讓音樂說話

 

政治和音樂之間有甚麼聯繫?可以混為一談?這在中國是個熱門話題。超級巨星鋼琴家郎朗,曾面臨過這個難題。近期,他在英國舉辦了一系列的音樂會。在一次音樂會上,一位中國的示威者,要求郎朗彈一首悼念天安門遇難者的樂曲,作為返場加奏曲目。郎朗拒絕了,並讓保安人員拉走了這位示威者。而該樂曲的作者,美國歌手鮑勃·迪倫則認為他的音樂本身可以表達意思,而不需要多說。這在西方評論界也引起了很大的爭論。

 

二十世紀的一些偉大的音樂家們,他們試圖在政治上產生影響。在西班牙獨裁者弗朗哥執政期間,大提琴家卡薩爾斯,拒絕在自己的家鄉西班牙演奏。小提琴家耶胡迪·梅紐因積極參與聯合國教育科學及文化組織。大提琴家羅斯特洛波維奇,因公開支持持不同政見作家,亞歷山大·索爾仁尼琴,而被吊銷了他的俄羅斯護照。然而,儘管他們跟政府進行持續的鬥爭,方式卻各有不同 - 羅斯特羅波維奇的同胞 ,普羅科菲耶夫和肖斯塔科維奇,寧願讓他們的音樂自己說話(只要聽聽普羅科菲耶夫的第六交響曲, 或者肖斯塔科維奇的第八交響曲)

 

1968821日,發生了一出殘酷的,具諷刺意味的事件。羅斯特羅波維奇原定於在倫敦的逍遙音樂節,演奏捷克作曲家德沃夏克的大提琴协奏曲。就在這天之前,蘇聯的坦克開進布拉格,粉碎了捷克領導人亞歷山大·杜布切克的自由改革的政權。為羅斯特羅波維奇伴奏的是蘇聯國家交響樂團(由耶夫根尼·思維提安諾夫指揮)。蘇聯侵犯了捷克領土,卻讓蘇聯音樂家來演奏捷克作曲家的作品,對此,他大聲疾呼反對。儘管這樣,音樂會還是照樣舉行了。皇家艾爾伯特音樂廳的幕布靜靜拉開,德沃夏克的協奏曲中,響起刺耳的破口大罵的抗議。這對於一位大提琴家來說是一個可怕的噩夢。羅斯特羅波維奇在演出中採取了如此極度激烈的言行,然而,卻沒有人因此而離開音樂廳。

 

在他們以非常不同的方式處理政治和音樂的關係,冀望能夠影響人類的生存環境。如果一個音樂家在政治上能得心應手,好像他演奏音樂一樣,也許我們應該思考中世紀研究智慧的哲學家,寫下的教會經文《德訓篇》裡的忠告:沉默的人之中,必有一位是音樂家

 

我相信事實勝於雄辯,音樂是真正的國際語言,不受任何語言,種族,政治上的束縛和障礙,音樂直接觸及人類的靈魂。這就是我們的新團體 – “中英音樂家協會,把我們兩個國家緊密聯繫起來的重要意義。

 

 

 

Politics and music. Do they mix, should they, mix? It’s certainly a hot topic in China. In recent months the superstar pianist Lang Lang was confronted by a Chinese ‘protester’ during a concert in the UK who demanded that he should play an encore ‘in memory of those who had been killed in Tiananmen Square”. Lang Lang refused and had the interloper thrown out by security. And in China, Bob Dylan also chose to let his music speak for itself - but was largely criticised in the Western media as a result.

 

Some of the twentieth century’s greatest musicians thought that they should attempt to influence politics. The cellist Pablo Casals refused to play in his native Spain while Franco was in power. Violinist Yehudi Menuhin was actively involved with UNESCO and cellist Rostropovich’s open support of the ‘dissident’ writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn cost him his Russian passport. Yet – despite their own continual struggles with the Soviet authorities – Rostropovich’s compatriots, Prokofiev and Shostakovich, preferred to let their music speak for them (just listen to Prokofiev’s Sixth or Shostakovich’s Eighth symphonies.)

 

 On August 21st 1968, in a cruelly ironic piece of programming, Rostropovich was scheduled to play the Czech composer Dvorak’s Cello Concerto at the London Proms. Earlier that day Soviet tanks had rolled into Prague to crush Alexander Dubcek’s liberal reforms. To compound the irony Rostropovich’s accompanists were a Soviet orchestra (the USSR State Symphony) under a Soviet conductor (Evgeny Svetlanov). Despite vociferous objections, the concert went ahead. During the concerto’s hushed opening the Royal Albert Hall resounds to strident yells of protest. It must have been a nightmare for the cellist, yet Rostropovich proceeds to give a performance of such seething intensity that no one could have left the hall with any doubt about his feelings towards the invasion.

 

 In their very different ways both politics and music aspire to influence the human condition but, before musicians are tempted to play politics as well as music, perhaps we should consider the advice of the philosopher Ecclesiasticus:

“Pour not out words where there is a musician.”

 

I believe that music speaks louder than words. Music is the true international language. It has no barriers of language, race or politics. It speaks directly to the human soul. Which is why our new Anglo – Chinese music society will be just as important as ‘trading’ in bringing our two nations closer together.