As the main round of the Chopin Competition approaches, after the ‘Chopin and His European Music Festival’ that just ended in August, the streets of Warsaw, which had been quiet for a short time, became lively again.
Because in a short while, the main draw of the 17th Chopin Competition will begin.
At 14:00 on the afternoon of September 12, the Chopin Institute held a press conference. The chairman of the conference was Rafat Branjano, the chairman of the current jury.
This is the first warm-up for the main game and also a pre-game tradition.
As usual, Branjano has to face interviews with reporters from various countries. Although they are all old-fashioned questions, but upholding the meticulous Chopin spirit, Branjano must lead the team to complete this press conference.
The layout of the press conference was very humane. There was a cartoon Chopin doll at the speaker's table, and Branjano was sitting in the center.
He was unsmiling when answering questions, but his behavior of picking up dolls and playing with them from time to time still made many reporters in the audience feel that this pianist who was rumored to be too serious also had a cute side.
American reporter: "Mr. Rafat, the Shaw Competition is now one of the most authoritative piano competitions in the world. What was the reason for holding the first one in 1927?"
Branjano: "In 1927, there were already many famous Chopin players in the world. They played Chopin's piano music in different ways, and these pianists hoped to have a better understanding of Polish culture.
In-depth understanding to help them better interpret Chopin’s music.”
"When this need was discovered by the Poles, the first Chopin Piano Competition appeared."
“We need to help everyone find the ‘original’ Chopin.”
Dutch reporter: "As for the original Chopin you mentioned, what is the standard? Does it mean the grasp of Chopin's free speed?"
Branjano: "There is no absolute standard for this issue. Each kind of music has its own characteristics. This is not something that can be explained clearly by any scientific analysis. It has something to do with the spiritual connotation of music."
"The biggest feature of Chopin's music is the progression of time in the music. There is a special spiritual interpretation in it. For the same waltz, two excellent Chopin performers will play it in different ways, but the musical effect presented to us is
It is absolutely impossible to be the same. Maybe one of them will do some extended processing on the timing of the music score, while the other will work on the overall rhythm. But no matter how they understand the interpretation, in the end they cannot escape the question of time in music.
progress."
"If you want to feel the speed of Chopin's music, you must grasp the spiritual connotation of Polish music. Chopin grew up under the influence of Polish national music, and his music has the Polish spirit passed down from generation to generation.
German reporter: "So can we say that there is actually a hard and fixed standard for 'judging the interpretation of Chopin's works'? It is the Polish spirit you just mentioned."
Branjano: "No, no, in fact, the so-called grasping the spiritual connotation of Polish music is to get close to Chopin. To get close to Chopin, you know that 'Chopin and His European Music Festival' should actually be renamed 'Chopin and His World Music'"
section,' because we are always looking for innovative interpretations of Chopin, and we want to see more 'possibilities' in addition to the already very interesting interpretations presented today."
"Today, many new discoveries about Chopin's music actually come from Chinese, Japanese and other Asian musicians far away from Poland."
"Their performances all have one thing in common, that is, the Chopin they perform often has the roots of their own culture. If an Asian pianist comes to Europe and plays Chopin's music, he is just trying to imitate a 'Polish taste'
',There really is nothing worse than this."
"Blind imitation is the killing of art."
German reporter: "Thank you for your answer, but speaking of this, it seems that a young pianist from Asia appeared in the preliminaries of this competition. He used a replica-like imitation to perform the piano masters of various eras.
Chopin, what do you think of this?"
The German reporter's words made many people present think of the young Chinese performer who stole the show at the Bergen Music Festival a while ago.
moment.
Branjano smiled: "That's an interesting young man. We have to accept that there will be some unique characters appearing in any competition, just like Andrei Tchaikovsky in the fifth and tenth competitions.
This year’s Angela Hewitt, their appearance may give the judges a headache, but it will also make the competition itself more enjoyable to watch.”
German reporter: "So you mean that his behavior meets the judging criteria of the jury?"
Branhano paused: "The situation in the preliminaries is like this.
"This link is not that complicated. We only need to select players with basic technical literacy."
"There are many places to qualify at this stage, and any performer who can meet the minimum requirements can advance to the main competition."
Japanese reporter: "Mr. Rafat, according to surveys and statistics, in the shortlist of open finalists of recent Chopin Competitions, contestants from Asia account for an increasing proportion. This time, 34 Asian contestants advanced.
, surpassing Europe in the promotion quota for the first time, does this trend mean that the overall piano development level in Asia has the momentum to surpass Europe?"
Branjano: "It's hard for me to answer this question, but I have to admit that more and more Asian pianists are showing their talents on stages around the world. This is a blessing for the entire industry."
As the reporters asked questions one by one, the forty-five-minute press conference passed quickly.
Finally, a reporter from France asked: "Nowadays, more and more concerts are beginning to be broadcast online. Will the Chopin Competition also change according to the Internet era?"
Branjano also expressed his views on this: "As mentioned just now, modern people's lifestyle has brought opportunities to the development of classical music. Although I am a relatively old-school person, when we really
When we need to make some changes, we will listen to the opinions and ideas of more young people."
Under noisy applause, the first warm-up of the 17th Chopin Competition ended.
That night, the press conference spread throughout the global classical music circle.
This is the final countdown to this five-year piano event.
On September 16th, there are 13 days left before the players' newspapers go to Warsaw to report.
Bergen.
small town.
After Qin Jian finished the second round of music practice in the morning, he left the second floor of the hut at 1:30 noon.
Before leaving, he took a shower, changed into clean clothes, and shaved.
Then we drove into the old bartender’s classic car and headed to Bergen Airport.