30 year old Lu Ziwen was born in poverty and after struggling for a lifetime, he is finally able to perform in the Golden Hall symbolizing the highest honor. However, an hour before taking the stage, he was killed by his lover.
With eyes opened once more, he was unexpectedly born again in the body of the fallen star Qi Mu!
Who controls the world with notes?
Who is the king of the classics?
Qi Mu: I’ve conquered you; I am the king of classical music!
Min Chen: … As long as you are happy.
This is a story of a reborn violinist, vengeance, struggling for the top, and dominating the world of classical music!
This is not a plot-driven story as I've expected and even though we're following the MC on his journey on becoming one of the greatest violinist, this is a slice of life story, with a more mundane set up. The plot is straight to the point and you can see the ending right from the start. Definitely not the most stimulating story but everything is deliberately focus more on the MC's everyday routines. It can be dull at times with how it was structured, but it's also moving and inspiring.
At first, I was not sure if I'll be able to read this without any prior knowledge on classical music. But it was actually fun because while I was reading, I was also listening to the music mentioned in the story along with it. It was interesting that there are actually many familiar classical music that I've already heard at least once but didn't know the actual title and this novel actually introduced me to a lot of them and some I even added to my playlist.
The romance is okay but it got a little cheesy by the end. I liked it a little more on the first half because it felt more authentic and romantic. It's not that the romance is bad, I think I just felt a little tired seeing their lovey-dovey moments because it got a little repetitive without anything new happening in their relationship. I can read romance in slice of life setting with slow to no development and still enjoy it but for some reason, the romance here went slightly downhill for me and it's a little unbearable for me.
There's also the issue of the MC's rebirth. I don't usually care whether the actual rebirth make sense or not because sometimes, in this type of novels, it's not actually the 'how' but the 'why' that is more important. I just think the conversation about the rebirth was brushed off a little too casually. When the MC abruptly confessed about his past life and his rebirth, the ML didn't question about it because he already suspected it early on. But seeing ML having no big reaction, anyone in MC's shoes would have asked if he already knew, which was why he was not even surprise. But there's not even a clarification or discussion about it. It felt like a 'you know what I mean' moment but there's no actual conversation happening and as a reader, I felt left out.
This is definitely at the bottom of Mo Chen Huan's books that I've read so far. The topic of classical music is not the problem, which I initially thought it would be. It's actually one of the enjoyable part of this novel. It's just this is by far the weakest in her books in terms of characters and romance. This is completely subjective though because apparently, there are many high ratings on NovelUpdates and some even prefer this more compared to her other rebirth novels (Superstar Aspirations and Rebirth of a Supermodel, which I loved both), so I still recommend this I guess.
King of Classical Music is by the same author of Earth is Online and Rebirth of a Supermodel. Don’t expect Nodame Cantabile. This is one of the few novels that quickly drags after a dramatic opening chapter that sets the stage for death, transmigration and future revenge. Then, it got boring while it appeared the author forgot about the promise of vengeance for pain suffered in the past life by the protagonist. Not every injustice needs to counter with revenge, but, this story needed the excitement a skillfully planned and excuted revenge would offer to the storyline.
The author chose to delve into the in-depth dissections and analyses of the classical masters, their works, the typical leading countries in classical music, plus many fictional and non-fictional concert halls worldwide. The first half of the novel gets buried in the minutia of classical works while attempting to show the genius of the transmigrator as he adds his unique style to these works in his rise through the classical music community quickly surpassing his piers. Arguably, classic music details is expected considering the title and description. But, too much overshadows the main storyline and acts like filler paragraphs.
The items missing in the first half are a few. The romance was a very very slow burn. Much more was needed early to retain reader’s interest. Intermingling the tension of the revenge sub plot from the beginning with the personal growth would have made for a better story instead of pushing it off for the later chapters. Characters are passable. They are not interesting. An excessive amount of secondary characters were added and removed before they were developed because of the jumps to the several international cities. This detracted from a potential good story.
The story came together with romance and the mysteries solved to positively finish off this novel. It was a struggle to get through the first half. I would recommend the author’s other novels mentioned above before this one.
SE LAS RECOMIENDO UN MONTON, la dinámica, la pareja y la trama todo es tan entretenido y dulce TT además es una gran manera de obtener más información sobre la historia de la música clásica, se nota la investigación que hubo por detras. Les recomiendo mil que se hagan una playlist con las canciones que se mencionan en la novela y agregen otras más de música clásica para escuchar mientras leen, se siente genial