For more than a year, the pianist Lang Lang has been largely out of commission with an injured left arm — a major loss, since he is one of classical music’s biggest and most bankable stars. Google the phrase 「superstar concert pianist,」 and Mr. Lang’s name pops up right away. He played during the televised opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and jammed with Metallica at the 2014 Grammy Awards.
一年多來，鋼琴演奏家郎朗由於左臂受傷基本上無法演出，這是一個很大的損失，因為他是古典音樂最大、最賣座的明星之一。用谷歌搜索「superstar concert pianist」(超級明星 音樂會鋼琴家)，郎朗的名字馬上呈現在眼前。他曾在全球直播的2008年北京夏季奧運會開幕式上演奏，並在2014年的格萊美頒獎典禮上與Metallica樂隊飈琴。
But Mr. Lang has retained establishment cred, remaining one of the handful of go-to stars for opening night and gala concerts at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. His return to the stage on Friday — to headline the season opener at Tanglewood, the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s summer home in the Berkshires — is being closely watched not only by his fans, but also by the music industry.
不過，郎朗保持著在業界的地位，仍是為數不多的幾位林肯中心(Lincoln Center)和卡內基音樂廳(Carnegie Hall)開幕夜和慶典音樂會首選明星之一。因此，他本周五重返舞臺——為波士頓交響樂團(Boston Symphony Orchestra)在伯克希爾丘陵夏季駐地唐格爾伍德的演出季首演中擔綱——不僅受到他的粉絲們的密切關注，也受到音樂界的密切關注。
「Everyone needs Lang Lang to come back and do what he does in such a unique fashion,」 said Mark Volpe, the Boston Symphony’s managing director. 「I don’t just mean playing the piano; I mean the bigger picture. There are other great pianists, but he has a personality, he’s got a presence.」
「每個人都需要郎朗回來，用那種獨特的方式做他擅長的事情，」波士頓交響樂團團長馬克·沃爾普(Mark Volpe)說。「我不只是指彈鋼琴;我指的是更大的東西。偉大的鋼琴家有很多，但他有個性，有風度。」
How was he injured?
他是怎麼受傷的?
In April 2017, Mr. Lang announced that he had an inflammation in his left arm and planned to cancel a few months of concerts. He has been on a severely curtailed schedule ever since.
2017年4月，郎朗宣布他的左臂有炎症，打算取消幾個月的演出安排。從那以後，他的表演日程一直大受限制。
He said last year that he had injured his arm through what he described as 「a stupid practice of Ravel’s left-hand concerto.」 He was referring to the concerto the French composer Maurice Ravel wrote for Paul Wittgenstein, a pianist who had lost his right arm during World War I. (Mr. Lang declined a request for an interview about his return.)
他去年說，在一次被他描述為「愚蠢地練習拉威爾左手協奏曲」時，傷了自己的手臂。他指的是法國作曲家莫裡斯·拉威爾(Maurice Ravel)為在第一次世界大戰中失去了右臂的鋼琴家保羅·維根斯坦(Paul Wittgenstein)創作的那首協奏曲。(郎朗拒絕了關於他重返舞臺的採訪請求)。
「I was not paying so much attention, I was already tiring, and I pushed to practice,」 Mr. Lang said. He added that he had worked too fast to teach himself an unfamiliar, unusual work because he was on a tight deadline, with several orchestras waiting to hear if he would perform the piece with them.
「我沒太注意，我已經很累了，但我還是堅持練習，」郎朗說。他補充說，他在自學這個不熟悉也不尋常的作品時操之過急，因為當時留給他的時間不多，幾個管弦樂隊在等待，想知道他能否與他們一起演奏這首曲子。
Playing the piano requires speed, power, dexterity and flexibility. Injuries are not uncommon. The pianist Leon Fleisher was establishing himself as one of America’s pre-eminent young artists in the 1950s and 』60s when he found himself unable to control his right hand — which he attributed to 「seven or eight hours a day of pumping ivory.」 Gary Graffman, Mr. Lang’s teacher at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, had his career as a top-flight concert pianist curtailed by finger problems.
彈鋼琴需要速度、力量、靈巧和柔韌。受傷並不少見。20世紀50年代、60年代，當鋼琴家利昂?弗萊舍(Leon Fleisher)正在成為美國傑出的年輕藝術家之一時，他發現他無法控制自己的右手——他將其歸因於「每天七八個小時的練習」。郎朗在費城柯蒂斯音樂學院(Curtis Institute of Music)的老師加裡?格拉夫曼(Gary Graffman)的頂級鋼琴演奏家職業生涯因手指問題而中斷。
Why is the classical world watching so closely?
為什麼古典音樂界如此密切地關注?
It is harder than ever for a classical musician to become famous worldwide. The recording industry, with its promotional machinery, is a shadow of its former self. Fans can more than ever choose what they listen to — and filter out everything else. Breaking through the way Mr. Lang has over the past 20 years is rare.
如今一個古典音樂家要在世界範圍內成名比以往任何時候都難。唱片產業連同其宣傳機器早已今非昔比。音樂愛好者們在選擇他們想聽的東西——同時把其他的一切過濾掉——也空前的便利。像郎朗這樣在過去20年裡異軍突起很罕見。