The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto was written in 1959 by Chen Gang and He Zhanhao while they were students at the Shanghai Conservatory and was first performed in May the following year. Musically the concerto is a synthesis of Eastern and Western traditions and overall style are adapted from traditional Chinese opera. The solo violin is used with a technique that recalls the playing technique of the Chinese two-string fiddle. It is a one-movement programmatic concerto, with three phases of the story-Fall In Love, Opposition To An Arranged Marriage and Transformation Into Butterflies.
The narrative, derived from Chinese folk-lore, tells the story of the lovers Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai. The two had been studying together, with Zhu Yingtai disguised as a boy, her identity unknown to her friend Liang Shanbo. Their period of study together and friendship is a happy one, which comes to an end when Zhu Yingtai is compelled to return home, and the couple part at a pavilion, eighteen miles from the city. This forms the exposition of a tripartite sonata form movement.
In the central section, the formal development, Zhu Yingtai now defies her father, who has arranged a marriage for her. Liang Shanbo decides to visit Zhu Yingtai and only finds she is a girl and about to be married. There is a tender duet between vilins and cello, now Liang Shanbo realizes the nature of his affection for his former companion. Liang Shanbo dies the victim of despair, and Zhu Yingtai, on the way to her wedding, stops at her lover’s tomb and leaps into it. The tomb bursts open and at the sound of the gong the music reaches a climax.
In the final section of the concerto, the recapitulation, the lover reappears and Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai emerge from the tomb as a pair of butterflies, flying together, never more to be parted.
The piano concerto “Yellow River”
The piano concerto “Yellow River”is an adaptation of “The Yellow River” Cantata, written in the mid-40's by Shan Xign-hzi to deify Mao Ze-dong's war against the Japanese. With the Yellow River symbolizing the Chinese nation ,the concerto praises the sour age and
fighting spirit of the country.
The first movement depicts boatmen struggling against the waves and shoals of the Yellow River; here the pipe, a Chinese short lute, is played softly and sounds like a mandolin .In
the second movement a piano solo summarizes the long history of the nation and of its people who for thousands of years have lived and worked along the banks of the Yellow River; the closing part of this movement played by the piano is symbolic of the “awakened Chinese people, who tower in the East like the lofty Kunlun Mountains”.
A scene of sunshine and prosperity-introduced by the Chinese flute-is depicted in the beginning of The Yellow River in Wrath; a deep-noted chord from the piano accompanied by
muted brass turns the movement into a somber description of the country under the Japanese .Then the music soars to a climax : the Chinese will never submit to the rule of the
invaders, and as the Yellow River rolls on in wrath the people are aroused to fury .The pipe in this movement is played flamenco style and sounds very much like a banjo.
The solemn brass introduction of the final movement symbolizes Chairman Mao's call to arms, and the cadenza depicts the people responding .the orchestra and piano then play the theme Defend the Yellow River as the army and the people march to battle.
The struggle for liberation is depicted, and the music culminates with the revolutionary song The East Is Red in praise of the Victory of Mao's concept of people's war .In the coda The East Is Red is combined with the International.
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