每日跟讀#658: Lang Lang Is Back: A Piano Superstar Grows Up

It was late one afternoon this spring, and Madison Square Garden’s 19,000 seats were empty as Billy Joel and Lang Lang began jamming onstage.

今春某日傍晚，當比利喬和郎朗在台上開始即興表演時，麥迪遜花園廣場的1萬9000個座位是空的。

Pop’s piano man had invited the superstar classical pianist to make a guest appearance at his sold-out April show at the Garden, and they were rehearsing a duet of Joel’s “Root Beer Rag” during the soundcheck, taking it from fast to blisteringly fast.

流行樂界的鋼琴人（比利喬的自稱）邀請古典樂界的天王鋼琴家，在他4月於花園廣場已完售的演唱會中擔任嘉賓，他們在音效檢查時，以雙人合奏排練比利喬的「自由歡呼」，從快速變到極快速。

Then they started goofing around. Suddenly they were trading riffs from Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto. They teamed up on some Bach. Finally, with Joel’s band looking on in surprise, the two launched into the thunderous opening of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1.

接著兩人開始即興表演，突然間以貝多芬的「皇帝」鋼琴協奏曲你來我往。他們合作彈了些巴哈。最後，當比利喬的樂隊吃驚地注視時，兩人已彈起柴可夫斯基第一號鋼琴協奏曲氣勢磅礡的開頭。

It was as good a sign as any that Lang — the world’s most famous, and bankable, concert pianist — still has his chops, after a career-threatening injury to his left arm in 2017 sidelined him for more than a year.

這是個絕佳的徵兆，證明郎朗這位世上最知名、最有票房的鋼琴家，在2017年因左手危及職涯的傷勢暫停演出一年多後，功力仍在。

After rebuilding his strength and technique, he is returning in earnest this fall. He is again appearing with the world’s leading orchestras. He is again promoting a new album — his first in several years — as few other classical musicians can, with appearances on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and “Good Morning America.”

在重建力量與技巧後，郎朗今秋將積極復出。再一次，他將和世界頂尖交響樂園同台。再一次，他正以少有古典音樂家辦得到的方式，為幾年來首張新專輯做宣傳，上了「吉米法倫今夜秀」和「早安美國」節目。

And he is again arousing the suspicion, if not outright hostility, of the classical field by applying lessons from the pop world to his career, trying to navigate a delicate balance between popularization and artistic integrity.

而且，又一次，他激起了古典音樂圈的懷疑，甚至是明白的敵視，因為他把從流行音樂界學到的功課應用到自己的職涯，在大眾化和藝術性之間尋求微妙的平衡。

But he insists he is not the same man, or musician. Lang — who long maintained that his greatest fear was an injury that would leave him unable to play the piano, and therefore, as he once put it, “render me useless for life” — spent his forced sabbatical taking stock.

而郎朗堅稱自己已非過去那個人或那個音樂家。他一向表明最害怕的就是受傷無法再彈琴，以致如同他說過的，「讓我終生變成廢人」，因傷被迫休息的這段期間，他做了省思和評估。

“I used the time,” Lang said in an interview, “to rethink everything I do.”

郎朗在一次受訪時說：「我利用這段時間重新思考我做的每件事。」

His health crisis hit at a pivotal moment. Lang, who recently turned 37, is at an age when he must navigate the next leg of the journey from wunderkind to mature — even veteran — artist. Such transitions are not easy, noted conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim, a mentor of Lang’s and a former child prodigy himself.

他的健康危機在關鍵時刻來襲。剛滿37歲的郎朗正處於必須探索人生下一階段的年紀，要從神童變為成熟，甚至資深的藝術家。郎朗的恩師、指揮家兼鋼琴家丹尼爾．巴倫波因指出，這樣的轉型並不容易。他也曾是音樂神童。

“Either the child goes and the prodigy remains," Barenboim said, “or the prodigy goes and the child remains.”

「不是童不再，神依然；就是神不再，童依然。」巴倫波因說。

That Lang has taken the first course is evident to conductor Franz Welser-Möst, music director of the Cleveland Orchestra, who has known the pianist since Lang was a teenager.

對於克里夫蘭交響樂團音樂總監、指揮家法蘭茲．魏瑟－莫斯特而言，郎朗顯然選擇了前者。他在郎朗還是青少年時就已認識他。

“We all go through phases, and I think there was a time when success sort of started to have a negative influence on him,” Welser-Möst said. “Then he was out of the business for health reasons for quite some time, which was a shock for him.

「我們都會走過各個階段，我認為，有段時間功成名就多少開始對他產生了負面影響。」魏瑟－莫斯特說。「然後他因為健康因素離開業界頗長一段時間，對他是個打擊。」

Source article: https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0067/343372/web/