KOCM

21-25

Chapter 21

The full title of 《Tzigane》 was 《Tzigane Rhapsody》, and it was created by the famous French composer Maurice Ravel. This piano maestro of the last century wrote several musical pieces in his lifetime, and most of them were piano pieces. 《Tzigane》 was one of his rare violin concertos.

The first half of this piece was dominated by a slow beat, while the latter half was primarily in rich allegro. The differing halves of this piece formed a sharp contrast with each other, and that brought a lot of praise.

When he told Tan Lao he was going to play this piece, Tan Lao thought for a while but agreed to it in the end.

This work required a skill level equal to that of Paganini's, which was quite tricky. But there were also Gypsy influences, and it had an unrestrained passion. It was suitable for an indoor concert solo performance.

Tan Lao's only worry was: "You're sure. . . you can play well tomorrow?"

According to what he knew of Qi Mu, the youth had never touched Ravel's works, but Tan Lao was also worried because the indoor concert would be held tomorrow. For a better effect, it was better to choose one of Paganini's songs.

After thinking about it for a bit, Tan Lao said, "Or you can play Paganini's Caprice No. 13. You are most familiar with Paganini so I can be at ease." An elder's thoughts were always based on stability. They wouldn't take too much risk, and as long as it was stable, it was enough.

Paganini's Caprice No. 13 was the thirteenth piece from his 24 Caprices for the solo violinist. It also had a very distinctive other name--《Devil's Laughter》. Paganini's works had always been highlighted by its high difficulty level. It was good enough if one could perform it well.

But Qi Mu shook his head. With a smile, he said, "Tan Lao, playing 《Devil's Laughter》 in such an indoor concert is a bit too much, plus, I'm not the closing performer. I think 《Tzigane》 is good and don't worry, I am familiar with this piece. There won't be any problems."

For the finale, Du Sheng would perform with several of his colleagues. They formed an ensemble of four people and would deliver a few songs, making it one of the most anticipated performances.

Tan Lao still hesitated but, after Qi Mu coaxed a bit more, he finally agreed.

The original might not be familiar with 《Tzigane》, but he had played this song many times. When he just started to learn how to play the violin, he played this song for his graduation. At that time, he wasn't skilled enough. He could only say he played it, but he can never say that he played it well.

Later, when he entered college, he slowly familiarized himself with this song. And when he went to the audition for the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, this song was included in his playlist. Even though he didn't perform a solo performance after that, this song was still one of his best.

After Tan Lao agreed, he listened to Qi Mu play it through once. He could hardly find anything to point out, so he nodded with admiration. The two exchanged pointers for a while, and Tan Lao remembered something.

"Right, this time, other than a few B City insiders, Professor Karl, who was the judge of that competition last time will also be there. You have to be prepared."

The image of a large foreigner with a thick beard and a big belly appeared in his mind, and Qi Mu nodded helplessly. Soon after, the lunch break ended and all the members of the orchestra were practicing over and over again with Du Sheng leading them because Tan Lao went out.

When he had just stepped out the door, Tan Lao seemed to have remembered another thing: "Oh right, didn't Du Sheng send a few invitations to Bai Ai's Daniel?" After thinking a bit, Tan Lao didn't go back in to tell Qi Mu about this. He smiled and shook his head, "They must have returned to Berlin anyway." After thinking such, he got into his car.