on, Zhou Yan walked up from the stage holding a violin, and the applause from the concert hall started.
Zhou Yan stood in front of the stage and bent down slightly. He was also sighing that the atmosphere in the grand concert hall was indeed better. Although the tickets for today's concert were not sold out, the applause from the two thousand and several hundred spectators was still better than The applause from hundreds of people was even louder.
Hardison was particularly excited. Their position was less than ten meters away from Zhou Yan and they could see Zhou Yan very clearly.
“It’s really beautiful.” Hardison whispered while applauding.
Jessica curled her lips and smiled. There were many good-looking men, but appearance was Y’s least advantage.
Even if Zhou Yan is a slovenly old man, Jessica will still like him because his musical talent gives him incomparable charm.
After greeting the audience, Zhou Yan took his seat directly without any preface and the performance began.
Today’s first song is "Early Morning, First Snow, Red Sun". This song has a strong narrative and gradual emotional sequence. It is very suitable as an opening song to arouse the audience's emotions first.
Most people at the scene had never heard of this piece, because only part of the concert video included it.
Most of the audience who came to the scene today are only familiar with the songs in the soundtrack of "The Flying Piano Boy" because this album is the best-selling album in the United States.
And many people didn’t buy this album, they just watched it in movies or some TV shows.
Jessica was one of the few people at the scene who heard the song "Early Morning, First Snow, Red Sun". As someone who has studied piano for many years, she liked this piece of music very much, and she often played it. .
When she was looking at the program list just now, she was very happy when she saw this piece and "Eternal Night" because she liked both pieces very much.
Especially "Eternal Night", the level is very high. The song she is most looking forward to now is also "Eternal Night", which is different from other audiences.
Jessica didn't wait too long. "Eternal Night" was played on the stage half an hour later.
But what Jessica didn't expect was that compared to the version she had heard before, this version of "Eternal Night" was actually more advanced.
Compared with the previous version, this version is grander, more gorgeous, and smoother. It seems that scoring movies and writing songs for singers have not affected Zhou Yan's progress.
The level of "Eternal Night" is definitely master-level.
And for such a difficult piece of music, the performers on the stage did not hold back at all, especially the piano player, whose level was too high.
The level of this piano player, not to mention world-class, is definitely quasi-first-class, the kind that can hold a solo concert.
Listening to the performance on stage, Jessica felt a little itchy and wanted to play this new version.
In fact, what Jessica didn't know was that among the musicians on stage, Zhou Yan himself was the one with the biggest crotch, but he was blended in the crowd, and most people couldn't tell that he was holding back.
After "Eternal Night", there are no difficult songs. Basically, they are more popular and new century style songs such as "Tears", "Kite" and "Reunion".
Zhou Yan also has some difficult songs, such as "Flow·Wind", but the audience doesn't like this kind of music when he plays it too often.
Many of the audience who came to the scene today did not come for the classical music. The threshold for "Eternal Night" is relatively high. Just listen to one song. If there are too many, the audience will be bored.
After the regular repertoire of the concert ended, Zhou Yan walked to the stage again and took his leave with conductor Yue Lin.
Immediately after the audience performed an encore for more than a minute, Zhou Yan and Yue Lin returned to the stage.
After taking the stage this time, Zhou Yan held a microphone in his hand, and at the same time, Wang Ciheng was followed by him.
Zhou Yan held the microphone and said with a smile, "Thank you very much for listening. I have felt your enthusiasm. Next, I would like to introduce the first song of today's return, "The Fragrance Floating", Many people may have never heard of it. This was my semester homework when I was in school. Of course, the version you hear next is very different from the original version. ”
Originally written by Zhou Yan. In the version of the song, the orchestration was relatively monotonous, with only a few instruments playing in concert. However, this time, Zhou Yan added a lot of instruments, and more than 40 musicians participated in the scene.
This concert hall is relatively large. If there are fewer instruments, the effect will not be very good.
After introducing the music, Zhou Yan began to introduce Wang Ciheng, "Today's bamboo flute concerto will be performed by Mr. Wang next to me. I can say without exaggeration that he is definitely the top bamboo flute player in the world today. Flute player.”
Wang Ciheng almost blushed when he heard Zhou Yan praise him so much.
But Zhou Yan is indeed not exaggerating. After all, Wang Ciheng's level is not many people can surpass him.
The audience at the scene was also very generous and gave warm applause to the world's top bamboo flute player.
Jessica believed Zhou Yan’s statement because she knew that Zhou Yan’s own bamboo flute level was very high. Since Zhou Yan did not choose to play it himself, but handed it over to this person, it means that this person’s bamboo flute skills The level of flute playing is much higher than that of Zhou Yan.
After bragging to Wang Ciheng, Zhou Yan didn't say anything more, but took a flute and blended into the crowd again.
When the music starts, the audience can feel that the music is very soft and soothing, but it soon starts to speed up.
The structure of the work "Secret Fragrance Floating" combines the principles of variation and tripartiteness in the overall arrangement with the method of structuring music using speed and staggered layout in traditional Chinese music, embodying a variety of principles. Fusion features.
Although the name of this piece is "Dark Fragrance Floating", the imagery shown has nothing to do with the fragrance of flowers. Instead, it highlights the yearning and awe of the mountains and forests.
After the reform, more and more composers broke through the inherent model and conducted more in-depth research on the traditional styles and related forms of Chinese music, striving to integrate Chinese traditional national culture and aesthetic taste into Integrate into music creation.
Zhou Yan's "Secret Fragrance Floating" was created under this background. This piece absorbs the techniques and forms of modern Western music in the 20th century, and at the same time reflects the aesthetic value orientation of traditional Chinese music. It mainly writes "virtual music". ” and write “meaning”.
Like a painting, "Dark Fragrance Floating" is more like a landscape painting, mainly freehand.
In fact, few of the audience could understand the composition and performance techniques of this piece, but it did not prevent them from feeling the emotion revealed in the piece, and the thickness and breadth expressed in the tune. , which goes straight into the hearts of the listeners.
Furthermore, even if you don’t understand the techniques Wang Ciheng showed, you will feel they are very powerful.
"Secret Fragrance Floating" has very high requirements for bamboo flute playing techniques. The traditional Chinese bamboo flute is a six-hole flute. There are generally only eight commonly used playing notes. If you want to play some notes, you must use half holes. Technical completion.
Because half-hole playing is difficult and difficult to control in pitch and flexibility, general bamboo flute music is more cautious in the use of pitch changes. However, Zhou Yan had no scruples when writing "Secret Fragrance Floating" and used a lot of pitch changes. This is a very big test for the player.
In fact, the number of voice changes in the original "Secret Fragrance Floating" was not so many, but in order to better demonstrate Wang Ciheng's ability, Zhou Yan specially added some for him, in the three movements of this piece Inside, there is almost no difference in the number of pitch changes and the easy-to-play level.
In other words, if you look at the score, you will find that the diaphragm cannot be said to be a niche at all.
But even so, Wang Ciheng still performed very well.
A piece of music with such dazzling skills is very shocking even to the audience who don’t know much about bamboo flute.
Jessica didn't understand the bamboo flute either, but she could tell that this bamboo flute player was indeed better than Zhou Yan, and it also made her re-recognize the bamboo flute as an instrument.
She had never thought that the bamboo flute could be so expressive.
Perhaps Zhou Yan’s orchestration did a good job in blending the timbres, making the bamboo flute neither appear obtrusive nor obscure the crowd in front of the orchestra.
Especially the second movement, although it is very short, the movement is very fast and it is the most dazzling part of the whole piece. When hearing this section, Jessica almost forgot that she could still breathe.
When listening to this piece, Jessica felt like there were a group of birds hovering on the top of the mountain. Part of the birdsong echoed in the valley, and the other part penetrated into the sky. The whole piece had a sense of space. Very strong.
Many audience members felt similar to Jessica's. The timbre of the bamboo flute can easily make people hear the feeling of echoing in the valley, and this piece is written about mountains and forests, so this feeling is even more obvious.
Zhou Yan was on the stage, listening to Wang Ciheng's performance, and felt physically and mentally comfortable. This piece of music was performed very well by Wang Ciheng.
Zhou Yan himself cannot play the current version of "The Fragrance Floating". If he wants to complete it himself, he may need to use an eight-hole flute to play it.
However, the eight-hole flute had flaws in terms of tone, decorative sounds, etc., and it had two extra holes. Zhou Yan always felt it was awkward, and it didn't feel like a bamboo flute.
When a person has played a six-hole bamboo flute for more than ten years and suddenly gets an eight-hole or even ten-hole bamboo flute, it is easy to feel a sense of resistance.
There may even be a doubt in my heart, can this still be considered a bamboo flute?
After the performance of "Dark Fragrance Floating" ended, the audience burst into applause. This time the applause was much louder than the applause given to Wang Ciheng by the audience just now.
It can be seen that Wang Ciheng's performance has conquered the audience.
In fact, for foreign audiences, Wang Ciheng's performance is not only pleasant to listen to, but also has a sense of curiosity. After all, they rarely hear this type of music.
Wang Ciheng was also very happy. This was his first time performing in the United States, facing more than 2,000 spectators. He was a little nervous before, but when the performance started, all the nervousness was thrown away by him. To the back of the head.
Hearing the warm applause from the audience, Wang Ciheng felt great satisfaction. It turned out that his bamboo flute playing could also gain such recognition abroad.
Of course, he wants to thank Zhou Yan, not only for Zhou Yan bringing him to the United States, but also for Zhou Yan's writing of this song so well.
"Secret Fragrance Floating" is not only highly listenable, but also particularly dazzling, which can directly demonstrate his playing level. (End of this chapter)