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The Legend of the Butterfly Lovers | ICA Classics ICAC5146

The Legend of the Butterfly Lovers

£12.29

In stock - available for despatch within 1 working day

Label: ICA Classics

Cat No: ICAC5146

Barcode: 5060244551466

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Orchestral

Release Date: 27th October 2017

Contents

About

Susanne Hou was a scholarship student at Toronto’s Conservatory of Music followed by the Juilliard School under Dorothy DeLay, Cho-Liang Lin and Naoko Tanaka. She rose to fame on the international concert scene when she unanimously won the Long-Thibaud, Lipizer and Sarasate International Violin Competitions. Since then she has collaborated with world-renowned conductors and fellow artists such as Rostropovich, Zuckerman, Alan Gilbert, Spivakov, Marcello Viotti etc with the LSO, RPO, Toronto Symphony, WDR Cologne, Radio France Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, SWR Stuttgart Radio SO, Tokyo PO, and Hong Kong PO to name a few.

Susanne has twice collaborated with the Oscar nominated director Atom Egoyan and the Oscar winning composer Mychael Danna (in the film Adoration which won the Ecumenical Jury Prize at the Cannes Festival as well as in the film Remember). She has her own music video The Devil’s Delight (made by the producers of The Red Violin and Yo-Yo Ma’s Bach Suites which is regularly featured on Bravo TV).

The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto (He Zhanhao/Chen Gang) was written in 1959 while the composers were studying at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, but did not gain popularity until after the Cultural Revolution in the late 1970s. It is an orchestral adaptation of an ancient legend, The Butterfly Lovers. The work features in figure skating and in concert halls worldwide and uses many Chinese melodies, chord structures and patterns. This gives the work a distinctive ‘Chinese’ sound though it uses tonal harmonies.

Of particular poignancy is the fact that Susanne Hou’s father Bo Zhi (Alexander) Hou was the top violinist at the Shanghai Conservatory at the time this concerto was written, going on to lead major orchestras in China before and during the Cultural Revolution. Mr Hou was asked to make the world premiere recording of The Butterfly Lovers Concerto but, due to sensitive political and societal circumstances, he ultimately left the country without having had the opportunity to make the recording. He therefore now passes the torch of his legacy in China, and his unfulfilled destiny of recording The Butterfly Lovers Concerto, to his daughter – Susanne Hou.

Saint-Saëns Introduction & Rondo Capriccioso was written for the Spanish virtuoso Pablo de Sarasate in 1868. It is a genuine and highly popular showpiece which really needs no introduction!

Yang’s Joyful Meeting was inspired by Chinese flute music originating in North China capturing the happiness of reunion. After a meeting with He Zhanhao, Wang discovered that it was highly influential in the composition of the Butterfly Lovers’ Violin Concerto, both works coming about in an effort to nationalise Chinese violin repertoire.

Fritz Kreisler, the celebrated Viennese violinist, composed Tambourin Chinois early in his career. It recreates the bustling atmosphere of a Chinese Temple fair and is full of technical frippery, etc.

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