時報樂評人眼中的郎朗鋼琴演奏會

Because the Metropolitan Museum of Art has largely redirected its concerts to tie in to its exhibitions, the notion of a recital by the crowd-pleasing Chinese pianist Lang Lang to usher in “China: Through the Looking Glass” made sense, perhaps, on the surface.

大都會藝術博物館(Metropolitan Museum of Art)爲了配合其所舉辦的展覽，在很大程度上改變了其音樂會的定位。因此，找來廣受歡迎的中國鋼琴家郎朗開鋼琴演奏會，爲名爲《中國：鏡花水月》的展覽揭幕的想法合情合理，或許在表面上是這樣的。

But in the Met Museum Presents event, on Thursday evening, Mr. Lang played only four modest pieces of Westernized Chinese music, filling 15 minutes of the hourlong program, alongside works by Tchaikovsky and Chopin. Set in the cavernous Great Hall near the front entrance, the concert was clearly designed less to add context to the exhibition than to generate interest in it.

週四晚間的演奏會是現場藝術展示活動Met Museum Presents的組成部分，歷時一個小時，但朗朗只用15分鐘演奏了4首風格內斂的中國曲目，而且對它們做了西化處理。其餘時間裏，他都在演奏柴科夫斯基(Tchaikovsky)和肖邦(Chopin)的作品。這場演出是在靠近前門、空間高闊的大堂裏舉行的，顯然，其目的更多地是爲展覽增加人氣，而非增進人們對展覽背景的理解。

And in that it may well have succeeded. Fifteen minutes before the scheduled start time, the line outside the museum extended down the entrance steps and a block or so up Fifth Avenue.

從這種意義上說，它或許相當成功。演出還有15分鐘就要開場的時候，博物館外排起了長隊，從門口的臺階開始，沿着第五大道(Fifth Avenue)排了差不多一個街區那麼長。

A half-hour later, Mr. Lang took the makeshift stage before more than 500 loudly welcoming visitors and announced, “I’m your pianist for tonight.” Perhaps wishfully, he also praised the acoustics of the room, calling them “very spiritual.”

半個小時後，朗朗走上臨時搭建的舞臺，向500多位到場者高聲致意，並宣佈，“今晚由我爲您演奏。”他還讚美了大廳的音響效果，稱其“非常有靈性”，而這或許有些臆斷。

My experience from about 40 feet from the stage was the opposite. With megaton amplification, the loud playing in the outer sections of two Chopin scherzos and in two pieces from Tchaikovsky’s “The Seasons” was deafening and soul-deadening.

坐在距離舞臺40英尺遠的地方，我的感受與他截然不同。他演奏肖邦的兩首詼諧曲和柴科夫斯基《四季》(The Seasons)套曲中的兩首曲目時，首尾部分的琴聲被無限放大後簡直震耳欲聾，靈性全無。

The four Chinese items, by composers little known in the West, and the six numbers from “The Seasons” (out of 12 in all, one for each month) were character pieces, designed to set scenes and moods (“Autumn Moon Over a Calm Lake”). Excellent playing and even some poetry came through in the quieter music. But the merciless pummeling in Tchaikovsky’s “Reaper’s Song” and “The Hunt,” and in the Chopin, pretty much obliterated everything around it.

四首中國曲目（其作者在西方少爲人知）和來自《四季》套曲的六首曲目（共有12首，每月一首）都是性格小品，旨在闡釋背景、烘托氛圍（《平湖秋月》）。彈奏較爲安靜的樂曲時，他彈得非常好，甚至可以讓人感受到詩意。但在彈奏柴可夫斯基的《刈者之歌》(Reaper’s Song)和《狩獵之歌》(The Hunt)以及肖邦的作品時，他讓人記住的只剩下對琴鍵的猛烈敲擊。

Mr. Lang declined an encore at first, instead introducing Derek Wang, a young protégé developed through the Lang Lang International Music Foundation. Mr. Wang said he would play two Chopin études but was hustled off after one.

朗朗起初拒絕了對返場曲的請求，而是介紹郎朗國際音樂基金會培養的年輕音樂家汪振波(Derek Wang)出場。汪振波說他要彈奏兩首肖邦練習曲，但一首過後就被催促着下了臺。

He gave an attractive, shapely account of the “Revolutionary” Étude. He actually seemed to judge the amplification better than Mr. Lang had, though he may also simply have lacked some of Mr. Lang’s power.

汪振波把肖邦的《革命》(Revolutionary)練習曲演繹得很好，也很動人。他對擴音效果的判斷似乎比朗朗好，不過，也有可能是他缺乏朗朗那樣的力量。

Finally, Mr. Lang played a pleasant encore, the “Turkish March” from Mozart’s Piano Sonata in A (K. 331), and audience members roared their approval, seemingly unanimous.

最後，朗朗加演了一首歡快的返場曲目，莫扎特(Mozart)的《土耳其進行曲》（A大調K.331）。觀衆一片歡呼，似乎都很讚賞他的表演。

Still, I heard what I heard. How could I not?

不過，我自己還是耳聽爲實。不是嗎？