Warsaw Philharmonic Hall, the second day of the second round competition.
The concert hall was packed.
The host in charge of today's game has been replaced by a male host.
He came on stage and introduced the judges as usual, including Branjano, Andrzej, Argerich, Deng Taishan, Talibek, Khodreevsky...
When introduced, they all stood up and bowed around.
The configuration of the judges' seats is as always, and today there are also some very important figures hidden in the audience seats surrounding the judges' seats.
They are fully capable of replacing some of the people on the jury.
There are two such figures sitting on the left side of row 4 on the second floor of the auditorium.
If the time in the hall were turned back to 15 years ago, these two people might have to perform on stage soon.
"How do you feel?" Shen Qingci asked to the side.
"Not bad," laughed Iglaz next to him. The gentle middle-aged man has two elegant mustaches. His smile is like a villain in a movie, but he is very charming. "Even the host is still so verbose."
Shen Qingci laughed and said: "There is no way, you know."
Ygraz said scornfully: "That's why it's annoying."
While the two were talking, the male host introduced "Alto".
Shen Qingci: "Do you still have contact with him?"
"Both. In the summer, Rafat also invited me to attend a piano event in Krakow." Igraz said calmly.
Shen Qingci asked suspiciously: "Have you gone?"
"No," Iglaz shook his head. "I asked him who else was going, and he said there was Andrzej, and then I refused."
Shen Qingci said nothing after hearing this.
Ygratz added: "Of course, if you are on the list of that event, I will definitely go, and Anjie has nothing to do with me."
Shen Qingci smiled but still didn't say anything.
"The game is about to begin!"
Ygraz clapped his hands along with the surrounding audience.
All seventeen judges have been introduced. On the stage, the male host paused for a moment. After the audience was completely quiet, he announced the first contestant on stage.
"Contestant No. 40 Roman Martynov, from Macedonia."
Martynov's introduction was brief.
Following the host's small stage, Martinov in a black dress appeared on the stage.
He sat upright in front of the kawa piano, sitting like a soldier.
After a while, he raised his hand and started playing.
In thirty-four minutes, the Macedonian demonstrated his pedaling skills that he had not often used in the first round. In the performance of the waltz and scherzo, the music appeared a large number of pedal marks that had never appeared in the score.
In the treatment of the Polonaise, his chords are steady, his fingers emphasize the strength, and the music is as neat as an army's formation.
It highlights a different sense of perseverance, which is similar to the musical spirit that the Great Polonaise wants to express.
After the five works, Martinov bowed under applause.
The host takes the stage and announces the next contestant's information.
"The next player to appear is player No. 42 Ido Mufawak, from Syria."
"He was born on July 31, 1995. His teacher is Abdul Mesiha Assad. He is currently studying in the second year of Idlib University. He won the first place in the Damascus Youth Piano TV Competition.
Two names.”
"His repertoire this round includes Op.42 Waltz in A flat major, Op.52 Ballade No. 4 in F minor, Op.66 Impromptu in C sharp minor, Op.22 Smooth Andante in E flat major and Gorgeous Polonaise
.
After the host finished reading, the audience burst into warm applause.
Backstage, Qin Jian and Duan Ran were sitting not far away, waiting for the scene to begin.
At the entrance, old Assad adjusted Ido's red bow tie for the last time, "What are we going to do?"
"We want to win..." Ido murmured intermittently, "We...we want to win..."
"Good boy," Old Assad hugged Ido's forehead and kissed him, "Go ahead and remember to stare at the piano as soon as you get on stage and ignore other sounds."
Ido nodded numbly, and then he walked into the backstage door opened by the staff on crutches.
Ido's appearance made the audience applaud even louder. In the last row of the auditorium on the first floor, Liao Linjun, the old bartender, and the Harlin couple were also secretly cheering for Ido.
"What a poor kid, God bless him."
Mrs. Harling prayed fervently.
After taking the stage, Ido followed the teacher's instructions and moved towards the piano in the center of the stage little by little.
"Just look at the piano...look at the piano...look at the piano..."
He only had the piano in his eyes, as if everything under the stage had nothing to do with him.
Finally he sat down at the piano.
Put down the crutches? He raised his arms while thinking silently.
"Drip lin drip lin drip lin drip lin drip lin——"
A string of playful vibratos followed the close-up shot of two fingers flying on the keyboard, floating over the stage, breaking the quiet stage.
Ido started his performance.
Unlike normal people, because he lacks one leg to maintain the balance of the body, Ido will turn sideways when playing, but this does not affect his pedaling.
The flowing 3/4 time melody is clear and transparent? The first piece ended quickly with Ido's smooth playing.
About five seconds later, he started playing the second piece.
The Ballade in F minor and the Impromptu in C sharp minor completely represent Chopin's two completely different styles of works.
The narrative theme requires the performer to convey the connotation of the work, and the improvisation is just like the literal description, full of fantasy and randomness.
Playing two groups with completely opposite temperaments in tandem will test the player's control of the tone.
As a contestant of a non-Russian school or a genre, Ido's timbre has not changed much since the first round but has always maintained the advantage of being bright and sweet.
This timbre characteristic allowed him to not express too much emotional changes between the two works, but in terms of interpretation, he presented the scene of "everything is natural and intuitive".
It is not easy to perform a continuous piece of music naturally and intuitively without being affected by the work itself. The difficulty lies in how to make the listener not feel boring or the structure is too simple.
Ido is able to do this, and few people in the audience will think that he simplifies music.
Perhaps his somewhat delicate performance in the ballade would be considered superficial by the Polish and Russian judges, but it is undeniable that delicate embellishments do not necessarily convey the true meaning of the music.
After three consecutive songs, Ido took out a handkerchief from her wrinkled dress pocket.
He raised his hand and wiped the sweat from his face, then stuffed the handkerchief back haphazardly.
His whole set of actions was full of countryman vulgarity, which was in sharp contrast to the elegant piano sound on the stage a few seconds ago.
Ido will play the last piece of this round, the smooth Andante in E flat major and the gorgeous Polonaise.
Muttering, under the attention of everyone, he raised his hand again.
...
Ygraz: "This piece was simply tailor-made for him by Chopin."
Shen Qingci: "You also said this to yourself."
Yglaz: "And sighs."
Shen Qingci: "That's not necessarily the case."
Shen Qingci immediately whetted Yiglaz's appetite, but the piano sound on the stage had already sounded——
A string of bright broken chords in G major slowly came out from the piano like a melancholy tone, as if it was prefacing an ancient story or the introduction to a long love ballad.
The silvery and sweet sound is missing.
Instead it was bright and brilliant.
Ygraz's eyes widened, as if he was afraid of missing every note in front of him.