The Showman

∷李麦逊 译

When musicianship falters1. falter： 出错，衰落。, an otherwise disastrous performance can be salvaged by showmanship. The Danish pianist Borge Rosenbaum2. Borge Rosenbaum： 伯格·罗森宝恩（1909—2000），丹麦著名钢琴家。他演出的《音乐喜剧》曾经在百老汇创造了849场的空前纪录。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： 细微的，敏锐的；touch： 风格，特长。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： 爱乐乐团。. 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： 节奏。. 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： (乐曲接近结尾的)装饰奏；virtuoso： 大师的，精湛的；cascade： 一连串。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： 指挥台。, and turned the score back three pages. Then he bowed to the orchestra, winked at the audience, and somberly9. somberly： 严肃地。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.

当作曲家状态不佳时，表演家的窍门可以将一场灾难性的表演拯救出来。钢琴家伯格·罗森宝恩就是这样一个优秀的作曲家和天然的表演家。

罗森宝恩出生于1909年1月3日，13岁时开始他的职业生涯。12年来他和欧洲大多数管弦乐队同台演出过。这个沉着的年轻钢琴家技术细腻，还具备让人叹服的敏捷和才智。

一个晚上，罗森宝恩和哥本哈根交响乐团一起演出，演奏曲目是谢尔盖·拉赫曼尼诺夫宏大而浪漫的《第二钢琴协奏曲》。罗森宝恩像往常一样，演奏得很细腻，但不知什么乱子让观众发出笑声。被弄懵了的指挥手忙脚乱，加快了节奏，乐队演奏得越来越快，直到他们将罗森宝恩整整拉后了三页曲谱。

罗森宝恩一直负责紧急处理这类问题。当他演奏拉赫曼尼诺夫那天马行空般的旋律时，观众们被他那双极富感染力的眉毛感染了。罗森宝恩忽然冲入一个装饰曲，一连串高超的音符发出乐章结束的信号。但让观众震惊的是，罗森宝恩突然在装饰曲中间急停下来，他放下钢琴，走到指挥的站台前，将乐谱向后翻三页，然后朝乐队伙伴们鞠个躬，朝观众们一眨眼，郑重其事地谢幕了。

罗森宝恩已经为自己赢得了全丹麦最优秀钢琴家之一的荣誉，现在又成为全欧洲最杰出喜剧演员中的一员。然而在1940年德国占领丹麦时，他被迫移居美国。他不得不从头再来。伯格·罗森宝恩取了个新名——维克多·伯格。60年来，伯格凭借他的眉毛和古典音乐周游世界，给观众们带去了快乐。