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The Prodigal Musician Returns
http://www.sina.com.cn 2004/02/02 13:42  Shanghai Daily

  The man Time Magazine called ``China's greatest living musician'' -- the first pianist to put China on the musical map -- returned to his hometown late last year to conduct master classes at the conservatory. Now, 70-year-old pianist Fu Cong has plans to open his classes to the public in an annual lecture series. It's a generous gesture, and one that may finally bring him home, reports Jin Haili In 1955, China was a young nation still struggling for recognition amongst her peers in the family of nations. In this context, the impact of Fu Cong's third prize at the Fifth Frederick Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw can not be underestimated: the 21-year-old single-handedly showed the world that China had what it took in the music department. It was the beginning of a long journey -- for China, for music and for Fu Cong.

  Half a century later, the man who Time Magazine has called ``China's greatest living musician'' is seated upon his piano stool in the Shanghai Conservatory of Music's music hall. His hair is now sparser, but still neatly combed to the back of his head. As he plays, his body sways, ever so slightly, and the expression on his face is as absorbed and joyful as if he were performing for the composer himself. ``You understand?'' Fu pauses abruptly, and looks at the young woman seated at a piano next to his. ``More lively rhythm, and don't strike the keyboard so ferociously. Works by Brahms are more about rhythmic coherence and diversity instead of strength.'' Enthusiastic practicing as a young man has resulted in a slight paralysis of the hands, but Fu remains a selfless, devoted instructor to his master class students, who range from high school kids to accomplished conservatory students. The former prodigy's afternoons were thus filled, four hours of teaching master classes, four days a week, from November to late December last year, sharing the knowledge gleaned from a lifetime of playing and performing. And he loves it. ``That's the lifestyle I have been longing for in recent years,'' says the Shanghai native, who turns 70 in March. His students are undoubtedly luckier than their teacher, for Fu was essentially untutored when he took part in the Chopin competition. Aside from basic piano instruction at nine, Fu had focused on his academics, winning an early entry to Yunnan University at the age of 15. It was at university that Fu fell in love with music, and he fell hard. He dropped out of university and returned to Shanghai, where, ``apart from regular classes with a tutor my father hired, I practiced the piano for eight to 10 hours all by myself every day, even 14 hours occasionally,'' Fu recollects. ``Sometimes I was so obsessed with analyzing and interpreting every minor expression of the works by different composers that I had no idea of the passage of time, until my mother came in and forced me to take a break!'' It was not until 1953, when Fu went to the Warsaw Conservatory for further studies that he got back on track in terms of formal instruction. Still, winning third prize after just two years of conservatory study against competitors who had been playing the piano since they were toddlers was unprecedented -- and very, very impressive. Nobel Prize winner Herman Hesse, who heard Fu play at the competition, proclaimed him the real Chopin. Fu's remarkable gift for music is obviously part of his great success. The other part, it is almost universally believed, can be attributed to his upbringing, particularly the soul-engineering of his late father Fu Lei. The elder Fu was a renowned translator, literary and art critic, whose famous ``Fu Lei ,'' first published in 1981 as a collection of more than 120 letters written by the senior Fu from 1954 to 1966 to his son overseas, vividly illustrates that discipline, boundless knowledge and patriotic devotion are the key qualities to build a noble soul. Due to the young prodigy's legendary success,this family precept was widely admired or even adopted by parents who longed for a bright future of their own children. ``You must bear in mind that your every performance is related to the honor of our country from now on,'' writes the senior Fu in a letter to his son after the Chopin competition. It was this rich vein of values and integrity that sustained Fu during the difficult years of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), whose excesses drove his parents to suicide and him to London. Time cured pains but not put out his patriotism and passion for music. When the Shanghai Conservatory of Music sent him the invitation for the master class, Fu gladly consented. The master class project was launched by conservatory's piano department some 20 years ago with the goal of opening the lines of musical communication between China and the rest of the world -- and, of course, to enrich the training of young talents. With names like Vladimir Ashkenazy, Nelson Freire, and Leon Fleisher, the list of master class musicians reads like a Who's Who of the classical music world. But even in this company, Fu distinguishes himself, says the conservatory brass. Fu is adamant about delivering the students all that he has learned about classical music. And his teaching is all the easier to grasp since ``there are no language barriers between him and the students,'' points out Zhou Keng, who is vice-president of the Conservatory's piano department. In addition, the very real risk that some foreign musicians come in order to lure elite students away simply does not exist with Fu. First-year graduate Chen Lie, 23, was damp with perspiration after Fu's class. After her second class with the master, who spent so much time picking apart her every note that they didn't have time to finish analyzing the ``Piano Concerto No.1 in D Minor'' by Johannes Brahms, she proclaims herself exhausted -- but exhilarated. ``I have never met an instructor who pushed so hard, but it was really enlightening when it came to the general interpretation of the concerto. I was originally only to taught to imitate, but Fu made me realize that in order to become a real musician, you have to learn how to create.'' The teaching faculty, too, has benefited: Unlike most master class musicians, who generally stay only for a week at most, Fu's longer stay has enabled them to rethink teaching theories. ``Our traditional way of teaching emphasizes skill training and loyalty to the original scores, but has somehow neglected the importance of the different cultural and historic elements that are bound with each composition,'' says professor Zhou Wei of the piano department. Zhou, who sat in on almost all Fu's lectures, continues, ``Fu's teaching was so totally different from our own, so vigorous and devoted and inspirational for the students. The methods he used, as I discovered later through my own practice, are really effective and helpful to my own students.'' Fu's methods will soon be available to all, as he will conduct an annual two-month lecture season, open to the public, beginning in 2004. The best part of the plan, according to Fu, is that it will very likely bring him back to live in the city of his birth. ``My biggest wish is to live a peaceful life accompanied by music,'' Fu says, smiling with the innocence of a child. ``Better yet if it is in my hometown.''




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