The Healing Life of a Music Genius - Chapter 189

189 Even amidst this tension,

* * *

The sunset falls on the piano.

In the gently blowing wind, the grass and trees sway and make small sounds.

The slight breathing sound of Suyeon, who was sitting next to me, seemed to tell me how much my younger brother was concentrating.

I continued playing ⌜La Campanella⌟ using all these sounds as accompaniment.

⌜La Campanella⌟ is not a very long song.

This song is usually finished in about 5 minutes.

So the whole performance ended at a somewhat disappointing timing.

Suyeon is the first to applaud me.

I joked very quietly.

“What did pianist Han Su-yeon think of it? “Was that a sufficient answer?”

Suyeon held back her laughter and answered as if it was something new for her.

“Hmm! It was enough. “I think I received the best response in my performance life.”

“Then I’m glad.”

“Hi-Hi. “Oppa, you were really cool!”

The people gathered around also cheered me.

“and!!! oh my god!!!”

“bravo!!!”

“Are you a professional performer?”

“I think I’ve seen that kid somewhere before?”

“You think it’s that kid? why. “This time in Queen Elizabeth…”

“ah! That Chopin!”

“That’s right!”

A girl who had played this piano before Suyeon and I approached us cautiously.

Then he placed a few coins on the upright piano and said, “Really… “It was a great performance…” he said and quickly left.

Soon, several more people placed coins on the upright piano.

Sooyeon and I met our eyes in the air.

It was Sooyeon who spoke first.

“brother. “I think I need to take care of it first.”

“I think so too.”

“This should be enough to pay for the waffles. Umm. “My brother won’t starve even in Brussels.”

“Tsk tsk. “Isn’t that something your father often says?”

“huh! But I said it because it felt more real when I saw it with my own eyes. But how much is all this?”

“well. for now······.”

I instructed Suyeon to collect the coins, and she picked them up one by one with her fern-like hands.

And after reporting it to me, he puts it in his bear bag.

He told me to tell him whenever he needs to buy waffles next time.

He was a truly dependable manager.

After saying hello to the people around us, we returned to where my mother was.

My mother, who always praises me.

Su-yeon is hugged by her mother.

Sister Lucas, who was looking at us intently, said without thinking.

“It’s a very harmonious family…”

“yes?”

Sister Lucas immediately shook her head.

“Nothing. Yes, while listening to ⌜La Campanella⌟, I was reminded of old times. Seojin, you play songs with difficult technique very well, right?”

“Because it’s a song I’ve played before. It seemed like it would fit well with the current atmosphere, and it came to mind while I was thinking about the song for the second preliminary round.”

“however······. Before? Have you played ⌜La Campanella⌟ before?”

I nodded.

“Two years ago, I took a lesson on La Campanella from Professor Yuhan Kang. “I tried it for a moment back then.”

“If it was two years ago for you… “When you were 12, right?”

“that’s right. So I went through a lot of hardships. At that time, my professor gave me a lot of difficult songs, especially as assignment songs. “In fact, I’ve started playing easier songs recently.”

“······.”

I suddenly remembered the time when I had just started taking lessons with Professor Yuhan Kang at Korea University.

I had a hard time because they frequently assigned songs of ridiculous difficulty as homework.

Rather, these days, I have been focusing more on ‘song interpretation’ with Professor Yuhan Kang, and we have been talking a lot about various things.

The professor asks me a lot of questions, but doesn’t give me many answers.

As we talked like that, the direction for the song came to fruition.

Even about technique, that is, piano technique, the professor only gave me his opinion and did not give me a definite answer.

Thanks to this, I was able to spend a lot more time alone thinking, and I was becoming more and more accustomed to this teaching method.

Although there is no comparison, Uncle Miller and Professor Yuhan Kang both taught me about music in a similar way.

Sister Luca continued speaking with admiration.

“Hey… I can’t believe it… So she euphemized ⌜ La Campanella ⌟ at the age of 12?”

“At least in a clumsy way. “It hasn’t been that long since I was able to play at the same level.”

“Because of your hands?”

“Yes.”

“now?”

Instead of answering, I secretly showed my hand, and Lucas took her hand.

“Somehow he played ⌜La Campanella⌟ perfectly. “Even though he’s only 14, his hands are already the same size as mine.”

Sister Luca’s long fingers.

I felt like I was about half a word short.

“Actually, I think I was lucky that my fingers grew like this.”

“luck? There is nothing like it in the world. The more you practice, the longer your fingers become. There’s a reason why pianists usually have long hands. “You must have practiced a lot.”

“I just did it consistently.”

“That’s the great thing. okay······. Among those who come to Queen Elizabeth, there is no one without a reason. Pina must have her own reasons for practicing. you also. me too. “Other people too.”

“······.”

After thinking about what Sister Lucas meant for a moment, I nodded slightly.

Sister Lucas smiled softly.

“You understand me too.”

“Because I’m also a performer.”

“okay. He’s also a great pianist. “He is also a surprisingly serious performer.”

While my sister and I were talking, the sun was about to disappear beyond the horizon.

We decided to go to dinner together.

I asked my sister Lucas if she wanted to invite her family too, but she shook her head and said she came to Brussels alone.

My sister Luca introduced the restaurant to me.

A small store that people often stop by while performing in Europe.

It was a place that specialized in seafood dishes, and judging from the friendly conversation with the waiter, it seemed like it was Lucas’s sister’s favorite restaurant.

We ordered mussel soup, shrimp croquettes, grilled sardines, and Belgian fries (they say you shouldn’t call them French fries here).

These were traditional seafood dishes from Belgium, which borders the North Sea, and they were all delicious.

I sliced ​​some mussels to make them easier to eat and gave them to Suyeon, and she ate them quite well.

“delicious?”

“huh! It’s so delicious! So, you eat a lot too! no. I’ll take one too and give it to you! Now, just wait.”

A restaurant that serves food suited to the tastes of 7-year-olds from Korea.

It was not enough to give this restaurant five stars.

Sister Luca looked at me and Suyeon and said.

“You two get along very well.”

“I guess it’s like that.”

“Do you always go to competitions with your family?”

“I’m trying to do that as much as possible. “I think it will be difficult to go with Suyeon when she starts school next year.”

“I see. It looks really nice. really······. “I think it makes me happy too.”

“I hope so.”

“brother. Can I peel a mussel and give it to Luca? “It was fate that we met like this.”

“I guess that will work? “Let me ask you something.”

Sister Lucas smiled and readily gave permission.

We finished our meal by eating each mussel that Suyeon carefully peeled.

The evening in Brussels was quiet.

The liveliness of the day has disappeared, and only the silence of the night fills the streets.

The Airbnb house where my family was staying and the hotel where my sister Lucas was staying were not that far away.

So we decided to follow along until the middle.

Seeing Sooyeon walking hand in hand with her mother in front of her, older sister Lucas cautiously opened her mouth.

Actually, I heard there was someone who was looking for me for a long time.

I had a close friend when I was staying at an orphanage, but after we broke up around Suyeon’s age, she said there was no way to keep in touch with her.

“So, if possible, I want to make my name known to the world through Queen Elizabeth. If I do that, I might be able to contact my friend someday. Of course, she came here because she likes the piano… “I also have that goal.”

I listened to Luca’s words and sincerely told her that I hoped everything would go well.

“I hope things go well for you, Luca. “I’m serious.”

“And you? how is it? “Is there anything you hope to gain from this contest?”

I had to ask again.

“My goal?”

“huh. I wonder if you have a clear goal. If it’s difficult to answer, it’s okay to skip. Actually, I think I said this to you because I was intoxicated by the atmosphere in Brussels. “After seeing your family, I became more honest without realizing it.”

“······.”

I looked around the streets of Brussels.

The street lamps located here and there indirectly illuminate the old buildings.

Thanks to the spacing between streetlights, dark and bright paths alternate.

The sound of Luca’s older sister’s heels clicking echoes through the alley.

After thinking about it for a while, I tried to put my old thoughts into words, at least roughly.

A childhood dream.

The music I want to make.

For those who are supporting me.

and.

“For someone’s unfulfilled dream and a promise to that person. I have to win the competition. My goal is to win too.”

“I see. That’s cool. Seojin, I thought it was clear to you too. I could see that in your performance at the park. “Knowingly or unknowingly.”

“Did you feel that?”

“I’m a musician too.”

We each smiled.

It was dark so I couldn’t see it clearly, but I thought it must have been that way.

Sister Luca didn’t ask me for details.

We walked the streets of Brussels in silence for a while, and when we came to a fork in the road, we parted ways, cheering each other on.

In the end, let’s create a good stage in the second preliminary round…

We walked down the street without looking at each other.

* * *

After the first preliminary round was over, the interview took place.

Brief individual interviews to shed light on the 48 participants.

It wasn’t anything great.

Period of learning piano.

How to practice.

What were your thoughts when playing in the first round?

What is your mindset right now, ahead of the second qualifying round?

These were obvious questions you would ask a musician.

Thanks to being the youngest participant, the questions and answers took a little longer than others, but it didn’t take up a lot of time.

The lottery drawing was done again.

In the second preliminary round, the contest was scheduled to be held over three days with 16 people each, and I picked the first number on the second day.

Number 19.

I thought it was just the right number.

Time passed quickly.

Most of the time during the day was spent in the practice room provided by ⌜Schmid⌟.

Except for Professor Yuhan Kang, I did not meet with other masters and devoted all my time to practicing.

Today is the first day of the second qualifying round.

I was still spending time in the practice room.

The metronome moves quickly.

My hands moved quickly accordingly.

Before I knew it, beads of sweat had formed on my forehead, rolling down and running down my chin.

Complex rhythm.

Hectic tempo.

I stopped playing after the coda of the last 3 movements.

Inhalation and exhalation become a little faster.

A song that consumes a lot of stamina.

Professor Yuhan Kang, who was watching me, said something.

“Good job. It got better. But let’s stop here for today. It can’t affect tomorrow’s contest. “You worked hard today too.”

“Thank you, professor, for your hard work.”

I wiped my sweat with a handkerchief and drank some water.

Meanwhile, Professor Yuhan Kang opened the window wide.

The warm breeze that greeted us at the park last week comes into our practice room.

Through the window, I could see the cathedral of Brussels at a glance.

I looked at the clock.

“I guess the competition has already started on the first day.”

“okay. If it is now… “Participant number 2 must have just started playing.”

Sister Lucas drew number 3 in the second preliminary drawing.

If so, you would be listening to participant number 2’s performance in the waiting room by now.

The Palais des Beaux-Arts cannot be seen from the practice room here.

Still, I could roughly figure out the direction.

I got up from the piano bench and leaned against the window sill.

And I imagined sound coming from a concert hall far away.

While looking around the square in Brussels for a while…

I had a leisurely time.

* * *

Beaux-Arts Concert Hall.

A man came into the waiting room there.

“There are about 10 minutes left. Please get ready.”

Sylvie Luca, who was wearing a yellow dress, nodded.

In the second preliminary round, 48 musicians will perform the same song.

If you saw the basic skills of the performer in the first round.

In the second round, Brussels’ calculation was to judge only the performer’s ‘technique’ using the same song.

Lucas closed the sheet music he had been looking at for a while.

Packed notes.

A word with thorough annotations.

All of that content was already engraved in Lucas’ mind.

Applause was heard from the stage.

It looks like the performance has already ended.

Lucas stood up.

The song to be performed in the second round of the Queen Elisabeth Competition was ⌜Petrushka⌟.

A song that boasts notoriety among the four greatest piano compositions in the world.

Throughout the history of classical music, there are four piano pieces that pianists say are technically difficult.

Balakirev’s ⌜Islamay⌟.

Ravel’s ⌜Gaspard at Night⌟.

Prokofiev’s ⌜War Sonata⌟.

and.

Stravinsky’s ⌜Petrushka⌟.

In fact, it was said that there was no pianist in the world who could play all four pieces.

⌜Petrushka⌟, which consists of 3 movements, consists of a total of 35,000 notes, which seem virtually impossible to memorize or perform.

But there were people in the world who could do this.

These people came to Brussels despite all the competition in the world.

Those who proudly entered the second round of the Queen Elizabeth Competition.

It’s not about whether you can play this ⌜Petrushka⌟ or not…

The superiority or inferiority of the pianist will be determined by whether or not he or she can perform a ‘pianist’s unique’ performance of this song.

Performer number 2 enters the waiting room and passes by Luca.

Judging from his stern expression, it seemed like the performance was not going smoothly.

After thinking about the first movement of ⌜Petrushka⌟ again in his mind, Lucas went on stage.

I stand in the center of the stage, barely able to suppress my heart pounding.

Gorgeous lighting.

Cheers from the audience.

The 17 judges are staring at the stage from afar.

Lucas greeted them and took a seat in front of the piano.

The sound of the heartbeat reaches my ears.

The pounding seemed to have no intention of stopping.

My head stands on end and even my eyelids flutter.

‘you can do it.’

Lucas took a deep breath.

and.

To play nine notes simultaneously.

I threw my nine fingers on the keyboard.

Her hands move quickly.

Countless notes pass by in the blink of an eye.

The time spent on one word of the score was extremely short.

Allegro giusto (quickly and accurately).

To carry out Stravinsky’s outrageous instructions.

She suppressed her pounding heart with reason…

I went on to create the music of ⌜Petrushka⌟.

pianist.

Those who participated in Queen Elizabeth were all like that.