The Showman

∷李麥遜 譯

When musicianship falters1. falter： 出錯，衰落。, an otherwise disastrous performance can be salvaged by showmanship. The Danish pianist Borge Rosenbaum2. Borge Rosenbaum： 伯格·羅森寶恩（1909—2000），丹麥著名鋼琴家。他演出的《音樂喜劇》曾經(jīng)在百老匯創(chuàng)造了849場的空前紀錄。was a fine musician and a natural showman.

He was born January 3rd, 1909 and began his professional career at thirteen. For twelve years he performed with most of the major orchestras in Europe. He had a delicate touch,3. delicate： 細微的，敏銳的；touch： 風(fēng)格，特長。but the poised young pianist also had a quick wit that was not to be suppressed.

One night Rosenbaum was performing with the Copenhagen Philharmonic4. Philharmonic： 愛樂樂團。. The piece was the big, romanticSecond Piano Concerto ofSergei Rachmaninoff and Rosenbaum was playing with his usual sensitivity, but something was making the audience laugh.Confused and nervous, the conductor stepped up the tempo5. tempo： 節(jié)奏。. The orchestra played faster and faster until they had left Rosenbaum a full three pages behind.

Rosenbaum had been responsible for the problem in the first place. The audience had been reacting to his expressive eyebrows as he played Rachmaninoff’s soaring melodies.6. soar： 吼叫的；melody： 旋律。The pianist launched into a cadenza, a virtuoso cascade of notes that signaled the end of the movement.7. launch into： 投入；cadenza： (樂曲接近結(jié)尾的)裝飾奏；virtuoso： 大師的，精湛的；cascade： 一連串。But suddenly,to everyone’s astonishment, Rosenbaum broke off in the middle of the cadenza, left the piano, walked to the conductor’s podium8. podium： 指揮臺。, and turned the score back three pages. Then he bowed to the orchestra, winked at the audience, and somberly9. somberly： 嚴肅地。finished the concerto.

He had already made a reputation for himself as one of Denmark’s finest pianists. Now he became known as one of Europe’s great comedians. But in 1940 when the German occupation of Denmark forced him to emigrate to the United States, he had to make a name for himself all over again. And the name Borge Rosenbaum picked was Victor Borge. For nearly sixty years Borge—and his eyebrows—toured the world, entertaining people with classical music.

當(dāng)作曲家狀態(tài)不佳時，表演家的竅門可以將一場災(zāi)難性的表演拯救出來。鋼琴家伯格·羅森寶恩就是這樣一個優(yōu)秀的作曲家和天然的表演家。

羅森寶恩出生于1909年1月3日，13歲時開始他的職業(yè)生涯。12年來他和歐洲大多數(shù)管弦樂隊同臺演出過。這個沉著的年輕鋼琴家技術(shù)細膩，還具備讓人嘆服的敏捷和才智。

一個晚上，羅森寶恩和哥本哈根交響樂團一起演出，演奏曲目是謝爾蓋·拉赫曼尼諾夫宏大而浪漫的《第二鋼琴協(xié)奏曲》。羅森寶恩像往常一樣，演奏得很細膩，但不知什么亂子讓觀眾發(fā)出笑聲。被弄懵了的指揮手忙腳亂，加快了節(jié)奏，樂隊演奏得越來越快，直到他們將羅森寶恩整整拉后了三頁曲譜。

羅森寶恩一直負責(zé)緊急處理這類問題。當(dāng)他演奏拉赫曼尼諾夫那天馬行空般的旋律時，觀眾們被他那雙極富感染力的眉毛感染了。羅森寶恩忽然沖入一個裝飾曲，一連串高超的音符發(fā)出樂章結(jié)束的信號。但讓觀眾震驚的是，羅森寶恩突然在裝飾曲中間急停下來，他放下鋼琴，走到指揮的站臺前，將樂譜向后翻三頁，然后朝樂隊伙伴們鞠個躬，朝觀眾們一眨眼，鄭重其事地謝幕了。

羅森寶恩已經(jīng)為自己贏得了全丹麥最優(yōu)秀鋼琴家之一的榮譽，現(xiàn)在又成為全歐洲最杰出喜劇演員中的一員。然而在1940年德國占領(lǐng)丹麥時，他被迫移居美國。他不得不從頭再來。伯格·羅森寶恩取了個新名——維克多·伯格。60年來，伯格憑借他的眉毛和古典音樂周游世界，給觀眾們帶去了快樂。