The famous pianist Fu Cong died in the United Kingdom due to the new crown, and in early 2005, the Sunday Luminous Cup published a full-page cover story about a close and in-depth conversation between the author and Mr. Fu Cong at a party, which made Mr. Fu Cong's charm in music and personality jump on the paper.
It was evocative to meet with Mr. Fu Cong on such a night. In order to sit closer, the large round table when ordering food was temporarily replaced with a small table. The light is not very bright, but it is soft enough. Among them were Mr. and Mrs. Zhou Hao from the piano department of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Zhu Xianjie, Shen Sinong and a student from Yunnan. It was full of Christmas smells outside, as if it wasn't in Shanghai, but rather abroad.
Fu Cong came.
He wears a dark blue Tang costume on his upper body, with a strong classical taste and a silky texture, and this fabric has a faint glow under the light. His hair was as meticulously combed as in the pictures. The most prominent of the face are two long-lived eyebrows, black and white, hanging in the air, quite charming. When he sat down, there was no extra socializing words, and there was no smile. This makes his facial skin appear dry and sagging in the elderly. Oh, Fu Cong is really old.
Totally two people
The first time I saw Fu Cong was in the small concert hall of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music two days ago. He lectured on stage. Side by side on the stage were two Steinways, who sat in front of their respective pianos with a bespectacled student. Students play Chopin's Narrative No. 4 intermittently at his request. Under the lights, I saw that he was unusually active, not only did his arms swing vividly, but he also commanded than the conductor, and his feet stomped on the table from time to time, which made the atmosphere quite active. Such a lecture must have been very enjoyable for Fu Cong. That ease, that ease, that commitment, completely reached the state of self-forgetfulness.
I didn't believe that such a bouncy and energetic body was a 70-year-old man! Just like now, I was equally amazed at how his face could be so vicissitudes and gloomy when he left the stage and sat at the dinner table, and even a little cold.
Totally two people. Fu Cong of music and Fu Cong of life. Without the music, could he be like a fish leaving the water and jumping to the shore losing vividness and freshness? Zhu Xianjie had reminded me in advance: Fu Cong's temper was quite big, and he asked me to be cautious when asking questions.
"Teacher Fu, when you were in the master class, I looked at you like you were 30 years old at best." I plucked up the courage to say this, not wanting him to look me up and say, "30 years old? I'm like 17 years old! I've told a lot of people that. ”
In a word, another vivid musical Fu Cong is back.
Once, after a party, he said to a friend with emotion: "I don't know why the people present are younger than me, but I think they are all older than me, and I always feel like this, I don't know why." As he spoke, he smiled purely, sweeping away the vicissitudes and coldness of his face.
Don't dare to read "family letters"
For Chinese readers, the significance of "Fu Lei's Family Letter" is far from "family letter" but "national book", after all, it is a must-read book that has influenced generations of Chinese intellectuals. However, Fu Cong said, "family letters" I rarely read. I didn't dare to watch, every time I wanted to see it, I was too excited, I couldn't work all day, I was too emotional to look at it. I think the simplest meaning of "family letter" is that my father pursued a spiritual value, which is this thing, and people live for a spiritual thing. This spiritual value contains many things, the East and the West, is a very broad spiritual value, but it is definitely not a materialistic world. Sometimes I feel very pessimistic about the world, and my father is actually the same, and you can see this by reading the "family letter". However, as long as I live for one day, I know that I can't do it, or I will continue to do it, adhere to my ideals, adhere to my pursuits, and adhere to my spiritual values.
This "family letter" seems to be a key for us to enter Fu Cong's world. The "family letter" can read the cuckoo crying blood of a high-level father, and can also feel a clear lineage between father and son.
Fu Cong had two sons, and he said he was not at all like his father did to him. He said: I don't care about him, I don't care at all. Because I can't be busy myself, how can I afford to take care of them? Besides, I was in the same era as my father, and although we were two generations, we were all from the "May Fourth" generation. We are all people who pursue ideals, the same culture, the same education. But my son was born in England, and the world is completely different. He called me "Fenny fellow." Once I was playing the piano vigorously and stumbled upon him standing there snickering. He felt very strange. He didn't understand why I practiced so hard and why I still insisted on practicing every day.
He said that his father passed on his ideals to me, and that I had enough to come to Europe with a heavy burden, and wouldn't it be more difficult for my son to live if he carried it on his back? I wonder, do I have the right to impose the views of my ancestors on them?
Then he added: In fact, what is inherited is irresistible. This kind of thing can not be left without the son. He saw this kind of mission in his eldest son. Therefore, he believes that the eldest son's life is still not easy.
Music "Ascetic"
Fu Cong always wore a pair of black gloves, and only half of his fingers were exposed. This is because the practice handle is broken. When he returned home two years ago, he had bandages around his hands, and now he wears such gloves whenever he plays the piano or when he eats. The black gloves stand out.
Fu Cong often said that he was playing the piano after he was 17 years old, and tong zi gong was not good, he was very envious of the current children, and tong zi gong was too good. In order to make up for the day after tomorrow, even now, he has to practice the piano for almost eight hours a day. He's 70 years old! He believes that in this aspect of the purely mechanical nature of the pianist, to reach a certain level at my age, it takes doubling or even four or five times the energy to reach it. "My hand has been injured over the years, and it's an insoluble contradiction. In terms of the pure mechanical ability to play the piano, all the piano competition players, all the students in the conservatory, are better than me, really! However, when it comes to the pursuit of a spiritual realm, when it comes to the change of sound, when it comes to the "words and things" in music, then they still have a big gap! ”
When talking about the current state of his life, he said with emotion that they sometimes saw that I was living quite bitterly, and the so-called suffering also included pain, or hardship, both. An old friend named Ma Yudi said to him on a long-distance phone call: "Oops! Fu Cong! You can also live some normal life! But when he heard my concert, he said, "After listening to the concert, you can't, you have to continue, you can't live a normal life, you have the responsibility to continue!" ”
Fu Cong was very touched to hear the words of his old friend, and he said, "That is to say, I am destined to work hard in my life." Alas, but my hands are old and sick. I'm afraid I'll only stop when my hand is really bad enough to play, and I'll have time to look around, and at that time, I'm afraid I won't be able to walk! Oops, life is really too limited. ”
"I have no way to learn all the music, and so far I have studied the works of a few composers in a more concentrated way, basically all Chopin, all Debussy, most of Mozart, Schubert almost all of them, only the last of the six later grand sonatas, and I am still working hard to get them out as soon as possible. For me, there is always pressure, music is a very deep science, I am always there to pursue, not the stage or the audience to give me pressure. This is a high mountain, a university to ask, in fact, to give myself a problem, I have been learning new things all my life. ”
Undoubtedly, he was an ascetic of music. He couldn't live with himself, he tortured his hands, he tortured his soul. Seeing his black gloves dancing on the dinner table, like a stagnant and injured black butterfly, I can't help but think of Van Gogh's "ears" and burning sunflowers. The martyrdom of art, the martyrdom of the artist.
I heard Xianjie say that the Nobel prize winner for literature, Hermann Hesse, was so excited to hear Fu Cong play Chopin that he wrote a passionate article. He said he sent me this article when he got back to Canada. To my surprise, in Fu Cong's recently published "Fu Cong, Looking Forward to Seven!" This article is included in this book. I mentioned this to Fu Cong, and he was obviously very happy. He said that Hesse was not only a great writer but also a great musician, and he knew music very well. And Romain Rolland. Their musical sense of smell is extremely acute, and they can sense from a song how a leaf is fluttering and falling to the ground. His father's translation of John Christophe is also his favorite book. Fu Cong believes that a true writer has the same artistic realm of life as a musician, and in this realm, it is completely possible to communicate and perceive each other.
I said to him, I feel that you are a symbol, a very solid symbol that cannot be blown away by the wind. It is also an irreplaceable symbol. At least there is a sense of inheritance. He quipped, "When you say I'm a symbol, you mean I'm not human?!" ”
Then we all laughed.
In fact, the meaning of the symbolS I am talking about lies in the spiritual aspects that he emphasizes and persistently pursues. Isn't his father Fu Lei's meaning to today's world equivalent to a symbol? He said: "My father was a prophet in many places, and I said he was a Renaissance figure. "A Renaissance figure—a symbol."
The art is higher
Xianjie introduced Fu Cong to the book I had written about Lang Lang ("Daddy's Heart Is So High- Piano Genius Lang Lang and His Father"), and I also wrote about Fu Cong's interpretation of music in the book. Therefore, our topic naturally turned to Lang Lang. He said that the first time he heard Lang Lang play the piano, he was very excited. Lang Lang's father once told me that Fu Cong was moved to tears. I asked Fu Cong if he was in tears, and he said that there were no tears, but he was very moved. He believed that Lang Lang's genius was infinite. Fu Cong's evaluation is the same as that of Barenboim. However, Fu Cong then pointedly pointed out that Lang Lang was not very interesting, and even had a bit of a folk artist's feeling. He was worried that Lang Lang would affect the sublimation of the spiritual realm in the uninteresting country of the United States. He said Lang Lang should not cater to the low taste of the United States. He said that Lang Lang had everything, and he was so smart that he learned everything very quickly. And fun can be cultivated, so he is still full of hope for Lang Lang.
Then we asked him what so many children who play the piano in China would look like in five or ten years, and Fu Cong replied very wonderfully, he said: "A batch of glorious fingers." ”
Fu Cong has a lofty pursuit of playing the piano, and he is like a classical Chinese literati, with great emphasis on fun. In his book, there is such an explanation for fun: "We Chinese pay attention to fun, fun this thing, how to say it?" For example, Chinese talk about painting, talking about what can be, wonderful, divine, yi - Yi pin, flowing Yi; this kind of character I think is difficult to say specifically, but there is such a temperament, I think it may be a subtle natural outpouring. ”
Fu Cong also believes that Horowitz caters to the low-level tastes of the United States. Therefore, he did not appreciate Horowitz. When it comes to American and European taste, he certainly appreciates and adapts to the aristocratic atmosphere of Europe. At this time, I asked him: "If the noble taste of Europe is snubbed in the United States and the American market does not recognize it, then how much practical significance does this noble taste have?" ”
Fu Cong did not answer immediately, but smiled helplessly: I can't answer either.
I felt that Fu Cong had a lot of helplessness. Especially for kitsch helplessness. So I asked him if he felt more helpless as he got older. He replied, "I've always lived in helplessness. What to do? Leave him alone, play the piano. ”
I said, "You're so bad you can still play the piano and immerse yourself in the music." ”
He approves. Beethoven once famously said that music was his last refuge. The same was true for Fu Cong.
Fu Cong said that a 15-year-old junior high school student wrote an article about him entitled "The Pride of the Literati and the Sorrow of Life", and he said that he thought the child understood him very well, so he included this article in "Fu Cong, Looking Seven!" in the book.
Danner said, "There is only one thing in this world that is most valuable, and that is to reveal the true meaning of the unquestionable cause you have dedicated to it." "In fact, read "Fu Lei's Family Book" and read "Fu Cong, look at seven!" And listening to Fu Cong talk about artistic life in person, all the feelings converged on Danner's words.
Fu Lei existed for noble art, and so did Fu Cong. Both father and son belong to the last century. Will they be able to adapt to this century or will this century accommodate them?
Think of what Fu Cong said: "Now not only the performers lack the spiritual realm, the listeners also lack the spiritual realm, and the whole commercialization has reached this level - the record company wants to sell records, not based on the performance art itself, but first considers the beauty of the person, what semi-nude photos are printed on the cover, very scary!" So I'm worried..."
Will there be another Chinese like this? Gu Rare couldn't get by with himself, torturing himself desperately, and playing his hands so badly that he couldn't even eat well; would there be such a person? Ask him what he wants, no matter how sharp and how offending people and how unpleasant he is, he is real and discredited, as he himself said, the people around him are younger than him, and how can he feel that these people are older than him? He said that people older than him were because they were more sophisticated than him.
It is he who is severe in vicissitudes, and he is also innocent and lovely. It depends on when and what state he is in. His mood is rich and varied, as is his understanding and presentation of music in its complex and multifaceted ways. Undoubtedly, this is a rich man, a man who has never seen such a richness: so confident, so calm, so sincere! (Liu Yuanju)