Chapter 81
The silver-haired devil, Franz Liszt.
Conductor Kirill saw the second apparition today. The first time he played alone, he saw Beethoven, and now, while practicing in front of everyone, he saw the appearance of the legendary pianist Liszt.
The orchestra members also stared blankly at Soo-hyun playing. This song, composed by Liszt, was not just a piano arrangement of Beethoven's symphony. Liszt admired Beethoven his entire life. Such respect was evident in his piano arrangement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, 'Choral'. Using only ten fingers and pedals, he reproduced all the sounds of the orchestra, combining them musically, and presented sufficient volume and timbral variation. Liszt created pieces using the transcendent virtuosity that only he could achieve, based on newly acquired techniques and a deep understanding of the piano's mechanisms as it evolved.
There were not many recordings of Liszt's piano arrangements of Beethoven's symphonies, as they were of a grand scale and were difficult to master in technique and interpretation. Only four pianists had recorded the complete score: Cyprien Katsaris, Idil Biret, Howard Shelley, and Konstantin Scherbakov, while Glenn Gould had made partial recordings.
Such a difficult piece that even a professional adult pianist would hesitate to tackle, was being performed by a fourteen-year-old boy, making the concert hall resonate.
Kirill's gaze was fixed on Soo-hyun's face as he played. His expression seemed to be delighting in something. Kirill, with trembling eyes, could not take his eyes off Soo-hyun's face.
'It's a difficult piece to play, even with your nerves concentrated on your fingertips. But that expression... doesn't he look happy?'
In Soo-hyun's head, the words of Uncle Franz, who taught him this song, came to mind. The old man, scratching his temple with an embarrassed look on his face, held out the score and said.
"This is a piece that I arranged during my lifetime and that received a lot of praise. I arranged all of Beethoven's symphonies, and among them, No. 9 received the greatest acclaim."
There was no need to ask, "Why are you making that face, sir?", because Mr. Frederick, who was leaning on the piano, intervened with a playful expression.
"It's also the song that Professor Beethoven criticized the most."
'Uncle Franz stares at Uncle Frederick and makes a face that tells him to shut up. Actually, at that time, I didn't know that Mr. Beethoven was also in the Pianist's Village. I thought he would have been scolded if he had met him in his lifetime. But now that I think about it, I find it funny to think of the two old men who came to the Pianist's Village and how Mr. Beethoven must have cursed at them with that frightening face. When I thought of the spiky old Franz looking around like a giraffe, I couldn't help but laugh during the performance.'
"Kikki…"
A child who played a difficult song and instead laughed. The orchestra members' eyes widened and they listened attentively to the notes of their respective instrument parts. The instrumentation of the Philharmonic Orchestra was extremely diverse, with over 80 members. The sounds of all those instruments were being reproduced on a single piano.
Keron muttered absentmindedly, holding the oboe in his hand.
"That boy seems to have about eight hands…"
Although it was a silly thing to say, the other instrumentalists around him nodded their heads without realizing it. Soo-hyun, who had been playing for a while, stopped playing midway and looked at the harpist. He was staring blankly at him, having forgotten to change the strings.
'Has the current change been made yet? It's been over five minutes.'
As the performance stopped and Soo-hyun continued to speak, all the members looked at the harpist. The harpist, who was engrossed in the boy's performance, suddenly jumped up in surprise as he stared at the strings still in his hand.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I'll replace it right away!"
But no one blamed the half-runner, who had not yet been replaced despite having time. Everyone seemed to understand. The concert hall fell silent. Kirill looked at Soo-hyun with serious eyes as he removed his hands from the piano keys.
"Soo-hyun."
Soo-hyun stood up from the piano and answered politely.
"Yes, conductor."
Kirill said, waving his baton.
"During practice, don't stand up and answer."
"Yes, conductor."
Soo-hyun sat back down in the chair. Kirill asked after seeing him like that.
"What is a concerto?"
The gazes of the orchestra members were fixed on Soo-hyun. Kirill had asked the same question to three participants. No boy had yet given a proper answer.
'Could this boy be like that too? No, this boy is different.'
In Soo-hyun's memory, where he received many expectant gazes, Beethoven's excited shout with a flushed face seemed to be heard.
"A concerto is a concerto? What kind of son of a bitch says something like that?"
Soo-hyun, who was practicing, asked.
"Doesn't the Italian expression 'concerto' mean to collaborate, to unite…?""Didn't Liszt and Chopin tell you something like that?""A concerto doesn't just mean collaboration or joint performance! 'Competition' in English is expressed as 'Competition'. That is, 'competing'. That's why a concerto is when a piano and an entire orchestra compete to create sounds!"
As Soo-hyun, sitting on the piano bench, frowned slightly, his ears aching just from imagining what Mr. Beethoven had said, conductor Kirill had a disappointed look on his face. Did this little girl not know? Just as he was about to take a deep breath, Soo-hyun's answer came out.
"The concerto is a competition. I think the role of the soloists in a concerto is to show off their skills as if they were competing with the skills they have developed."
Kirill, who was sighing with his head down, widened his eyes. Surprise filled his eyes as he turned his head to look at Soo-hyun. Kirill, who had been calming his surprised heart by staring at Soo-hyun for a moment, burst into a loud laugh in a moment.
"Poohahaha…"
'What? Why are you laughing, sir? Is what I'm saying funny? That's what Mr. Beethoven taught me while scolding me endlessly.'
It seemed as if Cyril had suddenly removed a blockage in his body. Cyril laughed for a long time. He laughed so hard that anyone who saw him would think he was crazy. The faces of the orchestra members who saw such a conductor also brightened up a lot. Kirill, still smiling, struck his palm with his baton and spoke loudly to the members.
"Great! We have a friend here who knows a thing or two! I think you all know the rumor about Soo-hyun. The famous Polish conductor Janusz Burczek left a review saying that he did his best not to interrupt the girl's performance. We don't want that to happen in our Berlin Philharmonic, do we?"
All the orchestra members took their instruments at once. They all had a solemn expression on their faces. Kirill spoke powerfully, pointing at Soo-hyun with his baton.
"Let's get down to business!"
An hour had passed since the practice began.
"Stop playing!!!"
Kirill's face as he slammed his baton on the podium. He had sweated buckets in just one hour, a sweat he hadn't lost a single drop of in the previous eight hours.
"Clarinet!!"
The two clarinetists, just behind the violinists, raised their hands. They were also drenched in sweat.
"Don't get eaten!"
"I'm sorry, Conductor."
"Again! Let's start from the beginning!"
What did it mean, not to be eaten? Kirill's conducting began again in full force. A magnificent performance of the orchestra starting with the piano from the beginning. As if facing a huge tsunami with his bare body, Kirill's back was soaked in a cold sweat as he conducted fiercely, and his shirt was stuck to his back.
'It's coming! Don't get eaten by the piano!'
Cyril screamed inwardly. An orchestra in which twenty violinists played in unison was fine, but when an instrument with a relatively large sound came out, the piano inevitably took over. Kirill's pride in leading the giant that was the Berlin Philharmonic was shattered.
"Interruption!!!"
The performance was interrupted without a trace. Even without Kirill's frightening gaze, the members' eyes were already filled with fear. Just one piano. He took out an 80-person orchestra playing at the same time. The performance had already been interrupted more than ten times. At first, their pride was hurt, but gradually they were terrified. All eyes were focused on the boy sitting in front of a single piano. Kirill said, tapping his baton.
"We're taking a short break. I hope you can reflect on the true meaning of the concerto during this break. If you're still performing like this when we meet again, I'll be very disappointed."
The members sighed. Practices that happened today. If the piano children were insulted, they were insulted, but they never dreamed that they would be insulted. But there was no room for excuses, as he was defeated by the sheer volume of the sound. The piano didn't even have a microphone, and yet it swallowed the orchestra without breaking. The gazes of the members who had been very pleased with Soo-hyun's skills until a while ago changed.
The boy sitting at the piano was no longer a child. He was a beast that showed its teeth at the slightest sign of weakness. There was a beast inside the face of a beautiful boy. Cyril warned the members once more who couldn't even go to rest while watching the situation.
"Go and rest. When it's time to rest, rest. When it's time to work, work. Get up."
As the relatively large number of violinists stood up one by one, the members stood up one by one and left the concert hall as they watched the situation. Only Kirill and Soo-hyun remained on the stage. Kirill, who had been practicing fiercely with a frightening attitude from a while ago, looked at Soo-hyun and thought.
'That boy didn't even flinch. For an hour, we were unilaterally massacred. And on top of that… a nonchalant expression. A calm face, as if the performance that had been baring its teeth and biting like a beast had never been performed from the beginning.'
Soo-hyun, who had not yet finished playing the first movement, looked at Kirill, who was staring at her as he turned the page of the sheet music.
"Compared to Mr. Beethoven, that kind of expression isn't even scary."
Kirill, who did not know who or how frightening a person he was trained by, was surprised by Soo-hyun's calm attitude. Kirill, who was looking at Soo-hyun who was flipping through the sheet music, came down from the conductor's podium and spoke.
"Why don't you rest for a while?"
"I'm fine, I think the conductor needs to rest."
As Soo-hyun winked at him, Kirill looked at his shirt, which was soaking wet, and nodded with a bitter smile.
"Yes, I think I need to change my clothes."
As he left to change his clothes, Professor Lee Chan-ho, who was watching the practice from behind the stage, stood up as Kirill approached and said.
"Excuse me, conductor, are you all right…?"
Kirill raised his hand to stop Professor Lee Chan-ho from speaking. His expression was brighter than ever as he unbuttoned his shirt one by one.
"Please don't disturb me. I'm very happy right now."
"…?"
Kirill's footsteps as he went to change his shirt looked very bright, unlike his tired appearance. As if it were a rookie conductor who had a chance to collaborate with a legendary pianist.