Han’s expression darkened. To thoroughly investigate the background of the song also means this. That he has the confidence, or the mind, to incorporate the background he has learned so far into his performance.
‘Yes, the skeleton is good.’
A faint smile formed on Han’s lips for a moment, then disappeared. He immediately looked at Rowoon with stern eyes. When Rowoon was taken aback by the feeling that the air had changed in an instant, his voice fell like a mace.
“Play again from the beginning.”
“yes?”
“Compared to other competitions, the deadline for the LA Piano Competition is short. It’s a waste of time to waste like this now if you want to win.”
“A win?”
“I bet you didn’t mean to be satisfied with just being in the ranks, right?”
Rowoon stared blankly at Han, then straightened his expression. Then he corrected his posture and started tapping the keyboard again.
The disciple is ready to gain weight,
The master is ready to fatten his pupil.
when September. It was autumn, the season of high blood pressure.
#
The studio class is an ideal class for music students to build friendships.
First of all, students of all grades participate in one class regardless of the professor in charge, and all students who meet like that major in the same instrument. And if there was such a consensus, it was only a matter of time before they got closer.
Besides, there were only about 15 new students in the piano department at most, so the speed at which they got closer was inevitably faster than in other departments.
Among them, there was one that stood out. Heather in particular. Whether it was her career as a junior runner-up at the Chopin Competition, or her appearance as gorgeous as her dyed hair, she seemed like a person armed with charm all over her body. People flocked to her like bees at the scent of honey, and so she wore the flock that always followed me like clothes.
On the other hand, there were people who didn’t have a single person around them. That was the person Rowoon was looking at right now.
‘He was the son of a professor. That person.’
tall with a skinny body. And he was a man with a handsome face. A white Adidas hoodie with a black jogger without a brand pattern. He was a warm-hearted college student who seemed to be able to satisfy the romance of college girls on the shore, and in fact, people who were attracted to such a strange charm often talked to him, but he always responded with a short answer. Thanks to that, people didn’t seem to show much interest in him anymore.
Gregor, who was next to Rowoon, opened his mouth.
“What was that person’s name?”
“Was it a fight? I guess it was.”
“······Ah, Jungwoo. You entered the school a year earlier than us, right?”
Gregor nodded.
“huh. I think he took a year off from school because of stage fright.”
“It’s stage fright… I think everything got better?”
“well. I don’t know.”
Rowoon looked at Han Jeong-woo and Jung-woo with a strange expression. He was wearing a very confused expression. It felt like I couldn’t stand it because it was frustrating to be here right now, and it seemed like my body was itching with the desire to get up and play right away.
‘Professor Han must be worried.’
However, Rowoon’s impressions ended there. Right now, his nose is three, but he couldn’t afford to pay attention to others.
I looked at the pulpit. The studio class is a type of class where you show off your original performance and receive feedback, but at the beginning of the semester, even with newly admitted freshmen, it was not possible to distribute the stage number right away. Because I have no choice but to prepare relatively less.
Thanks to this, this class has actually become a format where friends play autonomously and give and receive feedback. One by one, they sat down in front of the piano. It was the moment when I let my friends who will be with me for years to come know what kind of pianist I am. Compared to most stages, it was more important if it was more important, but it was not an unimportant time.
Maybe that’s why some of them made a series of mistakes, and soon quit playing with an embarrassed expression and stood up. It was worth it. It would be difficult to play with serious immersion on a properly set stage, so to play in such a playful atmosphere, it was inevitable that the feeling would not live properly.
However, there were people like that, and there were also people who made non-stage places into stages.
Heather Hong did just that.
Heather was sitting on the stage, holding her finger up proudly as if she were the host of the show. And soon, when Heather’s fingers sounded like Chopin’s signature song, Rowoon involuntarily let out a moan.
‘Chopin, impromptu fantasy.’
It’s a song that major students get tired of listening to, so it’s easy to hear even more boring and uninteresting.
but,
Gregor murmured.
“It’s not Chopin-like at all…but that’s interesting too.”
“remember. With that uncharacteristic Chopin performance, he won second place at the Chopin Competition Junior.”
“…that’s a monster.”
5 minutes. 5 minutes of play. If it’s short, it’s a short time, but it might be a bit long to start blindly and take out the audience’s soul.
But while Heather played, everyone involuntarily became less talkative little by little.
So was Rowoon. He had no choice but to admit it honestly. Heather played a bit… no, quite different from what Chopin intended, but nevertheless, that performance has a different charm that is incomparable to his.
It was then. Gregor asked.
“Your Chopin is fine too. Why don’t you play it too?”
“······suddenly?”
“It’s a shame. I already know how good your Chopin is. You might be able to get attention like that.”
“But Chopin…”
Rowoon hesitated. I’d rather be a different musician. I wondered if I needed to play Chopin. It’s true that I like Chopin’s music more than everyone else’s, but after all, I was obsessed with Chopin, and he was in a position to be eaten by Chopin.
“Well, if you don’t like Chopin, you can also like other musicians. Yes, Goldberg is good, and Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 2 is also good. You both play well. But… Hmm, I don’t know. I don’t know why, but I just want to see you play Chopin.”
“…”
Maybe it was because Rowoon’s special affection for Chopin was revealed in the middle of the day. Just like the popular belief that if you say he is pretty, the grass grows more beautifully, his love for Chopin may have made his performance prettier.
Rowoon stood up for a moment. And went to the piano. Whatever it is, let’s play. Let’s have a seat. That was the thought. While Heather looked at him with a strange expression and moved away, Rowoon sat on the piano bench and raised a finger.
Chopin said to refrain. His pillars hadn’t grown strong yet, so if he raised a roof that was too heavy, it would collapse. Inside him, Chopin became so huge that he couldn’t bear to handle it.
However, compared to that time, some time has passed now.
Maybe a little bit, a little bit more, I couldn’t have grown enough to handle him. Wouldn’t it have grown more?
Rowoon doesn’t know the answer.
I didn’t know, so I wanted to know.
His fingers slowly stretched out and touched the white and black keys. The keyboard seemed to still retain the warmth of the header. Until just now, the keyboard was accepting the enthusiasm of other children. The moment he touched that key, Rowoon didn’t know why, but he felt like he knew what to do.
And the next moment
Waltz Op.64 No.1: Dog Waltz,
Chopin’s voice came out.
＜ Strange Freshman (3) ＞ End
＜ Strange Freshman (4) ＞
‘This······.’
Gregor knew what song Rowoon was playing even before his fingers touched the keys.
It was something I only recently realized. Rowoon’s attitude changes depending on the song.
When the puppy waltzed, Rowoon’s back was straight. His arms were moderately bent to a level where he could give strength to his finger movements, and his chin was slightly raised as if looking down at the keyboard.
An expression that seemed to be somewhat calm, as if he was appreciating my performance from a distance.
No one will know, but it was Chopin’s posture and expression when he played the dog waltz.
‘ah.’
As soon as he pressed the keys, Rowoon sighed inwardly. The sound of Chopin, whom he had been trying to forget and bury, swallowed him through his fingers.
A terrifyingly ecstatic feeling. A sense of crisis rises. There was a reason he didn’t keep Chopin close. Chopin’s life was ready to swallow him at any moment, and the possibility of destroying the tower of music he had accumulated and building my tower on the wreckage was high.
I was feeling that feeling right now. The number of times he played through Chopin’s composition and performance journals was several times the total number of times he played through other musicians’ journals, so it was only natural that Chopin’s life and music would try to dominate Rowoon.
And Rowoon didn’t have the confidence to win against him, so he gave up the fight. I backed off and ran away.
However, you can’t just turn your back forever.
Rowoon gritted his teeth. Excess is always poisonous. I had to admit it. Rowoon was overly obsessed with Chopin, and that obsession created imbalance.
What if now?
Is he still a pianist at the level of losing everything and being pushed aside by a fragment of Chopin? Have I still not grown enough?
‘······It might be.’
But even so, it doesn’t matter.
“The performer…”
From noble mtl dot com
Heather, who was watching Rowoon’s performance, muttered with a strange expression. Rowoon’s performance was extremely delicate and emotional. But that wasn’t what it felt like to be drunk. Rather, what should I say…
‘Drunk by Chopin?’
Heather seemed to understand what the professors were saying now. ‘Heather, there’s so much in your playing. Your heart, your thoughts, your mood, your hard work, your talent, I can say it contains everything a pianist really needs. But, um, well… In your Chopin, is there Chopin?’
Ann Taylor. These were the words of her idol.
No, actually, it’s not just her. When she was runner-up at the Chopin Competition Junior, the judges also revealed to her that she had not pursued Chopin enough.
Heather couldn’t shake the feeling that something was stuck inside her. she couldn’t understand There is no Chopin in my Chopin? When playing Chopin’s music, there is no way that Chopin is not present in it.
However, the professors agreed with Taylor’s words. Heather couldn’t help but feel embarrassed. After receiving the call from the admissions office that she was the chief, I felt a little better, but I still didn’t like that she couldn’t completely satisfy the professors.
In the meantime, I heard about Rowoon. I don’t know, but they say it was a great performance. It is said that each performance contained the color of the composer and resonated. It’s not certain, but according to rumors, all the professors liked Rowoon and praised him, so she couldn’t help but wonder about the performance.
‘Is this why…?’
I seemed to know roughly. Heather isn’t far behind when it comes to emotional performances. No, rather, that part could be said to be her strength.
However, Rowoon’s performance was not simply emotional. He had a very ‘Chopin-esque’ sensibility. As if trying to recreate everything Chopin, from his fingers to his eyebrows, everything seemed to represent Chopin.
It was a strange puppy waltz. I never thought that a refreshing melody could sound so sad. Rowoon’s rubato, which unwinds and rewinds the beat, was very exquisite, and the confrontation and combination of notes created by the left and right hands showed off their presence without blurry for a moment.
However, Rowoon’s performance did not end there.
It was from a moment. Rowoon’s posture changed a little subtly, but the feeling of the sound he evoked also began to change. Until just now, it felt like his performance was focused on conveying the lyrics rather than his voice, but from a certain moment on, it seemed that he was trying to emphasize the echo of the sound by chewing it out one by one.
‘Suddenly changing playing style?’