【龙腾网】为贝多芬造钢琴的女人
正文翻译
Nannette Streicher has been marginalized by history, but she was one of Europe’s finest keyboard manufacturers.
兰丽缇·施特赖歇被历史忽略了，但她是欧洲最好的键盘乐器制造商之一。
With a warehouse that produced 50 to 65 grand pianos a year, Nannette Streicher’s firm was considered by many to be the finest in Vienna.
兰丽缇·施特赖歇的公司被许多人认为是维也纳最好的公司，每年可生产50至65架大钢琴。
The Morgan Library & Museum owns part of an original sketch of Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” Piano Sonata. In the margin, the British publisher Vincent Novello writes that the document was given to him by “Mrs. Streiker” — “one of Beethoven’s oldest and most sincere friends.”
摩根图书馆&博物馆拥有贝多芬《为槌击键琴而作的钢琴奏鸣曲》（Hammerklavier）的部分草稿。英国出版商文森特·诺韦洛在页边空白处写道，这份稿件是“弗朗索瓦夫人”交予他的——“贝多芬最真诚交往最久的朋友之一。”
Born in Augsburg, Germany, in 1769, Nannette was the sixth child of Johann Andreas Stein, a renowned manufacturer who developed an innovative piano action, improving on the mechanism that causes the hammers to strike the strings. It became known as the “Viennese action.”
兰丽缇1769年出生于德国的奥格斯堡，是著名钢琴制造商约翰·安德里亚斯·施泰因的第六个孩子。施泰因发明了一种革新性的钢琴琴胆，改进了琴锤敲击琴弦的机制。它被称为“维也纳琴胆”。
At 8, Nannette played in front of Mozart, who criticized her posture and grimacing, but admitted that she had “genius.” Two years later, she had mastered many of her father’s building techniques, earning a reputation as a mechanical wunderkind.
8岁时，兰丽缇在莫扎特面前演奏，莫扎特批评她的姿态和鬼脸，但承认她有“天赋”。两年后，她掌握了父亲的许多制作技术，赢得了机械神童的声誉。
After her father’s death in 1792, Nannette, then 23 and recently married, transported the pianos by raft and set up the business in Vienna. She partnered with her 16-year-old brother, Matthäus, changing the company’s name from J.A. Stein to Geschwister (siblings) Stein. It was a time of rapid developments in piano design. With concerts moving beyond aristocratic salons into larger halls, manufacturers were under pressure to produce heavier, more resonant instruments.
1792年兰丽缇的父亲去世后，当时23岁的兰丽缇刚刚结婚，她用木筏把钢琴运到维也纳，开始了自己的生意。她和16岁的弟弟马特索斯合作，把公司的名字从“J.A.施泰因”改成了“施泰因姐弟”。那是一个钢琴设计迅速发展的时代。随着音乐会从贵族沙龙进入更大的大厅，制造商们承受着生产更重、更有共鸣的乐器的压力。
Beethoven, who had met Nannette in Augsburg years earlier, asked to borrow one of her pianos for a 1796 concert in Pressburg (now Bratislava). Writing to Andreas, Beethoven joked that it was too “good” for him, because he wanted the “freedom to create his own tone.” In a follow-up letter, he complained that the piano was still the least developed of all the instruments and that it sounded too much like a harp.
贝多芬几年前在奥格斯堡见过兰丽缇，1796年在普雷斯堡(现在的布拉迪斯拉发)的音乐会上，他向兰丽缇借了一架钢琴。在写给安德烈亚斯的信中，贝多芬开玩笑说，这对他来说太“好”了，因为他想“自由创作自己的音调”。在随后的一封信中，他抱怨说，钢琴仍然是所有乐器中最落后的，听起来太像竖琴了。
A keyboard made by the company inherited by Nannette and her brother Matthäus from their father.The Metropolitan Museum of Art
这是由兰丽缇和她的兄弟马特乌斯从父亲那里继承下来的公司生产的钢琴。大都会艺术博物馆
The comment was sadly prescient. Beethoven had just begun to notice a decline in his hearing, but had told no one. Though he would later need a louder instrument to compensate for his deafness, he was at this point mainly concerned with finding a piano that accommodated his dynamic extremes.
令人遗憾的是，这番评论颇有先见之明。贝多芬刚开始注意到他的听力在下降，但没有告诉任何人。虽然他后来需要更响亮的乐器来弥补他的失聪，但此时他主要关心的是找到一架能适应他极富活力演奏风格的钢琴。
Nannette had already expanded her keyboards’ range from five octaves to six and a half, but she was slow to make other major alterations to her father’s original design. It was a stressful time. By 1802, she was the mother of two small children, and a 6-year-old son had recently died. She was also engaged in a dispute with her brother; the siblings eventually decided to dissolve the company and strike out separately.
兰丽缇已经将钢琴的键盘从五个八度扩展到六个半，但她在对父亲的原始设计进行其它重大修改时动作迟缓。那段时间压力很大。到1802年，她已经是两个孩子的母亲了，一个6岁的儿子不久前刚夭折。她也和她的兄弟起了争执；兄弟俩最终决定解散公司，各干各的。
By 1809, Nannette had considerably reworked her father’s design, turning out some of the largest, loudest and sturdiest pianos in Vienna. With a warehouse that produced 50 to 65 grand pianos a year, the Streicher firm was considered by many to be the finest in the city.
到1809年，兰丽缇对她父亲的设计进行了相当大的修改，制作出维也纳最大、最响、最坚固的钢琴。施特赖歇公司每年可生产50至65架三角钢琴，被许多人认为是该市最好的钢琴公司。
In 1812, the Streichers built a 300-seat concert hall adjacent to their showroom; it was decorated with busts of well-known pianists, including a life mask of Beethoven by the sculptor Franz Klein. Concerts there, which attracted the likes of Archduke Rudolf, Beethoven and Andreas’s piano students, became a hub of Vienna’s musical life.
1812年，施特赖歇夫妇在他们的陈列室旁边建造了一个能容纳300人的音乐厅。大厅里装饰着许多著名钢琴家的半身像，包括雕塑家弗朗茨克莱因创作的贝多芬真人面具。那里的音乐会吸引了鲁道夫公爵、贝多芬和安德烈亚斯的钢琴学生，成为维也纳音乐生活的中心。
Nannette added another job when, in August 1817, she agreed to manage Beethoven’s chaotic household. The composer was going through one of the many crises that marked his life. His hearing had worsened and he was in a creative slump. Having wrested control of his young nephew from his sister-in-law, he needed to give the appearance that he was providing the boy a good home.
1817年8月，兰丽缇又多了份工作，她同意管理贝多芬混乱的家庭。这位作曲家正在经历他人生中的一个危机。他的听力恶化了，创作力也陷入了低谷。他从他的嫂子那里夺取了他年轻侄子的控制权，他需要表现出他给这个男孩一个好家的样子。从嫂子手中争来了小侄子的监护权，他需要给人一种他正在给这个男孩提供一个优越家庭环境的印象。
Over the next 18 months, Beethoven wrote Nannette over 60 letters, ordering her to take care of his laundry, mend his socks and buy groceries, dusters and shoe polish. Increasingly paranoid, he was convinced that the “beastly” servants were out to rob and poison him, and that they were colluding with his “immoral” sister-in-law.
在接下来的18个月里，贝多芬给兰丽缇写了60多封信，命她帮他洗衣服、补袜子、买日用品、抹布和鞋油。他越来越偏执狂，他确信那些“可恶的”仆人是要来抢劫并毒死他的，而且他们与他“淫荡的”嫂子勾结。
Nannette agreed to manage Beethoven’s chaotic household when the composer was going through one of the many crises that marked his life.
兰丽缇同意在贝多芬经历其人生危机之际，管理他混乱的家庭。
Beethoven’s relationship with her may have been his most successful with a woman. She wasn’t oblivious to his shortcomings, telling Vincent Novello, the publisher, that he was “avaricious and always mistrustful.” But by that point, the pianist and piano builder had known each other for over two decades; they had a connection, and were united in their devotion to the piano.
贝多芬与她的关系可能是他与女人关系中最成功的。她并没有忽视他的缺点，她告诉出版商文森特·诺韦洛，他“贪得无厌，总是不信任别人”。但在那个时候，这位钢琴家和钢琴师已经认识了20多年；他们有一种默契，在对钢琴的热爱上是一致的。
By assuming his household duties, Nannette cleared the way for Beethoven to write his most ambitious piano sonata, the colossal “Hammerklavier.” It was longer and more difficult than any of his other piano works, ending with a wild fugue. It ushered in some of his greatest works: the “Missa Solemnis,” “Diabelli” Variations and Ninth Symphony. Though he was now using an English Broadwood piano, he confided to Nannette in a letter that the post-1809 Streicher had always been his favorite.
兰丽缇承担起他的家务，为贝多芬写下他最雄心勃勃的钢琴奏鸣曲——鸿篇巨制《为槌击键琴而作的钢琴奏鸣曲》扫清了道路。这首曲子比他其他的钢琴作品都要长，难度也更大，以一首狂野的赋格曲结束。他的一些最伟大的作品由此诞生:《庄严的弥散》、《迪亚贝利变奏曲》和《第九交响曲》。尽管他现在用的是一架英国的布罗德伍德钢琴，但他在写给兰丽缇的一封信中透露，1809年后的“施特赖歇”牌钢琴一直是他的最爱。
Nannette outlived Beethoven by five years, dying in 1833, at 64. The Streicher firm continued to thrive under her son, Johann Baptiste, and then her grandson, Emil, who built pianos for Brahms. When Emil retired, in 1896, the company closed.
兰丽缇比贝多芬多活了五年，卒于1833年，享年64岁。在她儿子约翰·巴蒂斯特和为勃拉姆斯制造钢琴的孙子埃米尔的领导下，施特赖歇公司继续蓬勃发展。1896年，当埃米尔退休时，公司倒闭了。
A replica of an 1816 Nannette Streicher piano.
一架1816年兰丽缇·施特赖歇钢琴的复制品
That would seem to have been the end of Nannette’s legacy. But her instruments live on, in museums around the world and in the strong, nimble hands of women she inspired. In the mid-1960s, as Margaret Hood, an artist and calligrapher, raised two young children, she started making harpsichords. After doing research in Europe, she began specializing in reproductions of Streicher pianos, producing them in her Platteville, Wis., workshop. She was building an 1816 Streicher six-and-a-half-octave grand when she died, in 2008.
这似乎是兰丽缇遗产的终结。但她的乐器流传至今，在世界各地的博物馆里，在她所激励的女性强壮灵活的手中。20世纪60年代中期，艺术家和书法家玛格丽特·胡德养育了两个年幼的孩子，她开始制作羽管琴。在欧洲做了研究之后，她开始专门生产施特赖歇钢琴的复制品，并在她位于威斯康星州的普拉特维尔的车间生产。2008年，她去世的时候，她正在建造一台1816年的施特赖歇 6.5个八度的大钢琴。
Anne Acker, who trained as a concert pianist before studying mathematics and computer science, met Ms. Hood in Wisconsin. They bonded over their love of music, and Ms. Hood became Ms. Acker’s mentor. While caring for her children, Ms. Acker began building and repairing harpsichords and antique pianos, and after her friend’s death, she purchased the reproduction Streicher from Ms. Hood’s husband.
安妮·阿克在学习数学和计算机科学之前，曾接受音乐会钢琴师的培训，她在威斯康星州遇到胡德。两人因对音乐的热爱而结缘，胡德成了阿克的导师。在照顾孩子的同时，阿克开始建造和修理拨弦琴和古董钢琴。在朋友去世后，她从胡德的丈夫那里买了这架施特赖歇钢琴的复制品。
