Chapter 90

Many people in the audience who didn't understand the piano couldn't help but ask, "What's going on? Why do all the piano majors look like they've seen a ghost?"

So someone started to explain, "This piece is the second most difficult in the world." Someone else then said, "Wasn't the previous one played globally ranked sixth? The difference between second and sixth isn't that big, right?"

The volunteer explainer shook his head in a profound manner, "No, the gap is huge. 'English Country-Tunes' is light years ahead of 'Mazeppa.' One belongs to the human realm, the other to the divine. How could the gap not be significant?"

Wu Di, sitting in the audience, didn't really believe that the fat guy on stage could play 'English Country-Tunes.' He had heard that someone played this piece at the International Chopin Piano Competition a couple of years ago, but for some reason, there was no video of it. The first and second places were vacant that year. The third place was reportedly an American of Chinese descent who disappeared after the competition, not even collecting the trophy.

The examiners in the audience, seeing Cheng Xiaoyu sitting on stage with his eyes closed in deep thought, also didn't believe he could play it. Not just him, but even the Shanghai Conservatory, no, the entire country, had no one who had played this piece. All the experts thought Cheng Xiaoyu was just buying a score to show off.

The high-difficulty piano piece 'English Country-Tunes,' composed by British composer Michael Finnissy, is so daunting that it's not that people don't want to play it, but they dare not. Just looking at the score, which seems like an abstract painting, can make one's eyes spin. Many pianists have even suffered mental breakdowns from playing this piece, so most pianists don't dare to touch it until they reach a certain level.

Cheng Xiaoyu took a deep breath and slightly turned his head to Pei Yanchen, "I'll turn the first few pages myself, and you can help me with the rest."

Pei Yanchen, looking at the densely packed, seemingly cryptic notes, felt like he was about to break down. He replied with a complex expression, "Okay."

The piano piece 'English Country-Tunes,' composed by British composer Michael Finnissy over thirty years ago, is considered one of the most difficult to play. It requires extremely high levels of playing technique, finger dexterity, and reaction speed. Sometimes, a single bar contains three hundred notes, and both the fingers and elbows are used during performance.

After the entire music hall was stunned by the name 'English Country-Tunes,' Cheng Xiaoyu suddenly and unexpectedly placed his hands on the keys and started playing.

The noise, which sounded like chaos to ordinary people, abruptly burst into the ears of the audience. Most people thought this chaotic sound was without any pattern, and some even covered their ears.

Then, someone saw Cheng Xiaoyu, looking like a madman, hit the keys with his elbow.

From the side, Cheng Xiaoyu's right hand was perfectly parallel to the keys, the distance between them being exactly the length of his bent fingers. As his wrist moved across the keys, there was no visible up-and-down movement, and the changes in position were almost imperceptible.

As he played, Cheng Xiaoyu flipped the pages with his right hand, the pages rustling as if they were part of the music.

Most of the lay audience didn't think he was playing; they just thought he was a lunatic randomly hitting the keys.

Then, a series of even more dissonant arpeggios sounded, making the music sharper and more conflict-ridden, as if the dissonant chords in the high register were declaring the performer's inner agitation and anger!

The music then returned to a calm and beautiful sound in an unexpected place, but when combined, it became particularly eerie, like the suffocating music in a horror film, deep and sinister, making all the listeners feel as if they were in a dark forest surrounded by ghostly shadows.

After a brief, eerie calm, the music erupted again with intense, chaotic sounds, like a heated argument or a fight, echoing throughout the hall.

This piece was terrifying. At first, it seemed to have no pattern, but you were inexplicably drawn into the spell-like rapid piano sounds, unable to break free.

The seven examiners had serious expressions, Wu Di looked grave, and He Mingzhe felt a bit uneasy. Those who truly understood the piano knew that Cheng Xiaoyu was not playing randomly at all.

His techniques were all flawlessly perfect.

But for most people, the piece was too obscure and impossible to understand. This piece was exploring new ways to express the piano, focusing on timbre rather than specific melodies, harmonies, or counterpoints. The piano has a rich range of timbres, and this piece exaggeratedly showcased the timbres in different registers.

To understand such modern music, one should focus more on the experience of the sound itself rather than the melody or harmony.

Cheng Xiaoyu, however, was unaware that his mesmerizing performance had frightened everyone. The experts were amazed by his technique, while the laypeople were scared by his neurotic behavior.

From this point on, Cheng Xiaoyu couldn't turn the pages himself. The notes were densely packed in each bar, and the extremely fast playing speed left him no time to breathe. He had to lean over the keyboard to keep up with the melody, even using his elbow again.

When he played a powerful chord, his entire upper body shook, the movement looking incredibly clean and powerful. To laypeople, this might have been a body movement for show, but professionals like Li Yunling knew its significance. It was a technique to instantly release most of the body's weight through the arms to the fingertips, creating a visual effect.

It was similar to the "shaking force" in martial arts, a highly advanced technique. Most people could only mimic the form, but only those with exceptional piano skills could use it freely.

A rapid, mathematically precise melody crashed through the hall, followed by a mysteriously cold, rebellious, and even insane melody, like a curse floating in the air. Everyone got goosebumps, yet the melody was still beautiful, vividly conveying the experience of bipolar disorder.

When Cheng Xiaoyu played the two crisp and explosive chords, Li Yunling couldn't help but admire him. She was very familiar with this technique, used in many pieces, and knew the technical difficulty behind it.

Wu Di, looking at the expressionless Cheng Xiaoyu on stage, felt his pride shatter. He never thought there would be a young pianist stronger than him, besides Su Yuxi.

He originally thought that only Su Yuxi was worthy of being his rival on the path to the top. Now, it seemed that there were many geniuses and lunatics in the world, and Cheng Xiaoyu was the lunatic who made him feel afraid.

Such a performance transcended the human realm, reaching into the divine. What else could he be but a lunatic?

Most of the examiners were delighted that the Shanghai Conservatory had gained another genius, one even more impressive than Wu Di. This unexpected joy was like winning the lottery.

Although Li Yunling had a thorn in her heart, making her extremely uncomfortable, she had no words to say about such a genius and couldn't refuse him.

But for most people, they had no idea what Cheng Xiaoyu was playing. Only the front-row examiners listened with intense focus, making many who didn't understand the piano dare not make a sound.

Without a high level of skill, one couldn't even understand the piece, let alone play it. Without knowledge of modern composition techniques, the twelve-tone system, or atonal music, and without any modern music basics, one could only judge by whether the melody was pleasant, which was impossible to understand this piece.

Since the early 20th century, music has become more diverse in rhythm, harmony, and even sound sources. It no longer satisfies itself with beautiful melodies but tends more towards impressionistic music.

This piece, translated as 'English Country Music,' is set in a rainy country. Using an impressionistic approach, it's not hard to feel the atmosphere of the English countryside. Music can be appreciated, but what ordinary people can't appreciate isn't necessarily bad music.

Polish composer Penderecki's 'Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima,' composed in the 1960s, uses well-known new timbres, dense clusters of semitones, and glissandos. Most people might think it's just foreign music.

But Tan Dun, who can be considered the top Chinese composer, has created works like 'Paper Music' that are highly praised abroad, yet are modern music that ordinary people can't understand.

Modernism is not a specific style but a general term for various musical movements in the modern era. It is more about breaking free and using more innovative methods to express, not just anyone can become a composer, and not just anyone can write modern music. Any modern composer can easily write what you consider good music.

The melody of 'English Country-Tunes' has its own rules, but these rules might be philosophical, mathematical, or logical, not necessarily for the sake of a pleasant melody.

But no matter what, such a piece cannot be understood by the masses, so it can only be called a divine piece, understood only by a few at the pinnacle of piano performance, though not necessarily accepted by them.

When the last few notes of 'English Country-Tunes' suddenly burst from the piano, leaving the audience wondering when it would end, it abruptly and cleanly stopped in an incomprehensible way.

Cheng Xiaoyu stood up from the stool without hesitation, looking at the puzzled audience, eye to eye.

Most people felt that this deep-well ice should have been playing randomly and had finally finished.

Many students were indifferent, thinking Cheng Xiaoyu was a spoiled rich kid with a thick face, playing a chaotic mess and still standing on stage. They were about to boo but realized something was off.

Even many piano majors were unsure about Cheng Xiaoyu's performance, just silently watching the examiners.

The entire hall fell into an eerie silence. The atmosphere between Cheng Xiaoyu on stage and the audience was like two enemies about to deliver a fatal blow, holding their breath, gathering strength, waiting for the signal.

The few examiners, under everyone's gaze, did not clap. They all had serious expressions and slowly raised their scorecards, all showing a perfect 100, except for Li Yunling, who gave 99.