The big news here is the presence of The Butterfly Lovers, a work known to Western audiences in fragments from Olympic figure skating performances and the like, but not so often heard in full from a violinist of the caliber of Gil Shaham. It is sometimes paired with the notorious Yellow River Concerto in concert, but it is slighter, less extreme in conception, and thus more attractive than that work. Like the Yellow River Concerto it is a joint production, but by only a pair of composers, Chen Gang and He Zhanhao, not an ...
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The big news here is the presence of The Butterfly Lovers, a work known to Western audiences in fragments from Olympic figure skating performances and the like, but not so often heard in full from a violinist of the caliber of Gil Shaham. It is sometimes paired with the notorious Yellow River Concerto in concert, but it is slighter, less extreme in conception, and thus more attractive than that work. Like the Yellow River Concerto it is a joint production, but by only a pair of composers, Chen Gang and He Zhanhao, not an entire committee, and its program is based on an episode from classical Chinese literature, not on a Communist plot. It was written in 1959. The seven short movements embody the story of a girl, Zhu Lingtai, who passes as male so that she can study literature. A boy in her class finds out what she is up to, and the two fall in love. Their love is doomed, however, because a marriage for Zhu to a wealthy merchant has already been arranged. The boy dies of grief, and Zhu throws herself...
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