293 A Master’s Piano Playing (2/2)

It felt very familiar, but compared to the first time Lucien played the sonata, the belief that one should never give up hope despite the many great difficulties in life was more prominent, and people now also had a better understanding to appreciate the theme.

When he finished playing Sonata Pathétique, Lucien coughed hard on the stage with his right hand covering his mouth. Franz, Grace, Fabbrini and many who knew about Lucien health condition suddenly felt rather worried.

Fortunately, Lucien stopped coughing soon. With flushed cheeks, he stood up as usual and thanked the audience. Then he sat back on the piano bench.

”What is Mr. Evans going to play to show his skills?” asked Fabbrini. Because this part was a solo playing, Fabbrini had no idea what this part would be like.

He thought Franz, as Lucien's assistant, and Grace, as his student, should at least know something about it.

Franz shook his head, ”Mr. Evans never rehearsed this part in front of us. No one can ask a great musician like Mr. Evans to go through the whole repertoire for the concert. So neither of us know what he is going to play.”

”That's true,” agreed Grace. ”But the teacher said that this part is for showing a pianist's skill, so I suppose it's going to be very challenging.”

At this time, the whole Psalm Hall and the square quieted down, because they saw that Lucien had put his hands on the keyboard.

Then, Lucien started to play.

Immediately, they thought that they heard countless bumble bees flying and buzzing beside their ears.

Faster and faster, the sound of bumble bees flying around filled in the space. People were shocked to see how fast Lucien's hands could move — they were too fast to belong to a human being!

Faster and faster, people started to become crazy with the great passion for music.

Although Flight of the Bumblebee lasted for only a few minutes, when Lucien pressed down the last key, people took a couple of seconds to recover and then started to cheer aloud for this great young musician!

They had never heard something like this before, but they could feel the freedom underneath the playing skills.

Seeing Lucien's excellent playing skills, those musicians including Christopher, Victor, and Othello all nodded with satisfaction, but at the same time, they felt that this part was a bit too strange and creative for them to accept for now.

Natasha, however, spoke highly of it and whistled, ”Awesome! I wonder if he could be even faster!”

She understood that being fast was not all that mattered. As a radiant knight, speed was not a problem. However, if one wanted to play very fast and still bring the audience the beauty of music, this was not easy, but a great test to a musician.

...

After the solo part, the audience started to talk to each other when taking a short break, because there were still two long pieces of symphony following.

Some of them were phrasing Lucien's outstanding conducting and playing skills; some were trying to recall how fast Lucien's hands moved; and others held great admiration toward Lucien's inspiration…

Fifteen minutes later, Lucien, in a black tuxedo, came back to the stage. He first bowed to the audience, then came to stand in front of the band.

Christopher stood straight and his mind was full of expectation just as other musicians and the audience. They wondered what kind of symphony New Country was.

For music in Aalto, symphony was the mainstream, the most shining and precious gem on the crown of music.

Lucien slightly closed his eyes, and the baton in his right hand started to stir. The band followed his instruction and started to play. The gentle but profound melody was like a long story gradually unfolded.

This was Lucien Evans' music! It seized people's heart immediately and made all the musicians present nod out of satisfaction.

The latter part of the introductory movement suddenly became intense and full of surges. The trumpets were indicating a more passionate theme of the symphony.

However, the following first movement made most musicians frown, as it was just so folk-music style and away from the traditional symphony structure.