 丹尼尔·霍普追忆梅纽因 Daniel Hope Trying To Tell Yehudi’s Story By George Robinson CD:《谨致耶胡迪·梅纽因》 It was a fairy tale come true. The beleaguered family that had been shoved across the globe — no money, no belongings, no prospects — was suddenly rescued by a mysterious, grandfatherly benefactor. He swept them away from an uncertain future in London to a magical chalet in Switzerland, and everything changed. 这是一个童话般的故事。身无分文、居无定所、前路渺茫的一家人在困顿中颠沛流离。忽然，一位仁慈的神秘赞助者救他们于水火之中。他把这家人从无处落脚的伦敦迁到了瑞士的一座魔法小屋里，一切从此天翻地覆。 Daniel Hope was 4 years old when his mother received an invitation to work for Yehudi Menuhin as the violinist’s personal secretary. Menuhin brought the entire family to his summer home in Switzerland, the base for his summer music festival and a home-away-from-home for the world-class musicians who performed there. 丹尼尔·霍普的母亲受邀前去担任耶胡迪·梅纽因的私人助理时，他年仅四岁。梅纽因把这一家子都带到了他夏季在瑞士常住的房子里，那里也是他夏季音乐节的场地，是那些世界级的音乐家在此地演出时的居所。  Today, Hope is himself a violin virtuoso, celebrating the centenary of his mentor’s birth with a new CD, “My Tribute to Yehudi Menuhin” (Deutsche Grammophon) and a concert tour that includes a March 4 performance at Alice Tully Hall. 今天，霍普自己业已成为一名出色的小提琴家。为纪念他的老师诞辰100周年，他发行了一张新CD，将它命名为《谨致耶胡迪·梅纽因》，并开始了一场巡演音乐会，其中就包括3月4日在爱丽丝塔利音乐厅的这场。 “He was the friendly grandpa,” Hope said of Menuhin in a telephone interview last week. “He called himself my ‘musical grandfather.’ I called him Houdini for a long time; he was the ultimate escape artist, constantly escaping into his music.” “他就像一个慈爱的爷爷”，霍普在上周的电话访谈中这样评价梅纽因，“他自称是我音乐上的祖父。很长一段时间内，我都叫他胡迪尼（Harry Houdini, 擅长逃脱术，被称为历史上最伟大的魔术师）；他是一个极致的脱逃术士，时刻准备隐遁到自己的音乐中。”  Hope’s earliest memories of Menuhin (who died in 1999) are of the “beautiful chalet, filled with music, the most beautiful music,” and of the astounding, eclectic chorus of friends who surrounded their host.“He embraced music universally, in all genres. [Sitar player] Ravi Shankar was there, and [jazz violinist] Stéphane Grappelli,” Hope said. “Of course I had no idea who they were.”How did this little boy end up in such exalted company? 关于梅纽因（他于1999年逝世），霍普最早的记忆是“漂亮的房子，里面充满音乐。那是世界上最华美的音乐”，还有那些围在房子主人身边的形形色色、令人称奇的朋友们。“他包容每一种形式、每一种文化的音乐。这边是拉维·香卡（Ravi Shankar，锡塔尔琴演奏家），那边是史蒂芬·格拉佩里（Stephane Grappelli，爵士小提琴家）”，霍普说，“当然，那个时候我完全不知道他们是谁。”那小霍普又是缘何如此幸运，得到在这些音乐界璀璨群星的陪伴下成长的机会呢？ Both sides of Hope’s family were marked by historical tragedy. His father’s Irish forebears were driven from Ireland by the Great Famine, landing in 19th-century South Africa. His mother’s relatives were prominent Jewish-German industrialists forced to flee their home when the Nazis came to power. In South Africa, his father became a successful writer but, as a staunch opponent of apartheid, became a non-person, ultimately stripped of his citizenship and forced to emigrate to London. 霍普的双亲祖上都在历史变迁中遭遇过悲剧。他父亲的爱尔兰祖先在19世纪的大饥荒时代被迫逃亡，离开故土来到南非。他母亲的家眷是犹太工业家，纳粹统治时期，他们被迫从德国流亡。在南非，他的父亲成为了一个成功的作家。然而，作为一个坚定的反种族隔离者，他被政府除名，并最终被剥夺公民权，被迫移居伦敦。  “In the early 1970s it was impossible to find a job there,” Hope recounted. “My mother said she’d take any job she could find. She’d trained as a secretary when she was younger, but we still couldn’t make ends meet. We couldn’t go back to South Africa. She called everyone she knew and finally managed to meet the head of a high-powered employment agency, who had two offers for her. She could serve as secretary to Menuhin or to the Archbishop of Canterbury.” “上世纪七十年代早期，伦敦根本找不到工作”，霍普回忆道。“我的母亲说她愿意接受任何她能接到的活。她早年当过秘书，但我们家还是入不敷出。我们不能回到南非。于是她打电话给所有她认识的人，终于找到一家靠谱的高级招聘中介，他们给了她两个应聘选择：当梅纽因的秘书，或是辅助坎特伯雷大主教工作。” The then-Archbishop had not distanced himself from the apartheid regime of South Africa, so Hope’s mother dismissed that option instantly, telling the headhunter that she’d go with Menuhin.The job interview was as improbable as the rest of the story. 可是坎特伯雷大主教与南非的种族隔离政权尚有联络，因此霍普的母亲立刻排除了这个选项，告诉猎头她愿意当梅纽因的秘书。职位面试就如故事的其他部分一样难以置信。  Hope explained, “[Menuhin] was practicing, he turned to my mother and said, ‘Do you know the difference between Bach and Beethoven?’ When she said she did, he asked her when she could start. And he told her ‘Pack your things, we’re going to Gstaad. Bring your family; I would never separate a mother and her children.’ ” 霍普说，进行面试的时候梅纽因“正在练琴，他转头看看我妈妈，问她，‘你知不知道巴赫和贝多芬的区别？’妈妈说她知道，于是梅纽因问她什么时候能开始工作。他告诉妈妈，‘打包好你的东西，我们准备去格施塔德（Gstaad，瑞士的一处高原观光地，邻村每年夏天都会举办梅纽因艺术节）。带上你的家人，我永远都不会让一个母亲和她的孩子分开。’” What began as a two-month engagement went on for the next 24 years, with Menuhin guiding young Daniel’s musical career. The two performed together many times.It was, needless to say, an unparalleled learning experience for the younger violinist. 这份本应该只持续两个月的聘任合同持续了24年，在这些年间，梅纽因一直引领着小丹尼尔在音乐的道路上前行，并与他合作演出了许多次。毋庸置疑，这对一个年轻的小提琴家而言是多么无可比拟的珍贵学习经历。
“The 60 concerts we did together, the hundreds of hours of practicing, he taught me to always look at the score as if it were the first time you were seeing it,” Hope said. “He said, ‘Never get comfortable with the music. These composers are always above you.’ You would think you know [a piece] and he’d throw you a curve. That’s why his interpretations were so different over the years. It kept him young and kept everyone enthralled.” “在我们合作的60场音乐会上，在数百个小时共同训练的时间里，他一直教我，每次看乐谱都要怀着第一次读谱时的审慎”，霍普回忆道，“他说，‘永远不要以为演奏轻而易举就能做到。对这些作曲家，你得时刻仰望。’如果你觉得自己对一首曲子已经非常熟悉了，那他会用一种出其不意的办法让你意识到自己错了。这就是为什么时隔数年他对曲子的诠释会截然不同于从前。这种态度让他保持着青春和活力，也让听众时常感受到惊喜。” An appropriate insight from a man who told Hope, “Music is the only language in which you cannot lie.”In putting together the program for his CD and concert tour, Hope found himself “trying to tell [Menuhin’s] story.”He explained, “I wanted to focus on the pieces I really connected to him. The Bartok duets are ones I played with him as a kid. The Vivaldi [Concerto in A minor for Two Violins, Strings, and Continuo, Op. 3, No. 8, RV 522] was a piece I trained on with him. I started out with that and went through the musical influences, the diversity of his repertoire.” 曾经有人向霍普提出这样的洞见：“音乐是唯一不会撒谎的语言。”而当他把CD和巡演都安排妥帖的时候，霍普发现他的音乐“在尝试讲述梅纽因的故事。”他解释道，“我希望专注在那些让我感觉他还在我身边的曲目上。巴托克的二重奏是我小时候和他一起拉过的。维瓦尔第那部作品《a小调双小提琴协奏曲》（Concerto in A minor for Two Violins, Strings, and Continuo）则是他带着我练习的。我以这些作品为引子，过渡到他那些极具影响力的多种多样的曲目。”
The biggest surprise in the program is the prevalence of contemporary works from the likes of Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Hans Werner Henze and Shulamit Ran. CD里最大的惊喜可能就是丰富的现代音乐了。史蒂芬·莱许（Steve Reich），菲利普·格拉斯（Philip Glass），汉斯·维尔纳·亨策（Hans Werner Henze），舒勒密·兰（Shulamit Ran）等作曲家的作品都涵盖其中。 “They wrote pieces for him, so his voice speaks out through these pieces,” Hope said.Putting this program together was like a visit with an old, trusted, admired friend and family member, Hope remarked.“It was incredibly moving; it was like being in touch again,” he said. “他们为他创作乐曲，所以他的声音透过这些作品呈现在我们耳边，”霍普说。霍普还说，编排这张CD和这次巡演的过程，就像在拜访一位垂暮之年的，值得信任与敬仰的老友，或说家人。“这真的很令人动容，”他说，“就仿佛他又一次回到了我身边。” |
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