As the main competition of the Chopin Competition approaches, the streets of Warsaw are again lively after the 'Chopin and His European Music Festival', which has just ended in August.

Because it will not be long before the 17th Chopin Competition will begin.

At 14:00 p.m. on September 12, the Chopin Institute held a press conference, chaired by the president of the jury, Rafat Branhano.

This is the first warm-up for the race, and it is also a tradition before the race.

According to the custom, Branhano has to face interviews with journalists from all over the world, although they are all old-fashioned questions, but with the meticulous spirit of Chopin, Branhano must lead the team to complete this press conference.

The press conference was set up in a very human style, with a cartoon Chopin doll on the speaking table, and Branhano sitting in the center.

He didn't smile when answering questions, but the act of picking up a doll and fiddling with it from time to time still made many reporters in the audience feel that this pianist, who was rumored to be too serious by the outside world, also had a cute side.

Reporter from the United States: "Mr. Rafat, now that Xiao Sai is one of the most authoritative piano competitions in the world, what was the opportunity to hold the first one in 1927?"

Brancano: "In 1927, there were already many famous Chopin players in the world, and they were playing Chopin's piano music in different ways, and these pianists wanted to have a deeper understanding of Polish culture in order to help them better interpret Chopin's music. ”

When this need was discovered by the Poles, the first Chopin Piano Competition appeared. ”

"We need to help everyone find the 'original' Chopin. ”

Dutch reporter: "As for the original Chopin you mentioned, where is the standard, does it refer to the grasp of Chopin's free speed?"

Brancano: "There is no absolute standard for this question, every kind of music has its own characteristics, which is not something that can be clearly explained by any scientific analysis, it has to do with the spiritual connotation of music. ”

"The biggest feature of Chopin's music is the temporal progression in the music, there is a special spiritual interpretation in it, the same waltz, two excellent Chopin interpreters will play it in different ways, but the musical effect presented to us can never be the same, maybe one of them will do some extended processing on the time value of the scoremap, and the other will work on the overall rhythm, but no matter how they understand the interpretation, in the end they can't escape the progress of the music in time. ”

"If you want to feel the speed of Chopin's music, you have to grasp the spiritual connotation of Polish music, Chopin grew up under the influence of Polish folk music, and his music has a Polish spirit passed down in a vein.

German journalist: "Can we then say that there is a hard and fixed standard for judging Chopin's interpretations? ”

Brancano: "No, no, in fact, the so-called capture of the spiritual connotation of Polish music is to get close to Chopin, to get close to Chopin, you know 'Chopin and his European Festival', in fact, it should be renamed 'Chopin and his World Music Festival,' because we are always looking for innovative interpretations of Chopin, and we want to see more 'possibilities' in addition to the already very interesting renditions that have appeared today. ”

Nowadays, many new discoveries about Chopin's music actually come from Asian musicians such as Hua Guo and Yu Ben, who are far away from Poland. ”

"What they all have in common is that their interpretations of Chopin often have their own cultural roots, and if an Asian pianist comes to Europe and plays Chopin's music and tries to imitate a 'Polish flavor', it is nothing worse than that. ”

"Blind imitation is a stifling of art. ”

German reporter: "Thank you for your answer, but speaking of which, it seems that in the qualifying stage of this competition, a young pianist from Asia appeared, and he used a kind of imitation to interpret Chopin of piano masters of all eras, what do you think about this?"

The words of the German reporter made many people present think for a while of the young Chinese performer who was in the limelight at the Bergen Music Festival a while ago.

Moment.

Brancano smiled: "That's an interesting young man, we have to accept that there will be some unique characters in any competition, like Andrei Tchaikovsky in the 5th edition and Angela Hewitt in the 10th edition, their presence may be a headache for the judges, but it will also make the competition itself more enjoyable." ”

German journalist: "So you mean that his approach meets the judging criteria of the jury?"

Branhano paused: "This is the situation in the preliminaries.

"It's not that complicated, we just need to screen out players with basic technical literacy. ”

"There are a lot of places to qualify at this stage, and players who can meet the minimum requirements can advance to the main competition. ”

"Mr. Rafat, according to the survey statistics, in the open shortlist of the Chopin Competition in recent years, the proportion of participants from Asia is increasing, and this year, there are 34 Asian players who have advanced, surpassing Europe for the first time in the promotion quota, does this trend indicate that the overall piano development level in Asia has surpassed the momentum of Europe?"

Branhano: "It's hard for me to answer that question, but I have to admit that more and more Asian pianists are making their mark on stages around the world, which is a blessing for the whole industry. ”

With one of the reporters having a question, the forty-five-minute press conference passed quickly.

Finally, a journalist from France asked: "Now that more and more concerts are being broadcast online, will the Chopin Competitions change according to the Internet age?"

Branhano also expressed his opinion on this: "As mentioned earlier, the modern way of life has brought opportunities for the development of classical music, although I am a more old-school person, but when we really need to make some changes, we will listen to more young people's opinions. ”

Under the noisy applause, the first wave of warm-up for the 17th Chopin Competition ended.

That evening, the press conference spread throughout the classical music scene around the world.

The five-year piano event has kicked off the final countdown.

On September 16th, there were 13 days left before the Contestants' report to Warsaw.

Bergen.

Small town.

Qin Jian left the second floor of the hut at half past one at half past noon after finishing the second round of repertoire practice in the morning.

Before leaving, he took a shower, changed into clean clothes, and shaved his beard by the way.

Then I got into the old bartender's classic car and headed to Bergen Airport.