1990: Starting from Baojia Street

Zhou Yan was not surprised to see Sting in London, but what surprised Zhou Yan was that Zhang Youan was standing with the Stings.

Zhang Youan first worked in the record industry, but he is basically familiar with the music market in Hong Kong and Taiwan. It is not known that he has any resources abroad.

Moreover, I had never heard Zhang Youan say that he knew Sting before, and Zhang Youan didn't mention Sting when he came the night before yesterday.

"Hello, you two." Zhou Yan smiled and shook Sting's hand, "Welcome to my concert."

Sting was a little taller than Zhou Yan, and he should have exercised regularly. He was a bit bigger than Zhou Yan. He held Zhou Yan's hand and said with a smile, "It should be us who welcome you to London, like you." The music master also adds more color to London.”

Zhou Yan didn't expect that a rock star like Sting could speak so officially, just like a department-level cadre.

In fact, singers like Sting also have many fans in China. Some domestic singers who are more exposed to British rock, in addition to liking the Beatles, are also famous singer-songwriters like Sting. their sight.

Perhaps, those rock singers in China will be disillusioned when they see Sting like this, because Sting looks completely different from their mental state.

What freedom, love and peace, anti this, anti that, are not seen at all in Sting.

Sting is a very sophisticated young man when he is not on stage.

When chatting with Zhou Yan, Sting would also take the initiative to stir up topics, and he was very smart and knew how to talk about classical music with Zhou Yan.

He talked about some of Zhou Yan's songs and expressed his liking for them.

It can be heard that Sting has a pretty good classical foundation.

Said to be pretty good, naturally compared with ordinary singers, there is still a big gap between him and professional singers.

Sting's classical foundation comes from the teachings of his mother. It is said that his mother began teaching him piano performance and music theory when he was very young.

As for Sting's songs, the style is more complicated. Although the core is rock, when he was in the band before, it had a strong reggae flavor.

After his solo career, his style became richer, including reggae, classical, rock, and jazz, and he liked to fuse various styles together and take a more avant-garde approach.

If you want to experiment and innovate, you will most likely lose some of your listenability. Therefore, Sting’s current fan base is not very wide. In the past few years, his only song that has been released is the theme song "Shape" from "This Killer Isn't Too Cold". of my heart".

And it is precisely because Sting is involved in many music styles that he can feel Zhou Yan's power even more. Every time the two of them talk about a music style, Zhou Yan can say some insightful words, and you can tell that he is interested in it. I know these genres very well.

This shows that Zhou Yan has a thorough understanding of the underlying logic of music.

Sting's wife is also a very sociable person. Although she rarely interrupts the conversation between Zhou Yan and Sting, she always maintains a decent smile and chimes in at the right time, making the entire conversation smoother.

A good communicator does not necessarily have to show his or her chatting skills on any occasion. Sometimes it is also a very good ability to play a supporting role well.

The few of them chatted until the concert was about to start. Zhang Youan said, "You two, the concert is about to start. Let's go and sit down in front."

Only then did Sting realize that he had taken up too much of Zhou Yan's time. He quickly stood up and said, "I'm very sorry for wasting your time."

"You're welcome, you go and take your seats first."

"Okay, I'm looking forward to your wonderful performance."

After Zhang Youan took Sting and the others away, Zhou Yan was still a little curious as to why Zhang Youan brought these two people over. The Stings were here just now, and Zhou Yan had no chance to ask.

……

Mr. and Mrs. Steen and Zhang Youan walked to the front. Styler looked at the front row and said to her husband, "I think I saw Emma Thompson."

"Really?" Sting also looked in the direction of Emma Thompson.

Zhang Youan explained from the side, "Zhou Yan and Emma Thompson collaborated on a movie, as well as directors An Li and Alan Rickman."

"Oh, An Li is here too." Styler said unexpectedly.

"Who is An Li?" Sting was more curious about who An Li was. He had never heard of this name before.

"A director who is quite famous recently."

After all, Sting is from the music industry and doesn't know much about interpersonal relationships in the film and television industry, but Styler is different. She is an actress and has started working as a producer in the past two years, so she knows more about the film industry.

"They should be filming Sense and Sensibility," Styler added.

"Sense and Sensibility" is a British literary classic. This book is going to be remade into a movie, and Styler has also heard about it.

"Yes, it's this movie. Zhou Yan is the soundtrack director of the movie." Zhang Youan said.

Styler nodded, "How about we go say hello."

"Okay, I'll take you there."

Zhang Youan took the Stings with him to greet An Li and the others, introduced each other, and after a brief chat, the Stings returned to their seats.

Here, An Li waited for Sting and the others to leave, and then asked Emma Thompson, "Is this Mr. Sting very famous in the British music scene?"

"Of course he is famous. The theme song of "The Killer Isn't Too Cold" was his song." Winslet replied.

An Li doesn't know much about these people in the music industry, but he became more familiar with "This Killer Isn't Too Cold".

Emma Thompson looked at it in the first row and then murmured, "It seems that apart from Mr. and Mrs. Sting, Zhou Yan didn't invite any other celebrities."

An Li smiled and said, "The concert hall is so big. If too many people are invited, ordinary music fans will not be able to buy tickets."

A few people chatted for a while, and then the lights in the concert hall suddenly dimmed. They didn't talk anymore because they knew that the concert was about to start.

At half past seven, the lights on the stage came on, the orchestra and conductor were in place, and the audience applauded the performers.

At this time, Zhou Yan slowly walked up from the stage holding a violin.

When he arrived on the stage, Zhou Yan bowed to the audience, then walked to the violin and took his seat without saying anything.

After standing up, Zhou Yanchong directed Yue Lin to nod, and Yue Lin signaled, directly raising his hand to shoot.

Since the concert is named after The Sixth Sense, there will definitely be a lot of music from the "Sixth Sense" movie today, and the first song played today is "Phantom" which was played when the hero realized he was dead. .

The song was originally not long, but Zhou Yan made some arrangements and the length became more than six minutes.

Emma Thompson listened to the performance on the stage, and some surprises emerged in her heart. She recognized it as the soundtrack from "The Sixth Sense", but she did not expect that this piece of music would have such a good effect when played in the concert hall. .

No, it’s still different.

The live version is still much more complicated than the one in the movie, with greater emotional ups and downs and more momentum.

Although the live performance does not have the scene of the movie to match, the immersive feeling and the more complex arrangement can quickly bring out the emotions.

There are many details that you cannot experience when watching a movie, but at the scene, every note rushes into the ears of the audience firmly, like a tide, making people immersed in it.

After "Phantom" ended, Zhou Yan played "Tears".

This piece of music was specially written by Zhou Yan for "The Flying Piano Boy". It was a piece of music played by the young male protagonist after his grandfather passed away.

This song is relatively soothing and does not have big mood swings. It is the opposite extreme of the previous song "Phantom", but this song is quite popular in the UK.

Many British music fans really like the tune of this song.

When An Li was discussing the soundtrack with Zhou Yan before, he even proposed whether "Tears" could be paired with strings and placed in "Sense and Emotion".

However, this proposal was rejected by Zhou Yan.

An Li listened to "Tears" being played on the stage and felt that it would be pretty good if this song was included in the "Sense and Sensibility" movie.

After "Tears", the orchestra played "Morning, First Snow, Red Sun", "Kite", "Forever Together", "Reunion" and other songs.

By the time these pieces were played, less than half of the concert had passed, and the orchestra had slightly adjusted its position.

During the performance of the first two songs, "Reunion" and "Forever Together", Zhou Yan was in charge of playing the piano, but now he stood up, took a triangle and walked to the middle of the orchestra. Zhang Zuoquan, the principal pianist who played the piano before, Come and change your shift.

When the audience in the front row saw Zhou Yan holding a triangle, they were a little confused. What song would be next? Even if Zhou Yan didn't play the piano, he could still play the violin. As for holding a triangle?
As Zhou Yan's old fan, Hiramatsu Kazuhiro guessed it right away. He whispered in a low voice, "Are we going to play "Eternal Night"?"

The companion next to him heard his voice and couldn't help but ask, "What?"

Hiramatsu and Guang shook their heads and said nothing. Conversations were not suitable for conversation.

The reason why he guessed like this was because he knew that the piece "Eternal Night" was very difficult, and it would be very difficult for people with insufficient skills to play it.

This piece of music was written by Zhou Yan, but Zhou Yan himself could not perform it well.

Hiramatsu and Hiro's guess was correct, the song played next was "Eternal Night".

When the stormy piano sound poured out, many audience members were shocked. What the hell is this music? Why do I feel a little short of breath?

This rapid piano sound lasted for about twenty seconds, and the rhythm began to slow down. Just when the audience thought the music was going to slow down, the rhythm stopped at a certain point and did not drop any further.

Although it is no longer as urgent as it was at the beginning, it is still very fast.

This song "Eternal Night" is very different from the first version that Zhou Yangang wrote. In recent years, Zhou Yan has made many modifications to "Eternal Night". While it is technically more mature, it is also more primitive. "Eternal Night" is a very crazy piece of music. When Zhou Yan first wrote it, the teachers in the department said that although Zhou Yan looked gentle and elegant, he was quite thin, but he was wild and uninhibited at heart.

This piece of music is full of questions about the heaven and earth, and it has a sense of wanting to compete with God.

When Sting heard the song "Eternal Night", he was shocked. This song is so personal and extremely technical.

Gorgeous, grand, and full of incomparable arrogance, this is Sting's impression of this song.

This is completely unlike the music composed by the introverted Zhou Yan. In Sting's impression, people who can write this kind of music should be some kind of lonely artists.

Also shocked was Emma Thompson. Although her opinion of Zhou Yan had changed a lot, she still didn't expect that Zhou Yan's talent could reach such an extent.

There is one thing about the song "Eternal Night" that is better. Even listeners who don't understand classical music may find it enjoyable and the listenability is pretty good.

Some of these passages can even become popular sketches if taken out alone.

After the performance of the song "Eternal Night", Zhang Zuoquan, the lead piano player, also breathed a long sigh of relief. This piece of music consumes a lot of physical energy.

But tonight he was in good condition, and his temporary performance in some places was also very good.

The audience in the audience also began to breathe heavily. When "Eternal Night" was played on the stage just now, they became very careful when breathing.

Some viewers were almost starved of oxygen.

"Eternal Night" is like a turning point, bringing the tension of the concert to its highest point, and the following songs gradually become more relaxed.

Today's concert basically finished playing all the soundtracks from "The Flying Piano Boy" and "The Sixth Sense".

But not a single song in "Mysterious Country" was played.

When the last song "Awakening" was played, Winslet in the audience muttered with some disappointment, "I thought there would be a bamboo flute playing."

After all, Alan Rickman had more experience. He smiled and said, "Don't worry."

At this time, Zhou Yan took conductor Yue Lin to greet the audience, and then walked to the edge of the stage.

After that, it was time to go through the process, and the audience began the first encore.

Zhou Yan stayed at the edge of the stage, waiting for the audience to encore before re-entering the stage.

This time on stage, someone handed the bamboo flute to his hand, and at the same time, Ma Dongfang also walked up holding the erhu.

Seeing the bamboo flute in Zhou Yan's hand, Winslet looked at Rickman and smiled, "You're right, Colonel Brand."

Rickman also smiled, "Let's look forward to Zhou Yan's bamboo flute together."

Zhou Yan was not in a hurry to play on stage. He held the microphone and smiled, "Thank you all for coming to watch the performance of the Piano Youth Orchestra tonight. This is the first time the Piano Youth Orchestra has come to Europe, the UK, and London. Over the past two hours, I’ve felt your enthusiasm.”

In fact, more than half of those who came to the scene today were Asians with black hair.

However, this does not mean that European locals do not like Zhou Yan's music, but that many locals bought tickets late and did not buy them.

Most Asians are very active in buying tickets, and many of them know that it is difficult to buy tickets for Zhou Yan.

"Friends who have watched my concerts before should know that my concerts usually have a few pieces of oriental style music, but I didn't show it to you today. Now since everyone still wants to listen, let's use bamboo flute and erhu I want to show you the oriental music style. This song is called "Drinking the Water of the Yangtze River Together". I hope you will like it."

After saying that, Zhou Yan nodded to Ma Dongfang, and then the two began to play together.

After listening to piano, violin and other musical instruments all night, I suddenly heard the sound of bamboo flute and erhu. I don’t want to say whether it sounds good or not, but at least it is fresh enough.

The bamboo flute has a melodious tone, while the erhu has a slightly sad tone. When the two play together, it sounds like weeping, complaining, resentment and admiration, and the sense of the picture comes out at once.

The sounds of the two instruments chase each other and never meet, making people feel full of disappointment.

The emotions given by music are very direct. Although everyone thinks of different things in their minds, the emotions conveyed are very similar.

Hearing this piece of music, An Li thought of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, while Alan Rickman thought of Romeo and Juliet.

Beautiful love ends in tragedy.

Of course, not everyone will think of love, some people will think of family ties and friendship, but no matter what kind of emotion they think of, it is definitely sad, because the theme revealed in the song is separation.

Everyone has similar feelings about separation and separation.

Although the music is simple, Zhou Yan's bamboo flute is of a very high standard, and his performance in details is very good. Ma Dongfang's erhu is no problem either, and he has a big heart. He has no stage fright at all on stage, and he cooperates very well with Zhou Yan.

At this time, the advantages of the small concert hall were also highlighted.

The volume of the duet will certainly not be too loud, but because the concert hall is relatively small, the listening experience of the audience is still guaranteed.

The only flaw is that there are two men playing on the stage. After all, it is not interesting to perform a love piece with a same-sex ensemble. If there are two performers, a man and a woman, the effect will definitely be better.

Of course, this is Britain after all, so a same-sex ensemble might be a good choice.

Many people in the audience didn't even know what the erhu was or the bamboo flute, but that didn't stop them from falling in love with this piece because the melody was really catchy.

Some people also became interested in the bamboo flute because of Zhou Yan's playing.

Although there are two musical instruments and two musicians on the stage, from a visual perspective, Zhou Yan is obviously more handsome playing the flute. Moreover, they came to see Zhou Yan in the first place, so they must have a filter for Zhou Yan.

When the performance of "Drinking the Yangtze River Together" ended, the audience applauded.

Next, it is the same old process, Zhou Yan goes down, then the audience encores, and then Zhou Yan comes up again.

This went back and forth five times.

After stepping down for the sixth time, Zhou Yan went directly to the backstage without stopping.

After arriving backstage, Zhou Yan thought he could breathe a sigh of relief. He was still thinking about getting some late-night snacks when the accompanying staff came running over.

"Teacher Zhou, do you want to take a few people outside for an encore performance later?"

Zhou Yan frowned and said, "Didn't I say before that there would be no encore?"

"But there were quite a few people gathered outside."

"Is it?"

"Yes, I roughly counted, and there must be four to five hundred people. Moreover, they heard the news from somewhere. They all said that after the concert tonight, there will be an encore outside, and they are not willing to leave. ”

Zhou Yan scratched his eyebrows. Could it be the news spread by the concert hall? The organizers probably won't spread such false news, it won't do them any good in selling tickets.

It is possible that Zhang Youan did this, but if it was Zhang Youan, he would definitely inform them in advance and let them prepare in advance.

But now is not the time to dwell on this matter. Now that the matter has come to this, we can only take people out to perform a few shows.

Zhou Yan thought for a while and said, "Go and call Ma Dongfang, Fang Xiu, Li Biru... these people over."

He named more than a dozen people at once, but the staff didn't remember them, "Teacher Zhou, why don't you write them down? I... can't remember them."

Zhou Yan thought for a while, shook his head and said, "Forget it, let's call everyone in the orchestra. No matter what song is performed, we need to be big."

The staff member smiled and said, "Teacher Zhou is right."

Not long after the staff left, Zhang Youan and the Steen couple came over again.

"Congratulations, tonight's concert was very successful. You and your band brought everyone an unforgettable night." Sting said with a smile.

"Thank you for your compliment." Zhou Yan said with a smile, "But I have to go out for an extra performance soon, so I'm afraid I won't have time to accompany you."

Sting shook his head, "It doesn't matter, you are busy with your business, don't worry about us."

His wife, Styler, smiled and said, "We just happened to have heard enough, so we can listen to it together."

……

When Zhou Yan took the orchestra members out, he found that there were far more than four or five hundred people outside the concert hall. It must have looked like more than a thousand people.

Of course, the concert is over now, and many of the audience are coming out of the concert hall.

Although they had already listened to the concert for two or three hours inside, they didn't mind listening to another free concert outside.

Ma Dongfang followed Zhou Yan. Seeing so many people present, he couldn't help but mutter, "There are more spectators outside than inside. Many people have not received their ticket money."

Zhou Yan joked: "How about you go find an iron basin and knock on it while asking the audience for money. There are thousands of people here. If everyone gives you one pound, it will be thousands of pounds."

"Don't tell me, senior brother, I'm quite moved by the method you mentioned."

Zhou Yan sneered, "Go ahead!" (End of Chapter)