纽约客｜钢琴家EmanuelAx与马友友：新播客上线，老酒友助兴

发布时间：2026-04-12 15:31:48  浏览量：2

有趣灵魂说

76岁的钢琴大师阿克斯开播客了！现场录制那天，他紧张得像新手，却悄悄请来一位“秘密酒友”——大提琴家马友友。两人相识超过50年，台上即兴合奏《彩虹之上》，台下互怼“你喝白葡萄酒”“不，你喝香槟”。音乐老顽童的友情，比曲子还动人。

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The New Yorker ｜Old Friends

纽约客｜老友记

Happy Hour with Emanuel Ax

与伊曼纽尔·阿克斯共度欢乐时光

To ring in his new WQXR podcast, the veteran pianist puts on a special live show with a secret surprise guest—his old drinking buddy Yo-Yo Ma.

为庆祝他的新WQXR播客上线，这位资深钢琴家举办了一场特别的现场秀，并请来一位秘密的惊喜嘉宾——他的老酒友马友友。

By Jane Bua

Jane Buais a member of The New Yorker’s editorial staff who covers classical music for Goings On. Previously, she wrote for Pitchfork.

撰文：简·布阿

（简·布阿是《纽约客》编辑部成员，负责“进行时”栏目中的古典音乐报道。此前她曾为Pitchfork撰稿。）

Illustration by João Fazenda

对于一位已经在钢琴前坐了七十年的人来说，伊曼纽尔·阿克斯本不该对演出如此紧张。“我弹琴的时候紧张得要命，”他站在WQXR电台格林空间剧场（位于苏豪区附近）的舞台上，轻声说道，“但至少我通常知道接下来会发生什么。而在这里，我就不太确定了。”

七十六岁的阿克斯正准备录制一场特别的启动派对节目，以庆祝他的新播客《古典音乐欢乐时光》——现场有一百多名观众。台上摆好了五把椅子，供嘉宾就座；还将加上第六把椅子，给一位神秘嘉宾——世界著名大提琴家、与阿克斯相交五十余年的老友马友友。“我几乎喜欢所有人，”阿克斯说，“但我爱那个人。”

阿克斯慢步走向一台华丽的施坦威三角钢琴，准备弹一首四手联弹的曲子——德沃夏克的《斯拉夫舞曲》作品46第一号，他说。“反正也没人在意。”另一双手来自嘉宾之一、演员大卫·海德·皮尔斯。两人在洛杉矶一场慈善活动上相识，当时皮尔斯勇敢地告诉阿克斯，他也会弹钢琴。

“我简直是上了天堂，所以试音怎么样都无所谓了，”皮尔斯说。

阿克斯却像是下了地狱。“希望我们能撑过去，”他说，“我们会搞砸很多地方。”他说得没错。他们的翻谱员、WQXR主持人杰夫·斯珀金帮不上什么忙——尽管皮尔斯使劲点头示意，他还是错过了几次关键的翻页。（“我所有的翻谱活儿都是临时被叫去的，”斯珀金说。）

“我猜工程师们会处理的，”皮尔斯说，“他们可有得忙了。”

在后台休息室里，阿克斯戳着有些干硬的鹰嘴豆泥和切好的萨拉米香肠，试图通过与另一位嘉宾、语言学家兼音乐教师约翰·麦克沃特聊天来分散注意力。“你平时是不是——？”他刚开口问道。

“我算是相当不错的卡巴莱钢琴手，”麦克沃特说，“而且我小时候也拉了好多年大提琴。”他咯咯地笑了，担心自己不小心泄露了马友友的秘密。“对不起，我不该说那个的。”

演出时间到了。摄像机刚一开机，马友友就从侧门悄悄溜了进来。台上，阿克斯的紧张感融化成了一派风趣。“你心目中理想的嘉宾是谁？”主持人、WQXR的埃利奥特·福雷斯特问道。

阿克斯回答：“显然，贝多芬会很棒，但他会一直问‘什么？’”

接着到了德沃夏克的环节。阿克斯和皮尔斯以胜利的C大调起奏，一头白发随着他们冲过一个个错误而晃动。斯珀金站在他们身后，专注地跟随着；他猛地翻过一页，下巴紧咬。（他的妻子坐在靠近舞台的地方，尖声喊道：“对！对！”）

当活动接近尾声时，第六把椅子被搬了上来。“他能抽出时间来看我们大家，真是太好了，”阿克斯说，“这是我的朋友马友友！”马友友抱着大提琴小跑上台，现场响起了堪比单向乐队级别的掌声。他把自己安顿在钢琴的弧弯处，两位老朋友轻松地奏响了改编版的《飞越彩虹》。马友友的琴弓在弦上飞舞；阿克斯的手指在琴键上闪烁。整个房间安静了下来，皮尔斯开始流泪。

“我们培养出了第六感，”演出结束后马友友说，“我们并不看着对方，但彼此都知道什么时候该做什么。”

“你的后背很有表现力，”阿克斯说。

马友友——永远是那位缪斯——正是促使阿克斯转向播客的灵感来源。“这来自友友的想法，做一档音乐版的《汽车闲聊》，”阿克斯解释道。马友友摇头表示反对，但阿克斯坚持说下去：“他们本来想让我们俩一起做，但你手头有太多事情。我的时间更多。”他笑着补充道：“我追随你的生活！”

“我们就像一对老夫老妻，”马友友说，“每次我去曼尼（阿克斯昵称）家，他总摆着那么多好酒。这是一段有福利的友谊。”

“我喝得最多的酒大概是白葡萄酒，”阿克斯说。

“你还喝香槟，”马友友纠正道。

“我以为那也是一种葡萄酒，”阿克斯回答。

“嗯，你刚才说的是白葡萄酒，”马友友说。将军。

“我们尽量不喝太多，”阿克斯说，“我们很容易被收拾掉。”

两人对视，眼中闪着孩子般的光芒。谈话不可避免地转向了音乐

。“从定义上说，我们无法达到理想中的目标，”阿克斯略带高傲地说，“没有完美的演奏。”

马友友点点头。“而且，比如《飞越彩虹》，它表达的就是向往，”他说，“如果那只蓝鸟能做到，为什么我们不能？”

无论是否完美，阿克斯觉得这场现场秀很成功。“我在所有该犯傻的地方都犯傻了，”他说。他甚至对那场乱七八糟的德沃夏克也释怀了。“我们总得弹点什么，”他说，“反正我也不太会说话。” ♦

For someone who has been at the piano for seventy years, Emanuel Ax shouldn’t be so worried about performing. “I get terribly nervous when I play,” he said softly, standing on the stage at WQXR’s Greene Space, near SoHo. “But at least I usually know what’s about to happen. Here, I’m not so sure.”

Ax, who is seventy-six, was about to record a special launch-party show to celebrate his new podcast, “Classical Music Happy Hour,” in front of an audience of more than a hundred people. Five chairs were set up onstage for panelists, and a sixth would be added for a surprise guest—Yo-Yo Ma, the world-renowned cellist and Ax’s friend of fifty-plus years. “I like virtually everybody,” Ax said. “But I love that man.”

Ax shuffled to a regal Steinway grand to run through a four-handed piece—“Dvořák’s Slavonic Dance Op. 46 No. 1,” he said. “Not that anybody cares.” The other two hands belonged to one of the panelists, the actor David Hyde Pierce. The pair had met at a benefit in Los Angeles, where Pierce had bravely told Ax that he, too, tickled the ivories.

“I’m sort of in heaven, so it doesn’t matter how the sound check goes,” Pierce said.

Ax seemed to be in hell. “I hope we get through it,” he said. “We’re going to screw up a lot.” He was right. Their page-turner, the WQXR host Jeff Spurgeon, was no help; despite Pierce’s violent nodding, he missed a few crucial flips. (“All of my page-turning gigs have been last-minute,” Spurgeon said.)

“I assume the engineers will take care of stuff,” Pierce said. “They’ll have their work cut out for them.”

In the greenroom, picking at crusted-over hummus and sliced salami, Ax tried to distract himself by getting to know another panelist, the linguist and music teacher John McWhorter. “Do you do—?” he started to ask.

“I’m a pretty good cabaret pianist,” McWhorter said. “And I also played cello for many years as a kid.” He giggled, worried that he’d let slip the Yo-Yo secret. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”

When showtime arrived, Ma sneaked in a side door just as cameras started to roll. Onstage, Ax’s jitters melted into charm. “Who would be your ideal guest?” the m.c., WQXR’s Elliott Forrest, asked.

Ax replied, “Obviously, Beethoven would be great, but he’d be asking ‘What?’ all the time.”

Then came time for the Dvořák. Ax and Pierce launched into triumphant C major, tufts of white hair jostling as they crashed through their mistakes. Spurgeon stood behind them, following intently; he whipped a page, jaw clenched. (His wife, sitting close to the stage, squealed, “Yes! Yes!”)

As the action was winding down, the sixth chair was placed. “It’s incredibly nice of him to make the effort and come and see all of us,” Ax said. “It’s my friend Yo-Yo Ma!” Ma trotted out holding a cello, to One Direction-level applause. He nestled himself in the piano’s curve, and the two old friends eased into an arrangement of “Over the Rainbow.” Ma’s bow danced over the strings; Ax’s fingers glistened across the keys. The room was still, and Pierce began to cry.

“We’ve developed a sixth sense,” Ma said, after the show. “We’re not looking at one another, but we know exactly when to do something.”

“You have a very expressive back,” Ax said.

Ma, ever the muse, was the one who inspired Ax’s pivot to podcasting. “It came from Yo-Yo’s idea of doing a music ‘Car Talk,’ ” Ax explained. Ma shook his head in protest, but Ax bulldozed on: “And they wanted both of us to do it, but you had too many things going. I had more time.” He added, with a smile, “I follow your life!”

“We’re like an old married couple,” Ma said. “Every time I go to Manny’s house, he’s got all these wonderful wine bottles. It’s a friendship with benefits.”

“The alcohol I drink most is probably white wine,” Ax said.

“And you drink champagne,” Ma corrected.

“I thought that was a wine,” Ax replied.

“Well, you said whitewine,” Ma said. Checkmate.

“We try not to drink too much,” Ax said. “We’re very easy to put away.” They looked at each other with boyish glints. Conversation turned, inevitably, to music. “By definition, we cannot reach the aspirational goal,” Ax said, loftily. “There’s no perfect performance.”

Ma nodded. “And ‘Over the Rainbow,’ for example, is about yearning,” he said. “If the bluebird can, why can’t we?”

Perfect performance or not, Ax thought the live show had gone well. “I was silly in all the right places,” he said. He was even O.K. with the messy Dvořák. “We had to play something,” he said. “Since I don’t talk so good.” ♦