Chen liked to say something to the audience about his pieces and I have always stopp

ed him. His music speaks for itself and is strong enough to communicate with people.”上海千花坊

Born in Shanghai, Yu, 55, studied piano with his grandfather, the composer Ding Shande, before he

上海千花坊品茶微信was trained at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and later at the Hochschule der Kunst in Berlin. On

his return from Europe, Yu has become a central character in the development of the Chinese classical music scene.

Like Yu, Chen, 68, is also a Shanghai native. In 1977, Chen was enrolled to study composition at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and in 1984上海千花坊

he moved to France where, for four years, he studied with Olivier Messiaen as the great French composer’s last pupil. He

上海千花坊品茶微信is best known as the musical director for the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and composed the

song, You and Me. He is also known for his cooperation with Chinese film director Zhang Yimou on the 2001 ballet prod上海千花坊

uction, Raise the Red Lantern, based on Zhang’s film with the same title and the film, The Flowers of War, in 2011.上海千花坊品茶微信

The two works by Chen on the new album come from very different periods in his career.

 written between 1998 and 1999, is a five-movement suite, portrayi

ng the five traditional Chinese elements: water, wood, fire, earth and metal.上海千花坊

“When I first wrote Wu Xing, the piece was not well received, since the melodies were not smo

oth and not considered beautiful in a traditional way,” says Chen. “But, over the course of the last 20 years, a gr

owing number of people have developed a liking for it and it’s beyond my expectation.”上海千花坊品茶微信

The violin concerto, La joie de la Souffrance, was written in 2017, and Chen added color w

ith a percussion section. Maxim Vengerov played the solo part and the violinist premiered the work alon

g with China Philharmonic under the baton of Yu during the 20th Beijing Music Festival.

The Shanghai Symphony Orchestra also knows the violin conce

rto very well since it was a test piece for the 2018 Shanghai Isaac

Stern International Violin Competition and was played by the six finalists, accompanied by the Orchestra.

“The relationship between a composer and his music is like that of a biological father and his

children. For the interpreters, like the conductors and symphony orchestras, they are like the ‘f

oster parents’ of the work,” says Chen. “As the ‘biological father’, I can do nothing about my work after I finished wr

ting it, but Yu has his own understanding of my music, which sometimes surprises me.”