Chinese composer recalls birth of The Butterfly Lovers violin concerto 60 years ago
He Zhanhao was a first-year student when he co-wrote his most famous work with classmate Chen Gang. Now 85, he will conduct a performance of it in Hong Kong today
He Zhanhao was a first-year student at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music when was ordered to write a concerto. The then 24-year-old did so with great reluctance, feeling unqualified for the task.
Little did He know then that the piece, The Butterfly Lovers violin concerto, which he co-wrote with classmate Chen Gang, would become one of the most well-known Chinese classical music works.
That was 1958. The piece premiered a year later in a concert celebrating the 10th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China, with 18-year-old Yu Lina on the violin.
“It is a pioneering piece, the first classical violin concerto to be written by Chinese,” says Huang Mengla, a student of Yu who has performed the concerto with various orchestras, including the Staatskapelle Dresden in 2012. “Though from the perspective of Western composition the piece is not perfect, its unique historical background and the influence it had on the generations that followed enabled it to leave its mark in musical history.”
This year marks the 60th anniversary of its composition, and to celebrate it the Nanjing Philharmonic Orchestra will perform the piece in an outdoor concert in Hong Kong on Thursday evening. He will conduct the performance on the Victoria Harbour waterfront in Tsim Sha Tsui.
The story of the violin concerto begins a little before He was given his fateful assignment at the Shanghai conservatory.