Throne of Magical Arcana

Chapter 113: Piano Solo

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

The whole city was applauding Lucien’s performance. In this world, people were not used to this kind of strong sensory stimulus. They were shocked.

"I almost can’t breathe," said Lilith. "Mr. Evans’ conducting gives the symphony a new life."

"No one knows a music piece better than its composer!" Sala was still applauding, his eyes were shining with excitement.

Compared with those traditional conductors’ conservative style, people who did not have too much knowledge about music absolutely preferred Lucien’s way of presenting the music.

...

"He’s crazy." Verdi was first impressed, but soon he felt that it was too much for him, "Lucien simply has no idea about what is elegance!"

Verdi was not alone there. Many other conservative musicians who adhered to past practices nodded as Verdi was commenting.

It could be foreseen that a bunch of critic reviews of Lucien’s conducting would be found on tomorrow’s Music Criticism and Symphony News.

"I don’t think so, Verdi." Natasha shook her head, looking quite excited, "This way of conducting was born for Symphony of Fate! Don’t you think?"

"I agree with Her Grace." Christopher, the authority, was on Natasha’s side, "Lucien’s conducting style lit the great passion of the whole orchestra, and together they presented us with an even more exciting version of Symphony of Fate. This conducting style, I would say, suits theme music very well."

"But Mr. Christopher..." Verdi looked at him.

"I know what you want to say, Count Verdi." Christopher smiled, "Indeed, Lucien was pushing a bit too hard. He was being too direct when he was presenting Symphony of Fate, and that left the audience less space for further imagination."

Even Natasha had to admit that what Christopher said was true.

"However, I think we should not be too tough with a young musician and his first concert ever." Fingers crossing, Christopher looked at the grand duke, "We need a creative younger generation, and being tolerant and open-minded is the first step."

The grand duke smiled and nodded. What Christopher said was exactly what he was thinking.

Both what Natasha and Verdi wanted to say was pretty much all covered by Christopher. Verdi turned his face to the other side.

"I’m wondering, please forgive my interruption, Your Grace, why Lucien chose to put Symphony of Fate in the second place of tonight’s concert." Michelle, the prince of the Kingdom of Syracuse, asked in confusion, "I mean... the remaining part of the concert is pretty much composed of piano solos only. That seems quite imbalanced to me."

"Um?" The grand duke picked up the repertoire card beside him and took a quick look, "That’s right... Michelle, you made a good point here. What do you think, Christopher?"

"Well... Lucien’s best-know music work is Symphony of Fate. Using Symphony of Fate as the ending piece of the concert might be the most ideal arrangement." Christopher gently rubbed his chin a bit, "For now, like prince Michelle said, the repertoire card does look quite imbalanced to me, and I didn’t notice this earlier."

Taking a short rest, Sard’s eyes were half closed. He smiled and said to them, "I believe that Lucien’s not an idiot. Maybe he’s very confident in his piano solo, or maybe he prepared something new. It’s interesting to wait and see, isn’t it?"

By the time they got to that conclusion, the whole orchestra had left. Now, there was only a piano on the stage.

Instead of facing toward the audience, the piano was facing a different angle.

...

Seeing Lucien appear on the stage through the crystal dome again, Piola asked his friends, "Why isn’t the piano in the right position?"

That was what many people were wondering right now as well.

On the stage, Lucien bowed to his audience and sat down in front of the piano.

Pressing the keys, Lucien’s hands started moving smoothly on the keyboard.

"It was Canon in D major, played in the piano!" Sharon recognized the familiar, beautiful melody immediately.

Simple as it was, Canon in D major might be the most classic music piece in this world. By playing one or more imitations of the music notes after a given duration, the repetition of the soft and gentle melody soothed every listener’s mind like a cool breeze. The audience gradually recovered from the impact brought by Symphony of Fate, and now many of them stretched their bodies in their seats a bit and enjoyed the music in a very relaxed way.

Sitting in front of the piano and playing with his heart and soul, Lucien’s handsome profile and his long, nimble fingers left the audience with a deep impression as well.

About seven minutes later, warm applause burst out again. This time the applause was less furious and crazy, but more gentle.

This time, the audience felt the beauty and the joy of peace from Lucien’s playing.

"Small changes made a bit difference." The melody of Canon was still lingering in Piola’s mind, "It’s very different from the versions played by violin or harp."

"That’s the sound feature of piano, pure and crispy." There was a sweet smile on Grace’s face, "Mr. Evans looked so charming when he was playing... His face... His hands..."

"Now I know why you wanted to place the piano in a certain angle, Lucien!" On the other side in the box of the Psalm Hall, Natasha smiled and thought to herself, looking quite amused, "You want the audience to directly see your movement. But why didn’t you tell me this earlier when I was about to play piano in front of Silvia?" Natasha also blamed Lucien a bit.

"He definitely put a lot of thought in his concert. We can tell that from the way he placed the piano," said Christopher, "Simple but fascinating. This piece of Canon will become quite popular."

Lucien did not move after playing. He was still sitting on the piano bench, as if he was preparing and waiting for something.

There was only a very short interval between the two compositions. A while later, Lucien’s hands started to move again. Here came the piano solo recomposed from Violin Sonata in G minor.

After the heading part of playing which gave priority to terseness and fluency, Lucien started to play the very short notes in a fast way. His fingers were like two dancers spinning on the piano keyboard.

"Violin Sonata in G minor?" Some listeners whispered to each other, "It’s for violin. It’s impossible for piano..."

As the solo consisted mainly of semi-quaver runs, Lucien’s hands were moving faster and faster. Double-stops, ostinato, scales and arpeggios, big crossovers... Lucien combined almost all the playing techniques together and that dazzled the audience’s eyes.

They almost could not believe that it was a human-being that was playing.

Lucien’s extremely fancy fingerings fully showed the potential of piano. This piece of music was more than just showing off the player’s remarkable playing skills, but also a praise for the great potential of piano as a new musical instrument in this world.

As the pitch got higher and higher, the melody became more and more exciting.

The audience was trying hard to hold back their exclamation. The playing was not finished yet.

As Lucien ended his playing with a very challenging finger technique and a pitch accent, the listeners on the square erupted with cheers and shouts, while the nobles and musicians in the music hall also applauded vigorously.

Lucien’s playing renewed everyone’s idea of how much potential the piano had!