谁有CNN Talk Asia 采访马友友的英文文稿

谁有CNN Talk Asia 采访马友友的英文文稿
谁有CNN Talk Asia 采访马友友的英文文稿

谁有CNN Talk Asia 采访马友友的英文文稿
LORRAINE HAHN
Welcome to Talk Asia. I am Lorraine Hahn. This week a musician who is considered one of the greatest cellists1 of our time. Yo-Yo Ma's career as a professional cellist spans more than 20 years and over 50 albums. He has been honored for his music with many awards including an amazing 14 Grammy's. Yo-Yo Ma was born in France to Chinese parents who were also musicians. Under the tutelage2 of his father, Yo-yo gave his first public performance when he was just 5 years old. Four years later at the tender age of 9, he was playing at the prestigious3 Carnegie Hall in New York. By then the family had moved to the United States, where Yo-Yo pursued his cello studies at the Juilliard School of Music. From there he opted to at- tend Harvard over a professional music school. He says that his experiences at Harvard helped shape4 who he is today. The 47-year-old continues his musical journey, never hesitating to collaborate5 with musicians of all genres6 and from around the world. We are catching up with Yo-Yo Ma now in New York.
The most important performance is your last performance and, or is the next one that is coming up.
LORRAINE HAHN
Yo-yo, good to speak with you, thank you so much for joining us.
YO-YO MA
It's good to speak with you tea. I believed the last time we spoke was in 1997.
LORRAINE HAHN
I know, how time flies, let me ask you - I mentioned that you first performed at five. At nine you were at Carnegie hall. I mean, did you know anything about Carnegie Hall. Did you know what it meant, or what you just, did you just think it was fun.
YO-YO MA
I don't think well, I knew that Carnegie Hall was a nice hall. But, I didn't know its history - it was pretty, and there were nice chairs there - but I didn't know the importance of Carnegie hall in terms of musical history in New York - as a 9 year old or as a 5 year old when I first came to my recital7, I think I was just very happy to be on stage, and it was fun, you got a lot of attention, and I thought I could do some nice things on the Cello I like playing the Cello. So it's one of those things, where you're kind of fairly unselfconscious, which is and I think the consciousness happens a little bit later probably with adolescence8, and when you start to worry about people thinking you are not good or not good enough. So I think you have to get beyond that to just always get back to the joy of being able to play.
LORRAINE HAHN
What has been the most important performance of your life thus far?
YO-YO MA
You know, in music, it is really very simple - the most important performance is your last performance and, or is the next one that is coming up. I think because the frame of music is always you are trying to give all of yourself at any one time in a performance, then if you actually succeed in being in the state of mind of playing that music, and representing that a world that the sound represents, then that's what you need to do and that's the most important thing. So in terms of level of importance, yes, I played at the Grammy's with James Taylor, yes I did something at the Olympics, in terms of size, that's something. But actually the importance is always how the content9 relates to the audience that you are playing for at the moment. And if you can actually succeed in transmitting10 a content and it is well received, then your job is done and then I am happy or hopefully someone else is happy also.
LORRAINE HAHNTake Me to the Top
What inspires you nowadays - is it the places you visit, the people you meet, nature.
YO-YO MA
What inspires me - I think, I think you have just answered it. People inspire me, I think what the human spirit is capable11 of, of invention, of, of being able to get through hard times, to be able to pull through difficult times. People stories inspire me. I think new knowledge, the way, the pace that new knowledge is coming in. I think that's again reflection12 of what people are able to do. Nature inspires me. I like to, I'm always looking at the world with a certain amount of curiosity13 and wonder and that's, I think, that's stayed with me since childhood.
LORRAINE HAHN
Did this curiosity by any chance spark14 the Silk Road Project?
YO-YO MA
Yes, I think, this curiosity, this sense that I need to know what our world is like. Certainly I have traveled a lot, but in terms of the Silk Road project, tying the Mediterranean, people from the Mediterranean15 all the way to the Pacific and looking at the thousands of years of exchange through history as well as now, the continual exchanges; it's all about connecting people. I think everything in terms of music boils down to trust. I cant' make music on stage with somebody without our feeling that we really trust each other to get the work done. So if you are working with somebody, you are not quite sure you know their music, you don't quite speak the language, the point of working is to build the trust, is to say, you know I love your music, I respect your music, now teach me - tell me what I don't know, tell me what I need to know in order for you to be happy, representing your world and vice versa. And we keep doing that, and so I think I am happy to report that after a couple of years of working with an ensemble16, we really care for one another and we are all better musicians - so that is what we are trying to do.
I was never a disciplined child.
LORRAINE HAHN
Yo-Yo, your father first taught you how to play the violin; but you eventually switched17 to the cello right? I mean, what did you have against the violin?
YO-YO MA
You know, what's funny is that people talk about, you have musical talent or you don't have musical talent - I think that's true up to a certain point but in terms of instrumental talent, I was a disaster on the violin, I didn't like the violin, I didn't, it just physically didn't work. In fact that my sister played the violin and she played very well, may have had something to do with it because she plays so well, maybe I can never catch up to her, but I love the sound of the violin. So it is not that, it fact, it was, continues to be one of my favorite instruments. But I just wasn't so good at it. I just wanted something big, I wanted to play double base, and I couldn't play double-base at age 4 so the cello was a compromise18, And I promised my parents that if I, if they got me a cello then I would stick with it and not keep switching.
LORRAINE HAHN
Wow!
YO-YO MA
So I have kind of kept my promise although I occasionally will play other instruments.
LORRAINE HAHN
Now your parents - they were both musicians, your mum a singer and your father a professor. Were they pretty strict, I mean did they force you to practice-practice-practice or were you a pretty disciplined19 child at five.
YO-YO MA
No, I was never a disciplined child and I continue not to be incredibly disciplined. But well, you know Asian households and if you play an instrument and I think what was different in my family was that, my parents both really loved music and as well as my sister in very specific ways. My father was a composer, he was a musicologist, he conducted, he was very analytical, he had precise ways of talking about music and since he lived in France for so many years, I was really taught the French system of naming notes and harmony and counterpoint20. My mother who was a singer, really is much, the analytical sides of music didn't interest her, I think she more or less wanted, what we all want, we want to be moved by music. So, having this from both sides was certainly a part of my musical education. My sister, who actually has combinations21 of both from my parents, she played violin and she play piano so we actually did, made music together as children and that was certainly a good thing and a fun thing.
LORRAINE HAHN
So would you say you leaned more to- wards your mum or your father?
YO-YO MATake Me to the Top
I think at various times, when I am performing, I think the priorities when you are performing is to actually be there for the music and that is, and that is really both a conscious and a subconscious22 response to music - that's probably more my mother. But I think my father's side - in looking at new music, in really looking at the world, I think that is very much there too, and I think, it is that early training there that has given me the ability to actually to learn a lot of new things and in having a system to do that. And obviously, I have had many, many great teachers since I was 10 years old and I can talk to you about all of them because each one of them has taken me to another level of understanding and I think that part is constant. I'm continually learning from people and now learning from people who are younger than I am who know a lot of things I don1 know.
LORRAINE HAHN
You were born in Paris, Yo-Yo would you say you were raised in a very Chinese family?
YO-YO MA
I think, what is interesting about my back- ground is that I received a number of cultures all at the same time. So I think, I learnt both Chinese and French at the same time and certainly my parents' immediate cultural perspective23 was a Chinese one, but actually a Chinese one from the time when they left China that they had kept in their minds, and so by the time I moved to America it really was, I think, just I had 3 cultures in my brain at all times. And some parts would be activated more at one time obviously when you try and speak the language that's one form of activation, but I think also in terms of thinking. And part of why I think I do the work I do in music as well as the culture is probably a result of this early upbringing24 and certainly, it was my interest in college as well as in my travels in music.
I think of the cello as an extension of my vocal chords.
LORRAINE HAHN
Yo-Yo I heard you try to avoid being a judge in musical competitions especially when children are involved why is that?
YO-YO MA
Well I think that music - the essence25 of music is about expression and is not about competition and so I don't, I am not ideologically against competition. I realize we live in a very complex world, but I just found myself unable to say that one person should get the 1st prize and the second person should get the 2nd prize. It just didn't make sense, it is about going internal, going deep some place and finding lots of contexts for what you have to say and make sure that some- one can actually get it. So that process, is to me it's a non-competitive process, it is a very complex process, and I realize that you know competitions are extremely useful in being able to locate talent, but I think I am just not very good at being a judge.
LORRAINE HAHN
Is that teaching kids probably the most gratifying26 part of your job or your career?
YO-YO MA
I think communication and connecting with people is definitely the most gratifying part of my job. As I get older what is so fascinating is that, you know, so I think I know my world but actually as I see my kids grow up I realize that we live in the same world but sometimes a parallel world and their world is slightly different from my world and I'd like to have con- tact with what they know also.
LORRAINE HAHN
Yo-Yo, you know, some musicians, when they hold their instruments, their instruments take over them. Is that the case with you?
YO-YO MA
Well it is - I think of the cello as an extension of my vocal chords27. You know the cello has 4 strings, we are, our vocal chords are there and literally my arms and my body is there to make the strings speak the way that we speak, and when I think of playing I am actually thinking of a human voice with all of the range of information and expression that the human voice can give, the subtle28, sometimes multi-layers of contradictory information, that you can have an amazing amount of information that comes out in the human voice. I try to do that with the cello and to do that I actually use all of what, you know, the limbs that are available to me. If I had some more limbs, I would try to use them too but I don't.
LORRAINE HAHN
Now Yo-Yo, when you'll make use of those limbs29, you said you'd play something for us, right.
YO-YO MATake Me to the Top
Yes, I will use those limbs right now and see whether those strings can sound like, like anything, And you know what I'd like to play for you Lorraine - a lot of children play this piece, it is a, 2 dances, French dances, Bourree from Bach's 3rd Cello Suite30. And I think some of you might recognize this piece.
LORRAINE HAHN
Thank you
LORRAINE HAHN
Yo-Yo, that sounds truly remarkable. Thank you very much.
YO-YO MA
Thank you very much. It was lovely to talk with you.
LORRAINE HAHN
Now before I let you go, I understand that you have two new albums coming out, right?
YO-YO MA
Yes I do and in a funny way the first one, which is called Paris - La Belle Epoque, harkens31 to my childhood, the first music I heard, is included in the album. And so it's, it's something after I have explored music from all over the world. That music is very, very dear to me, is very close to my heart and sonatas32 by Faure and Franck and one of the most beautiful melodies33 called Meditation by Massenet, which I actually play on the piano and my daughter plays on the violin so it is you know, very close to my heart. And a Brazil album, I've been, I love Brazilian music. I have been listened to it for years and finally I got a chance to work with some of my favorite musicians and so we got together last summer and recorded this CD. And it shows the incredible richness of Brazilian music and I think Brazilian music takes me to, it's gentle but within that gentleness it takes you into a dream world. So I hope people like it - I am really, really happy. It makes, actually that album makes
me very happy. I love to listen to that music.
LORRAINE HAHN
I'll remember that when I hear it, Yo-Yo. Thank you so very much. It's been a pleasure.
YO-YO MA
Thank you. It's wonderful talking with you.