Fu Cong's Fu Cong Interviews

("Dear child, the day after you left, I wanted to write a letter, but I was afraid that you would be annoyed. But there is not a day that goes by that I don't think of you. I wake up at 6 or 7 every morning, toss and turn, and can't sleep, and I can't tell you what I'm thinking about. Really, the month and a half you were at home that time was the happiest period of our lives, and I don't know to whom I should thank for this happiness. I am happy that I have gained a friend, and that my son has become a friend; what in the world can compare with such happiness? Though you and I shall be far apart in the future, I shall at least be warm and not alone in spirit. I am afraid that the lessons I got from you are not less than what you got from me, especially in the past three years, you don't know that you make me have a few more profound experiences of life, I learned patience from the process of getting along with you, learned the skill of speech, learned to sublimate feelings ......" (--excerpted from "Fu Lei's Letter")

I still remember what Dad said in this letter. It was when I was studying in Poland, and the first time I went back to China, probably in 1956! I slept very little at home and had endless conversations with my family, especially with my father! I spent the whole night talking about all sorts of subjects, musical and philosophical, it was endless!

I was a prodigal son for more than three years between the ages of 13 and 17, staying alone in Kunming and attending Yunnan University when I was 15. At that time, of course, I did not study much, all day long in what student movement ah, play bridge ah, fall in love ah ...... can say that when I returned to Shanghai at the age of 17 years old than the average 17 year old child is more precocious, at that time I really made up my mind to learn music. At that time, my father and I were already friends! Later, I went abroad for a few years, I had more self-confidence, and when I went back to Shanghai in '56, I talked to my father, and he had a special feeling that fathers and sons had really become friends! He would stand in awe of a lot of what I said, and he felt that I had reached a level of musical reasoning. For him, it's not about father and son, it's about learning, and he's absolutely humble in the presence of learning!

Leaving Shanghai when my father's parting words in fact, I grew up hearing him say, "Be a man, before being an artist, before being a musician, before being a pianist." In fact, for me, how to be a person is a very natural thing. I grew up already with a very clear conviction - what is it that I live for? And what am I pursuing? My father said that you have to be a human being before you can be an artist. Artist means to be "through", philosophy, religion, painting, literature ...... everything must be through, and this "to be a human being" also includes the basic spiritual value of being a human being. This is a very wide range, not necessarily to practice on the piano, but to think. I think about it all the time. In good conscience, I seldom read "Letters to the Family". Why? I can't bear to read it! When I go through it, I cry, I can't hold myself all day long, I think all day long, and it's hard for me to work anymore. But the truth is that the words in the Letter have been engraved deep in my heart. Especially my father's last letter, when I think of it now, I can't hold back my tears! The word "man" is written in capital letters! My father was so plain, so simple, so ordinary, but he had the dignity of a real human being. What I remember most about my father is his tormented mind, his loneliness, his inner struggle, his inability to harmonize with society, the conflict between his ideals and reality, and his own emotional ups and downs. When I went to Beijing before going abroad, he once wrote to me in poetic language, like writing a confession, writing about how the nature is frozen, how the grass grows under the cold torture, and how he should be grateful to God. It is a pity that those letters are no longer there; if they were, they would probably be the most touching of all family letters! Having witnessed my father's sufferings and his great emotional ups and downs, I was precocious at an early age. That's because I saw early on the polarity of the human soul. How much there is in the human soul that is small and sacred, horrible and beautiful! The world of Shakespeare I saw at home very early on, and the tragedies of Hamlet and King Lear I saw - of course, I'm giving an example, not saying that actually happened in my family, but the kind of big waves in my family I grew up with. These experiences don't happen to everyone, and they have given me more conviction in life.

My time at my father's side back then was still very short, and what I really learned was actually very little, most of the things I read later. So when I went back to China to lecture at the Conservatory of Music, there were often professors pursing their lips at the stage, because when I pronounced the word white, I hadn't learned how to pronounce the word, I just submerged it by reading the book. It was my father who made a beginning and showed me the way. If you think I learned everything from my father, you are looking at him as too big and too small. He is only a very prominent representative of thousands of years of excellent traditional Chinese culture. Knowledge itself is limited, but the pursuit is unlimited, and it is the pursuit that counts!

I feel that I am still far from my father's expectations of me, there are many places where I I did not do, which is very shameful! Some of the reason is by nature, he is much more rigorous than me! I think I'm rigorous enough to do academic research, but in general life is also extremely rigorous, writing desk is always spotless, all things are organized. On the face of it, it seems like a contradiction, as you can see from my father's writing, which has a fire-like passion and energy, but the logic of his writing is so rigorous. I think he's a lot like Chopin! Chopin was also very meticulous and strict in everything he did, and no other composer was as strict as he was. However, as Lenin (there is a mistake here, it should be Schumann - author's note) said, Chopin is a cannon buried in the flowers, he contains a great deal of explosiveness, but he makes it so beautiful, so detailed, if you do not go to dig carefully, you will be mesmerized by the appearance of the things, do not know that there is something very deep, very deep. I always regret that I didn't change my profession at an early age, because playing the piano is a career where you spend too much time on the piano! Music is something that should be felt and realized, and I'm just not moving my mind all the time. I don't want to be too artistic, I usually have to spend so much time practicing the piano that I spend a large part of my life on the piano! My father was a strict man, he would always write back to his friends, and if something in their letters struck a chord with him, then he would write a letter back as if he were writing a book. I can't do this, it's good enough to make a phone call, and it's too hard for me to answer a letter! Because I was abroad for decades, especially after my parents passed away, I basically stopped writing! What a pain, it takes days to write a letter, then I don't need to practice the piano, I'd have to give it up! In that case, I would really be ashamed of my father and mother in Jiangdong! That's why you can't see my replies in Fu Lei's Letters, because I didn't want to publish them, and I thought they were too childish! The me of that time and the me of now are not different in essence but there is a distance in depth and breadth.

I love music, but playing the piano is drudgery. When I was a child I also love to play - it is no wonder that my father should be angry, if I were him, I would be just as angry if I found my son doing this: the piano with a score, I have the ability to read the Water Margin at the same time, look as if playing the piano, the fingers seem to be automatically in the play, but the eyes are fully absorbed in the Black Whirlwind Li Kui how about how to do it. Dad's ear is very smart, listen to not quite right, come downstairs to take a look, caught, big drink, really like Li Kui big drink! No wonder, when I was young, I liked it is one thing, I think few children are willing to work hard! In fact, in good conscience, when I was a child to learn the piano bottom is very poor very poor, really play the piano only a very short period of time. Then there was a time when I rebelled against my father, and the family was in such an uproar that there was simply no way to play! It wasn't just the 3 years I went to Kunming, but all those years before that! So my foundation was very, very poor! I really put in the work when I first came back to Shanghai at the age of 17, and I played my first concert at the age of 18, which was a "miraculous" thing to say! It's unbelievable to anyone in the world who studies music. I think it's ridiculous that I went to the Chopin Competition within a year or two, I don't even know how it's possible! But I have a very strong feeling for music, and I know this. When I first started learning to play the piano, the teacher who taught me and my dad said, "Children can be taught!" Because although I knew nothing as a child, I was so self-indulgent when I played the piano that I felt I had reached a world of ultimate bliss, in which I think I'm afraid many of the world's first-rate pianists have never reached! It had nothing to do with their technique or training, it was just a special favor from heaven for my career! I remember when my father sent me Huang Binhong's "Essays on Painting" and told me that there were many things in the "Essays on Painting" that were very profound, and that they were just as universal for music. I used to feel the same way, but as I've gotten older, I look at Huang Binhong's paintings now, and I realize some things that I used to feel but didn't realize y.

When I give lectures in various countries, I often give an example, that is, Huang Binhong said, "Master the ancients, master the creation, master the ancients is not as good as master the creation". Recently, that is to come to Changsha in the past few days, I went through it again, and found that he said even better: "Teacher of today's people, teacher of the ancients, teacher of the creation." Then he made an analogy with Zhuang Shenghua's butterfly, saying that "mastering the present generation" is like the stage of being a "worm", "mastering the ancient generation" is the stage of becoming a "chrysalis", and "mastering creation" is the stage of becoming a "chrysalis". The "master of the present generation" is like the stage of being a "worm"; the "master of the ancient generation" is the stage of becoming a "chrysalis"; and the master of the creation is the stage of "flying", that is, the stage of "transforming"! I think this is too profound! Why do I say this is important? Modern technology has advanced, and CDs are everywhere, so people who study music can easily hear the performances of a lot of "modern people" and a lot of "ancient people", i.e., masters of the last generation, but the real mystery of music is not known to the so-called "modern people" or the "ancient people". However, the real mystery of music is that these so-called "moderns" and "ancients" have to be experienced from the "creation" of the world! Why is the word "creation" particularly wonderful? Because music has more freedom of mobility and flexibility than any other art. In this sense, music is the highest art. When I lectured abroad, I was unable to translate the word "creation"; it is a concept that only exists in Chinese culture. The word "化" is very wonderful, it may have the meaning of Taoism "道" in it, and everything is universal, which westerners can't explain. Music is so wonderful that a great composer will continue to develop his work after it is finished, and it will become greater and greater, more and more profound, and more and more endless, so "creation" is as endless as nature, constantly resurrecting, regenerating, and evolving. Modern people basically "learn from the present", in Huang Binhong's words is very low, "learn from the ancients" has been better, because "the ancients" is also the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the spiritual level of those artists is still better than the end of the 20th century. The spiritual realm of those artists is still much higher than the modern spiritual realm, so the "Tao" behind the "Creation" they get is generally much higher than the "present generation". The real "creation" is in the work itself. I do not teach my students what I know. In this connection, I must mention my father, who gave me a living example. Learning is not something I have, nor is it something my father has, it is everywhere, it is the accumulation of thousands of years, it is the **** and wisdom of mankind, but how to pursue this learning is a "learning" for us. When I teach my students, I feel that I am only a slightly older student, to them, I am an ancient man, only I have not yet become ancient! What I point out to my students is only the "creation" within the "creation" that I see, but in fact the real "creation" is always in the "creation" itself. In fact, the real "creation" is always in the "creation" itself. When I teach a group of students, we pursue and study the mystery of "creation" together, of course, sometimes they inspire me, sometimes I inspire them, and we will have a kind of inspiration. I think the most important thing is not how much you know, but that you have the desire to pursue it, the "hunger".

I say we should follow the example of the "ancients" because the development of modern music has not surpassed the achievements of the "ancients". In fact, there are many great musicians in Europe who are not optimistic about many things in modern music, like one of the "ancients", the great German pianist Schnabel, who passed away in 1950 or so, said a very famous sentence: "All my life I have only studied and played things that I could never play well! " In other words, the spirit of these works is so high, and the artistic standard is so perfect, that no other performance can achieve the "high" and "beautiful" quality of the works themselves. But music like that is exactly what he has been playing all his life. In this day and age, we are becoming more and more slaves to machines, slaves to commercialization, and the pursuit of spiritual values has become an antique, really an antique! Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Debussy ...... These people's spirituality is as high to me as our Chinese Laozhuang, Du Fu, Li Bai. That kind of high level, now really no one can reach! I can't say I'm an authority on interpreting Chopin, I'm just a loyal follower of his. "Familiarize yourself with the words of the latter" is basically the spirit of Chopin. Chopin's music is mainly about "the feeling of the homeland", but also deeper, is an infinite regret, a kind of inexorable sadness, a kind of endless nostalgia! This endless nostalgia is not only the nostalgia for his homeland, but also the deep feelings in his music, which is full of the word "love"! This is the kind of music of Chopin, who was a y rooted musician. If I could live again, I would like to be like Huang Binhong, who painted all the way back to the Tang and Song dynasties, building a foundation from that root and then slowly "painting" it out. Huang Binhong lived until he was 90 years old before he reached that level. In my life, playing the piano is a halfway house, the foundation is very poor, I want me to go back to Bach from Bach to Bach before it is impossible! The music I usually like to listen to has the least amount of piano in it, and basically it has nothing to do with the piano. One of my favorite composers is Darius, who never wrote a single piece for piano (that seems wrong?). At least Dellius had a piano concerto - author's note). Because what I love is music, and music is a very big boundless and infinite world. Chopin's classical roots are very deep. His music is very rich in harmony, and at the same time has a very high degree of counterpoint polyphony, unlike Bach's, which is counterpoint at first hearing, which is not, but is everywhere. It can be said that his music contains the art of line in Chinese painting, especially landscape painting, especially in Huang Binhong's landscape paintings, there is that kind of realm of realization, free and easy line ...... Generally people play Chopin, only know to listen to the melody. Chopin's melody is very beautiful, but in addition to the beauty of the melody, people tend to ignore the melody of its other parts. In his music, there is a beautiful line at the top, and there are several other beautiful lines at the bottom that are pervasive and have a lot of expression. In addition, Chopin's music has the beauty of harmony. Unlike ordinary piano playing, where the right hand is the melody and the left hand is the accompaniment, there is no accompaniment in Chopin's music, it is all music, all rich in content. Why do people say that Chopin is the "poet of the piano"? His music is the closest thing to poetry! People say that Chopin must sing, but before he sings, Chopin must dance, and all his music comes out of folk dances, every line of it! Even his narratives have mazurkas and waltzes in them. It's the same with his concertos, for example, the first concerto, the first movement is followed by a Polish dance, and not only that, but that orchestra part at the beginning is a mazurka! Many people, including Western musicians, don't know that! When I told them about it, they were surprised, but when they analyzed it, it made sense! Apart from that, there is something more important: Chopin wants to speak! Chopin's music is so close to poetry, it's as if he's talking to you. There is a piece of his Nocturne in E major, Op. 62, and when I first encountered it, I felt that the last part of the piece was really "Tearful eyes look at the flowers and flowers do not say anything, messy red flying over a thousand autumn songs" (the quotation here is incorrect, it should be "Tearful eyes ask the flowers and flowers do not say anything, messy red flying over the thousands of autumn songs", the original sentence). (The original line is from Ouyang Xiu's "Butterfly Lovers"--Author's note)! The color of "red" feels so real! Every time I play this piece, I really feel that way - tearful eyes looking at flowers and flowers do not speak! Chopin's music is so touching! Everyone feels he's talking to you! Chopin really is the closest thing to poetry!

When I talk about it, it seems that every composer has something to do with Chinese poetry, for example, Tao Yuanming is very much like Schubert, Beethoven and Bach are less so, but Beethoven is a bit like Du Fu in terms of his "bitterness". Chopin's music is really close to our Chinese culture, so what shocked the Poles most about the Polish Chopin Piano Competition was not the fact that a certain person won the prize, but that the whole Chinese delegation gave them a very deep impression, and they thought that basically all the Chinese people had the feeling of Chopin. There are fewer and fewer people in the world who have a feeling for Chopin, because Chopin's kind of poetic language and his kind of deep feeling are more and more lacking in the world, and the kind of persistence that puts life and death beyond the limits of the world is really very few and far between! " I once said that in many ways my father was a prophet." He said, "Chinese music develops out of the language, and in fact the music of all countries is inseparably related to its language. Russian music, such as Mosolsky's operas, was mined from their Russian language, and his musical language is closely related to their national language! Debussy's music is related to the French language, Schubert's music is related to the German language. As for Chinese music, Zhao Yuanren also made many attempts to develop Chinese music in terms of tone poetry, which is at least one of the most important ways to develop Chinese music, and I think he was absolutely right! I think he was absolutely right! It's wonderful that many years later, when I taught a Debussy etude to my students, one of the stanzas had a similar rhythmic and rhythmic pattern to the words of Nalan Shide! That's why I often say that Debussy is a "Chinese" musician. It's a marvelous world that Debussy, who came out of a completely different culture, could embody the essence of Chinese culture so perfectly! When I lecture abroad, I often use Chinese poems and lyrics from the Tang and Song dynasties to interpret Western music, and Westerners are very interested in this, and they feel very strongly about it after I explain it to them.

Chinese folk music was different after 1979, open and less "dogmatic" about the art of music! From the time of liberation to 1979, there was basically no music in China, only propaganda slogans, which had nothing to do with music! Later on, the Western modern school began to be introduced, with world-class modern composers such as Messiaen from France and musicians from the United States coming to China to give lectures. A group of young Chinese composers are now in Europe and America, and they are making many attempts. I think many of these Chinese composers are very talented. Tan Dun, for example, was put in the Peking Opera troupe during the Cultural Revolution, and was exposed to a lot of Chinese theater arts and folk artists in the past, which I think is great, and for him, it's an inexhaustible treasure, which is much better than learning counterpoint and composing in school! That's the real solid soil. But there's a problem: it's also easy to get carried away learning modernism ...... Music takes more time than anything else. I think in a decade or two we might look back and see it more clearly!

Nowadays, a lot of Chinese families send their children to music schools to study piano, violin or other instruments, and I don't know what their starting point is. If they think it's a shortcut to fame and fortune, they're not going to make it! Maybe they can, and the kid is very talented, but if that's what they're after, then their value is not what I would consider to be the value of the art of music, but the value of the world, and that's a very dangerous value. If the child learns music because he really loves music, and he has a strong sensibility, and he knows that music is hard work, and he is willing to be a slave to music all his life, and he has a spirit of dedication, then that's a different story! If you don't have the kind of love for music that "you can't live without it", then you should not study music, but study electronics, medicine, or law, and you will have a much better chance of success! The arts must be pursued out of a sense of spirituality, a sense of love, and a willingness to dedicate one's life to it regardless of success or failure. I don't know how many parents have such a starting point, but if they do, even if their child doesn't become a professional musician, it's a great blessing that he has a spiritual world to wander in! Studying music is good in itself, and my father didn't think that I could become a famous musician just because of the little bit of understanding and musicality that I showed when I was a child, but he was a true humanist, and he thought that all humanistic things should be universal. The kind of education he gave me from childhood in art, literature and philosophy was absolutely no less than in music, and even more than in music. He let me study music with this in mind: if there is development, then go this way; if there is not, then it is also a good thing, and it can form a very important organic part of my character cultivation and spiritual realm. That's really how he sees it! I think people should see it this way, and they should love art. Huang Binhong said, "Art can save the country." That's true! Art represents a spiritual value. Spiritual values are really lacking now, all over the world!" In good conscience, it is on the piano that I spend the most energy, not that I am destined to be a pianist, but because I don't have enough roots. I took very little piano lessons as a child, and the most critical years, the ones between the ages of 13 and 17, I didn't have a chance to play the piano at all, and I didn't have a very good husband when I started again at 17, unlike today's generation, who are really fortunate to have such a good child's work, and who have a very solid foundation. As I get older every year, it takes me so much time to conquer something like the piano purely technically, that I will always feel embarrassed to be a pianist. This is the purely mechanical aspect of being a pianist. At my age, it takes twice as much energy or even four or five times as much energy to reach a certain level. That's why it's an unsolvable contradiction that my hands keep hurting these days.

Although the condition of my hand is not good now, and it is even more painful to practice, I still insist on practicing. When I'm at home, I can practice 8 to 10 hours a day if I don't have anything else to do. This tendonitis on my hand and this bandage may indicate that I do not have enough child's energy, and if my child's energy is good, I don't need to practice the piano so hard! In terms of the ability to play the piano in a purely mechanical way, all the competitors in piano competitions and all the students in conservatories are better than me! However, when it comes to the pursuit of a spiritual realm, the change of sound, and the "meaning of words" in music, there is still a big gap between them! Nowadays, young people don't practice much, and they are very good at it. They need to read more, look at more paintings, and think more!

My father said, "It's a spirit to know what you can't do and do it." You have to know the perfection in art in your heart. As I said before about what Schnabel said, great music you can never achieve, your playing can never be as perfect as the work. You know this in your heart, but you still pursue this thing tirelessly, with all your might, until the end of your days, and there's a kind of endless joy in this pursuit, you discover something new every minute, and every time you discover something it's just a drop of water in the ocean! Every time you see another "drop of water", you'll be happy that you've seen something new! Honestly, I'm tired of playing the piano now, I'm really tired! I'd really like to help the next generation and take on an apprentice! I teach a lot of classes now, usually master classes, but I don't usually teach private students. The name "master class" doesn't mean that I consider myself a master, it's usually a big class. I don't teach my limited knowledge to my students, just like my father, who didn't teach me his knowledge, but rather inspired me to use my brain, i.e. gave me a "key" to think. I generally like to give a big lecture, my purpose is to discover the mystery inside the music, how to express this mystery is what everyone should explore! At this point, I still want to know what I can't do and do it!

I have been reading Chinese books all these years, both ancient and modern, and I have been reading them constantly. I also have a lot of paintings at home, especially Huang Binhong's paintings. But I think these are not the main thing, the main thing is in my head there is Chinese culture. How can I put it? In good conscience, the Chinese books I have read are very limited. One day a few years ago, I suddenly felt that the first lesson my father taught me when I was a child was "Learning from time to time, is it not pleasing to you? It's a pleasure to have friends from afar, isn't it? ......" is really a reflection of my life! My interpretation of this is this: I learn, often constantly review, and then continue to study. This is how I translate it abroad, and I am quite satisfied with this translation: "LEARN AND CONSTANTLY RESTUDY, ISN'T THAT PLEASURE?FRIENDS COME FROM FAR AWAY, ISN'T IT JOY? 'T IT JOY?" "Have a friend from afar, isn't it a joy?" For me it's SHARE, I share my "learning" with my friends. In good conscience, that's basically what I do, or at least that's where I'm headed. Chinese culture is part of me, and I wouldn't be me without it! Culture and I are completely one! In fact, I ...... I am very afraid to go back to my country! My heart aches every time I go back to China, there are many things that make me very angry, and there are also many things that make me very happy and things that make me very sorry. This kind of feeling is always tumbling in my heart, of course, as an artist, I can't put such concrete things into art, but should be sublimated to another level. The culture of our motherland is really too great, it contains too much power, and I feel much more strongly than the average person! I sometimes even feel emotionally unable to bear the impact of this culture on my heart. I still remember that when I returned to China for the second time, I once went to Chengdu, went to the Wuhou Temple, and saw the "Former Exit Table" and "Later Exit Table" written by Zhuge Liang, and now when I think back on it, I have to shed tears! It was so touching! That kind of personality is expressed between the lines, touching! Some people have noticed that my mouth sings even when I practice the piano, which is actually my shortcoming! But I have to admit it's my downfall, I can't control myself. As my father's letter says, music must be able to go in and out. When I practiced, I went in, but I didn't go out! If I don't make that sound, I can hear what I'm playing more clearly, I can control it, and I can get close to "in and out". I just couldn't do it. On the contrary, I can sing a little less in front of a crowd, because then there is a kind of "concentration", everyone is listening to me, and I can hear myself more clearly. Why do you say that Mozart was "in and out"? His music is doing theater, and at the same time he is watching theater. That's the beauty of Chinese theater, and that's what Shakespeare is all about!