Hundreds of people gathered in the auditorium, but after being hung for more than an hour, the presiding committee appeared. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

"Guys, I'm sorry to keep you waiting!"

A middle-aged man with a big beard, a big back comb, a pair of gold-rimmed glasses hanging on the bridge of his nose, and a bloated and pot-bellied man stood on the stage, took the microphone and said: "The group list has just been released, and we will announce the grouping situation now!"

"This morning is Group A, in the afternoon is Group B, and from tomorrow onwards, there will be seven groups of C, D, E, F, G, for a total of three and a half days. ”

"The following announcement of the grouping, everyone must hear their own group, during the game in the three times after the number has not come to the stage, will be regarded as abstaining, disqualified from the competition. ”

The bearded man then picked up a stack of papers and read aloud: "This morning's Group A contestants: Zhao Zihan, Yu Ruliang, Li Zhifan, Yin Lei, Tian Bingyu in the Beijing Division, Li Yi, Tong Feifei, Xu Weiwei, Zhao Xuemei, Mo Huang in the Shanghai Division, ...... in the Shancheng Division."

This group A is the four municipalities directly under the central government and Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan competition area to advance to the players, a total of 35 players, will be this morning in the preliminaries.

The rest of the competition areas are divided into six groups according to East China, Central China, South China, Northwest and Southwest, North China and Northeast China.

The number of people in each group is not fixed, for example, there are only three divisions in the northwest and southwest, and only fifteen people compete on the morning of the last day.

But don't think that the strength of players in some regions is weak, many people in order to fight for the promotion, specially fly to those inconspicuous competition areas to register for competitions, such as the southwest division where the popularity of piano is low, the five players who are promoted are not locals, and the strength should not be underestimated.

After reading the group list, it was already 9:40, and the preliminaries of Group A started at 10 o'clock, leaving 20 minutes for the players who did not play today.

Twenty minutes later, six members of the Huaxia District Qualifiers Jury came out of the backstage and sat down on the side of the stage one by one.

There are introductions and photos of them in the competition brochure, and they are all international pianists, music educators, and have participated in the professional review of many music competitions.

Among them, two are Chinese, namely Xu Jie and Niu Zhaoyi, with many titles, members of various associations, and vice chairman of a provincial music association, among which Xu Jie is a popular pianist who has appeared on the stage of CCTV Spring Festival Gala.

The other four are all foreigners, namely Ukrainian pianist Karina Popova, Professor Alex Kostenko of the National Conservatory of Ukraine, famous Dutch music educator and pianist Christian Zimmermann, and Italian pianist and visiting professor Paul Faylo.

These foreign judges with a long list of names don't know what their tastes are, but from the first contestant on stage, their expressions and faces are much more serious than those of the Huaxia judges.

According to the order, Li Zhifan is the third, which is a very high position, and the form is not optimistic.

When the second contestant stepped off the stage, Li Zhifan stood up and shook his spirit after reading his name, and slowly walked onto the stage.

There is no routine in this preliminaries, every note of the piano is standard, and it is difficult for Li Zhifan to be tricky in these places, so he can only rely on technique to be tough.

After taking his registration form and ID card to the first judge, Xu Jie, for confirmation, he walked to the piano and sat down.

Stroking the keys, Li Zhifan took a deep breath, and his fingers began to dance lightly on the keyboard.

An etude is a piece of music written for technical training in the performance of an instrument, often with a specific, technical purpose, such as training scales, arpeggios, octaves, diphonic, vibrato, etc.

There is also an etude for concerts, derived from the former, which gradually evolved into a virtuosic work of art to be performed in concerts.

The etudes required for the competition can be any kind, but basically the contestants choose the first one, because relatively speaking, this type of etude is not a show-off, but only a test of fingering and playing skills.

The first two contestants who went down just now were both very ordinary textbook etudes, and the purpose of such a choice was nothing more than to be on the safe side.

Li Zhifan chose the latter - the No. 78 "Etude in B minor" composed for the concert by Ronnie, the king of Ukrainian piano in 1851.

This piano piece also has another name, called "Hurricane Etude", which belongs to the more difficult piano music in the performance level.

Li Zhifan's initial playing was relatively smooth and dull, like the calm before a hurricane, when the piece was played for more than 40 seconds, the atmosphere began to come up, although the melody of the right hand was like a bird flying in the air, but the chords and rhythm in the low register of the left hand were still relatively depressed.

After a little more than two minutes, the melody in the middle section changes from a somewhat elegant sadness, calm and melancholy, to a gradual intensity, and this section must begin to show off its virtuosity, because it is more difficult and has a lot of ornamentation.

The judges and the contestants in the audience can clearly see Li Zhifan's fingers flying on the piano keys, like a ghost dancing, like a shadowless palm in a martial arts novel, and in the latter part it is getting faster and faster, and the pitch is getting higher and higher, as if a violent hurricane is coming.

Until the end, the notes abruptly stop at the top, as if a disaster had just passed, but it also gives a sense of aftertaste.

"Bang Bang!"

Alex Kostenko was the first to stand up and clap his hands, "very-well!"

"good!" Karina Popova also applauded, looking at Li Zhifan with a look of surprise and love, exuding the brilliance of motherhood...... Uh, she's an old woman!

Xu Jie and Niu Zhaoyi were also applauding, but as Chinese people, their applause and expressions were a little more proud, and it was the biggest gain for the six judges to be able to see such a superb player here today.

Li Zhifan stood up and bowed modestly to several judges, at least for now, it seems that the first image score has been obtained, and his performance has also caused pressure on the players behind him, especially Mo Huang and Xu Weiwei, the two of them have looked at each other from the stagnation just now, and they don't know if they should go to the competition, with Li Zhifan here, can others still advance smoothly?

Stage.

Li Zhifan sat back in front of the piano and began to play the second sonata, "Spring Sonata".

This is a relatively cheerful and soft song, there are not many show-off elements, and the first movement selected by Li Zhifan is only three minutes, but it has to play the artistic conception - the civilized stream in the valley, the tinkling spring, the birds chirping on the branches, the breeze is coming, and everything is revived...... It's not easy to bring these springs to life.

The players who sneered at Li Zhifan and Mo Huang because their voices were a little louder because they were chatting with them before, at this time, they all wanted to strangle themselves just now.