[Phoenix PEN] Wen Ruo: Listening to Perlman's performance again (picture)

[Phoenix PEN] Wen Ruo: Listening to Perlman's performance again (picture) Phoenix City Wen Ruo On the evening of January 16th this year, the world-renowned violin master Perlman held a concert at the Mesha Art Center...

Phoenix City Wenruo

On the evening of January 16th this year, the world-renowned violin master Perlman held a concert at the Mesha Art Center. The performance hall that day was full of seats. Phoenix area music lovers have a rare opportunity to enjoy the wonderful sound of the piano.

Itzhak Perlman was born in Israel in 1945. He contracted polio when he was four years old and relied on crutches to walk throughout his life. Perlman is universally respected in the world. His charm lies not only in the music giant's impeccable playing skills and heavenly piano sound, but also in his tenacity and perseverance, which is a living example that inspires people, especially young people, to strive for progress. My children have also learned violin and piano since they were young. I remember seeing Perlman walking slowly on stage on TV when he was a teenager, and then slowly sitting down to play the violin. The child said that he had read a report: Once, a disabled woman saw Perlman and said with emotion: "I see you don't give up on yourself, I envy you so much"; Perlman replied humorously: "Madam, my paralysis is only in my legs, my hands are normal!".

The piano accompanist for the Mesa Theater performance was Rohan De Silva. Hilfa is a pianist and piano educator born in Sri Lanka. He is also well-known among musicians and collaborates frequently with many musical performers around the world. Perlman and Hilfa have been partners for many years. The two masters performed together and brought a musical feast to Desert Oasis.

Perlman played Beethoven, the sonatas of 19th-century French musician Sal Frank, and the Italian composer Tartini's "The Devil's Trill" and other world-famous works that day. Perlman also played the theme song from the movie "Schindler's List" that day. This movie has a musical soul because of his performance, and has been crowned with numerous awards. That night at the Mesa Theater there were many audience members wearing the little hats unique to the Jewish people. When the music of the piano, which recounted the suffering of the Jews, gradually stopped, it aroused great resonance and extended applause from the audience. This is also a song that left a deep impression on me.

Perlman's violin is the most famous and most valuable violin in the world; Perlman accepted the 1714 Stradivarius SOIL violin used by Menuhin in 1986. Perlman has a pair of enviable big hands and very smart fingers. His bowing is full and full of eloquence. The sound of the piano is very much like singing, and the sound of the piano is like an extension of his voice and breathing. Listening to his performance live, I feel that my heart has been singing along with his music. This is the second time I have heard Perlman play live.

From September 28th to October 1st, 2012, I will go to New York to attend the "North American Chinese Writers Association" conference. After I made all my flight and hotel reservations, my husband found out online that Perlman would play violin at Lincoln Center on September 27. Perlman is over sixty years old. In recent years, he has focused on conducting and teaching, and the proportion of performances has been greatly reduced. I wonder if he will ever have the energy to continue playing in public as he did in his middle-aged prime? In order not to miss the opportunity to hear him perform live, I decided to change my flight to New York one day in advance to attend this concert.

The concert held on September 27th at Lincoln Center's "Avery Fisher Hall" is called the "New York Philharmonic Opening Gala with Itzhak Perlman". This is a music festival hosted by the New York Symphony Orchestra. I arrived two hours before the show started, and saw that many audience members had arrived early, had dinner at Lincoln Center, and were waiting to get in. Before the show started, a large number of spectators were waiting in the foyer and side halls in an orderly manner. They were dressed in flashing costumes and straight suits. Their attire was as sophisticated as that of the Oscars. This is enough to show that music lovers in the New York area expect and value this music festival. People who attend Chinese writing conferences usually don’t dress too smartly, so my luggage was also very simple. I chose an outfit that I thought was fairly formal, but when I got to Lincoln Center, I felt like I wasn't serious enough by comparison. Anyway, I'm used to living in the west for a long time.

At the beginning, the band played four songs from "Fountains of Rome" under the conductor of Alan Gilbert.

Then Perlman appeared. Wearing a shiny black silk top, he slowly moved his crutches, laboriously and hobblingly moving his legs left and right. The orchestra conductor followed behind him holding Perlman's violin. When he arrived at a wooden table specially prepared for him, Perlman raised his legs slightly and sat heavily on the chair on the wooden table. He gently put down his crutches and took the violin handed to him by the conductor. It was truly an awe-inspiring scene, and applause followed him every step of the way. Although this scene is too familiar on TV and computers, in such an atmosphere, I believe that many viewers at the scene, like me, felt wet in the corners of their eyes.

That night, Perlman played five pieces of music, including: a Russian-themed Fantasia, the opera "Thais" Meditation, a scherzo by Tchaikovsky, the theme song of the movie "Schindler's List", and Spanish Sarasate's "Introduction and Tarantella" dance music.

I am not going to describe the feeling of listening to these five songs one by one here. I was particularly shocked to hear Perlman play the theme song from the movie "Schindler's List" live. The movie "Schindler's List", which won seven Oscars, tells the story of the horrific massacre of Jews by the SS in Poland under German Nazi rule in 1939; the story of Schindler, a German businessman, who saved more than 1,000 Jews from escaping the massacre with his outstanding social skills and a large amount of money. Perlman played the violin version of the film's theme song. With his superb musical attainments and Jewish background, he was indeed the most suitable person to play this song. When Perlman played the theme song again that day at Lincoln Center, the simple and repeated main melody sounded, slow, heavy, poignant and euphemistic, and the strings vibrated and the notes burst into tears; modified by Perlman's unique fingering, the sad sound of the piano was filled with the tragic experience of the Jews, the outpouring of human suffering, and the call to humanity. Perlman integrated this piece of music with his emotions in a way that no one could surpass.

Perlman played the most glorious and glorious piano sound of dignity and humanity from the depths of his soul. When the performance ended, amid continuous applause, Perlman handed the violin to the orchestra conductor; he first moved his right leg off the wooden platform with his hands, and then moved his left leg off the platform, propped up his crutches, smiled, and nodded frequently to greet the audience; the audience stood up, and warm and sincere applause echoed in the concert hall for a long time; at this time, I used a small camera to freeze his figure moving forward tenaciously in my memory...

Audiences waiting to enter the Lincoln Center Concert Hall in New York on September 27, 2012 (Photography by Wen Ruo)

Perlman is moving off the platform after his performance (Photography by Wen Ruo)