Chapter 196 (1/2)
Volume 5 / Chapter 196
TL: LightNovelCafe
“Hey! Why did you talk like that?”
As soon as he picked up the phone, he could hear Yoon Kwang Hun yell. But the tone did not feel like a scolding. It felt like he was holding back laughter.
“Are you talking about the interview? You saw it?”
“Yeah. I saw it broadcast live on the internet. It’s crazy.”
“Well… The reporters asked relentlessly. It was annoying. So I just said what I was thinking… I don’t know why everyone is making such a fuss.”
When Jun Hyuk answered cautiously, there was yelling again. It was something he had not been expecting.
“Of course. You should have just done it. You can’t catch up with his piano sonata? Why so timid? You really don’t think you could?”
“No, I don’t. It’s a total uncrossable wall.”
“I don’t think so. You have quite a few piano sonatas that could easily be put up against Beethoven’s.”
“I can’t follow Beethoven’s way of using one theme to create a song.”
Jun Hyuk forgot that he was on the phone and shook his head.
“You still have a long way to go before you’re 50 years old. Work hard at it.”
Yoon Kwang Hun and the maestros who know Jun Hyuk well were applauding the situation with laughter and looking on with interest.
“Jun. I guess you are afraid of Beethoven? You have one foot in and one quietly pulled out.”
Jun Hyuk was exhausted from taking over 10 calls full of jokes.
***
While the internet was becoming more and more heated over Jun Hyuk’s statement, Jun Hyuk was starting the first rehearsal with the vocal finalists.
The vocal soloists gathered around a single piano in order to practice just the solo parts. When Jun Hyuk entered the room, Laura was the first to welcome him.
“Jun. Congratulations on the win.”
“Laura! Congratulations. It was the best performance. It’ll be your time now.”
“What are you talking about? It’ll be the time of the new Beethoven. Ha ha.”
Not surprisingly, it came up again.
“Whew – You saw the interview?”
“You think there’s anyone who hasn’t seen it? Where did that confidence come from?”
“No. That article was exaggerated.”
They could feel the 5 other soloists’ eyes on them and quickly stopped chatting, blushing.
Jun Hyuk quickly changed his expression, and bowed to the vocal finalists.
“First, congratulations on reaching the finals. And I apologize for having a personal conversation for so long.”
Jun Hyuk hastily sat in front of the piano and spoke again to the 6 vocalists.
“You practiced yesterday with Maestro Boulez? Then forget everything that you felt during practice yesterday.”
The finalists seemed to be a bit taken aback. The rumor was true. The rumor that the 2 conductors are performing with completely different interpretations of the song had leaked little by little through the orchestra.
“Of course, also forget Beethoven’s choral symphony. I’ll say it again, but it’s an entirely different song.”
As soon as Jun Hyuk spoke, a thick voice spoke up.
“It might be possible for the orchestra, piano, or violin, but it’s hard for singers like us to erase Beethoven. Isn’t the song we’re singing Ode to Joy?”
A male vocalist who entered the finals as a baritone looked a bit discontented.
“The lyrics are Ode to Joy but honestly, there isn’t much meaning to it. There wasn’t really anything else to put in, and I don’t write well enough to put in my own lyrics… But I kept the meaning of the first verse of the lyrics. I’ll tell you about this again later.”
The first verse of Beethoven’s choral symphony is not Schiller’s ‘Ode to Joy’. They are lyrics that Beethoven himself wrote.
“The important thing is the feeling you have while singing. You’ll know when you join the orchestra for rehearsal soon, but it is really aggressive.”
During practice yesterday, Maestro Boulez kept stressing ‘elegance’. It is ‘aggressiveness’ today?
“If I have to express it in one phrase, it would be like a war song.”
“War song?”
The baritone’s face became an expression of doubt. It is hard to find war in the first verse that Jun Hyuk had said was important.
“Yes. It’s not a song that is showing the joy of victory. The entire 4th part is in the midst of a battle. You are all warriors. You’re warriors who become excited at the sight of blood. That’s the kind of thought you have to have while singing.”
“Is it in symmetry with the 2nd part?”
Laura watched the other soloists and spoke cautiously.
“Why do you think that?”
Jun Hyuk’s eyes flashed as he looked at Laura.