Reporter | Pan Wenjie
Edit | Yellow Moon
"Regardless of the type of music, aftertaste is key, which means that music can provoke thoughts." Pianist Chen Sa said at the launch of his new album Chopin's Complete Serenades. In October this year, she will be a judge in the final stage of the Chopin International Piano Competition.
The Complete Works of Chopin Nocturne is an album based on Chen Sa's 2019 piano solo concert of the complete collection of "Chopin Nocturnes". Zhang Siyao, head of the piano series project of the National Centre for the Performing Arts, said at the event site that as early as 2016, when everyone in the domestic music market was still liking lively and flattering repertoire, Chen Sa began to do the concert of Debussy's "Prelude" complete collection, and later did Chopin's "Mazurka Dance" complete collection and Chopin's "Nocturne" complete collection concert. "Artists are ahead of the market," Zhang Siyao said, adding that today's audience will not be surprised to watch the full-episode performance.
<h3>Talking about the album: 21 "Nocturnes" can be individualized and restructured and treated</h3>
In the popular perception, Chopin may have been labeled "melancholy". Chen Sa said that everyone may be able to use cool and warm colors to distinguish the different temperaments of Chopin and Liszt, in fact, Chopin is a rich composer, and his works have many layers.
"Nocturne 32 of 2" is chen sa's first work when she first entered this set of repertoire, she believes that this work has similarities with Chopin's late "Boat Song", full of swaying, with "unpredictable changes and colors", and even the middle of several "Nocturnes" has the temperament of a hymn, which is a spiritual or even pious sense that she did not expect at all.
In Chen Sa's eyes, these 21 "Nocturnes" are "all-encompassing" and have different temperaments, and if you want to say their commonality, it is more "personal". This means that Chopin did not write them all as salon music, and some music was not even written for others. She said that in the different "Nocturnes", the music is sometimes very dramatic, sometimes high-spirited, both panic, wandering music, and poetic parts, and some music is like a folk song from beginning to end.
In the process of understanding Chopin's "Nocturne", Chen Sa decided to record the album in personal order. She said that there are already many albums recorded in the order of publication. But her recording of 21 Nocturnes does not want to respect only the history of publication, but more importantly, it is essential to respect the score itself. After becoming familiar with the score, she believes that the respective states of existence of the 21 Nocturnes can be individually reorganized and treated. For example, the album features No. 20 in C minor as its first track because the work is Chopin's legacy, "with a sense of retrospection, like preparation before the story begins." She also looks for the same kind of musical motivation, "thinking they should be together, that's a very comfortable way to extend... Narrative, fantasy, polyphony, fluid and static, dignified and liberating..." Chen Sa wanted to convey the complex emotions of Chopin's work in his own way.
When working on the album, Chen Sa said that she had her own pursuit and wanted to do things, and also hoped to bring different things to the audience, but what would happen after that was unpredictable and could only "let it be" (let it be). Asked if he would worry about his music becoming bGM (background music) for entertainment, Chen Sa said that music is entertaining in every era, "I don't mind music becoming BGM, because music doesn't have to be a form, the way it affects people's connections is subtle." "And as long as there are always a small number of people who use music as food for faith and spirit, music will never die."
<h3>Tan Xiaosai: Some of the novelty play methods are clever and not sincere enough</h3>
Chen Sa's relationship with Chopin began very early, and she participated in the 14th Chopin International Piano Competition in 2000, when she won the 4th place. At the 2021 Chopin International Piano Competition, Chansa will travel to Warsaw as a judge. At the event site, she also talked about her understanding of the competition: now there are more and more music competitions, which can also bring opportunities to the contestants; participating in the competition will help the contestants to accumulate the repertoire and accumulate stage experience under high pressure, and will also bring more stages and windows to show themselves to the contestants, and help the young musicians in their careers.
Chen Sa said that as a judge, he will listen with the expectation of music, and he will feel nervous in his mentality. And because of the number of contestants and the repertoire, the judges may also have aesthetic fatigue, "but as long as they encounter music that really shines, they will be instantly lit up by the spirit of the music and will wake up." Her advice to the contestants is that although the mental pressure to participate in the competition will be very high, you should not play with the mentality of being judged, but should show your music.
As a judge, her expectation of the contestants is "a personal interpretation", which is also a matter of scale. Because the boundaries of interpretation are different for different composers, "some composers' lines can be adjusted downwards, even becoming dotted lines, and some cannot." Good performance is the best way to combine the understanding of the essence of the work with one's own personality. There are many musicians on the market who want to get attention, and sometimes they hear some practices of playing for the sake of flattery, Chen Sa said, "Some of the novelty, innovative playing methods for the sake of innovation are flattering." Some are designed for 'this better listening' and have deviated from sincerity. She said there's nothing wrong with musicians wanting to be noticed, but in what way it's important to consider and not to go against art.