114 Pathetique (1/2)

Chapter 114: Pathetique

Translator: Kris_LiuEditor: Vermillion

Looking at Lucien bowing to the audience, Christopher seemed to be a bit emotional, ”When Victor and Rhine first introduced piano to me, although I could sort of see the potential of this new musical instrument, I never tried to compose anything specially for piano, not to mention to adapt any harpsichord or violin piece for it. The skills Lucian applied just now during his playing were very challenging. What he was trying to do was to learn from the playing skills for string instruments, which is remarkable.”

”Practice makes perfect.” Although Verdi was very impressed as well, he did not want to make a too favorable comment about Lucien, ”Especially after awakening his Blessing, the practice can’t take long for him.”

”Fingering is not everything.” Natasha took a glance at Verdi, ”For other musicians, what is hard is to really get to know piano… I mean… like Lucien, who has this profound understanding of the unique features of this musical instrument. Without the knowledge, there’s no way that one can produce such a fabulous piano piece.”

”Well, maybe I’m too old… Although Lucien’s playing is very impressive, I did not get as excited as you young people with his fancy fingerings.” The grand duke smiled, ”I’m more looking forward to Pathetique.”

On the other side, Lucien’s friends were a bit more relieved now seeing that Lucien’s concert was going great so far. That made the last piece of the concert, a sonata, even more significant.

...

Pierre was also on the square. Gawking at the crystal dome, hearing the thunder-like applause, he felt shame of himself because, when Lucien was playing, his heart was completely seized by Lucien’s bold and unrestrained fingerings, which he once condemned as a horrible betrayal of legitimate playing skills founded by his father.

”No… It’s not right.” Pierre murmured to himself, ”His playing was merely fancy fingerings piling up! That’s unacceptable! That’s… not right.”

Pierre got too distracted to notice that Lucien had come back to the stage again.

Everyone was waiting for the last piece of piano solo of the night, Pathetique.

...

Sitting in front of the piano, Lucien did not start playing immediately. He knew that although the playing skills required for this solo were not challenging for him at all, if he could not devote all he had to the playing, Pathetique could never show its breathtaking charm.

Lucien closed his eyes. All those painful moments came back to him:

The great nostalgia that tortured him in those sleepless nights when he was missing the smile of his parents;

The fear he suffered when he was forced to go into the sewers by the pastor, Benjamin;

The feeling of helplessness when he was beaten by the gangsters;

The horrible feeling of guilt he bore when Joel and his family got kidnapped;

The great anger that was burning his guts when he saw the three fingers sent by the heretics…

All those emotions gathered together and infused Lucien’s heart.

What made Lucien feel the most depressive was the fact that he was trapped in this city, the City of Psalm!

He was hiding like a filthy rat in the sewers to do his magic experiments;

He was like a spy who could not fully trust anyone;

He was worried all the time that he might bring doom to uncle Joel and his family;

Every time he saw gallows, he couldn’t stop imagining that he would be burnt to death one day.

Fear, grief, helplessness, anger, cowardliness…Lucien did not even realized that to what extent the negative emotion was piling up deep in his mind.

Stamping down on the piano pedal, Lucien pounded the keyboard with both of his arms using the great strength coming from his strong mixed feelings.