New Phil to Present Tchaikovsky’s 4th & “Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto” with Yang Liu
Under the baton of music director and conductor Kirk Muspratt, New Philharmonic, the professional orchestra in residence at the McAninch Arts Center (MAC), caps its 2024-2025 season with concerts featuring works tied together with a common theme of destiny at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 12 and 3 p.m. Sunday, April 13. The program for each concert features Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 in F Minor and “Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto” by He Zhanhao and Chen Gang. Award-winning violinist Yang Liu will be showcased in the latter. A free MAC Chat will precede each concert one hour prior to performance.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 – 1893) is one of the most prominent Russian composers of all time. His Symphony No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 36 debuted in 1878. It has been described as an intensely emotional journey, and at times a battle with destiny, inspired by a tumultuous time in Tchaikovsky’s life and his relationships with two women: his wife and a benefactress he never met in person. It is considered one of the most beloved symphonies of all time and believed to have been one of his favorites.
Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto is an orchestral adaptation based on a Chinese legend that tells the story of two lovers, who are separated by destiny but not able to be separated by death as they are transformed into two magnificent butterflies. Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto premiered at the Shanghai Music and Dance Festival in May 1959 as part of the celebration of the 10th anniversary year of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. The concerto was subsequently banned during the Cultural Revolution, as fellow composers and political figures associated the folktale with anti-Communist themes that exalted the bourgeoisie. In 1978, the piece resurfaced at the Shanghai Spring festival, signaling a larger revival of the piece in China and beyond. Today, the concerto is widely referred to in China as “our symphony.”
He Zhanhao has been known as a composer, conductor and a professor at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. He was a director of the Chinese Musicians’ Association for several terms, and Vice President of the Shanghai Musicians’ Association. He has served as a jurist of the China Gold Record Awards and as Head of the Guzheng Professional Appraisal Committee of the Golden Bell Awards. Throughout his career he has continued to search ways to add a Chinese nuance to foreign musical forms and introduce modern features to Chinese traditional music. In 2023, he conducted Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto with members of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra in 2023 at the age of 90 years old.
Chen Gang has composed and recomposed many classics in China, including the Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto, Miaolin’s Morning and The Golden Steel Smelting Furnace. In 2017, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Chinese Golden Bell for Music.
Guest violinist Yang Liu was named the prize winner of the Twelfth International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, first prize winner of the American Prize in String Performance in 2023, and first prize in the 2022 Medici International Competition. He has performed as a soloist with world-leading orchestras including the Cincinnati Symphony orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, and Danish Royal Odense Philharmonic to name a few.New Philharmonic performs Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony and Butterfly Lovers Concerto at the McAninch Arts Center, 425 Fawell Blvd., on the campus of College of DuPage, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 12 and 3 p.m. Sunday, April 13. Tickets are $57. For tickets visit AtTheMAC.org or call 630.942.4000.
