Source: CCTV.com
02-24-2009 08:25
Chinese violinist Yu Lina won instant fame fifty years ago with a performance of the "Butterfly Lovers" at the age of 19. The suite went on to become the most widely sold disc of instrumental music in China. That piece was her choice on Sunday night, as she and violinist Chai Liang wrapped up five nights of performing in Beijing.
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| Chinese violinist Yu Lina won instant fame fifty years ago with a performance of the "Butterfly Lovers" at the age of 19. |
One of the first performers of the Butterfly Lovers Concerto, Yu Lina held the audience spellbound right from the start. The violinist, now close to the age of 70, delivered a zesty performance. The emotion of the music she performed ranged from jovial to somber, to the accompaniment of the Beijing Symphony Orchestra.
The Butterfly Lovers suite was composed in 1958, by famous composers He Zhanhao and Chen Gang, then two students at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. The music has been interpreted by Chinese violinists of successive generations, but remains a signature piece for Yu Lina whose premiere performance was so fervidly-received that Yu played the entire piece again as an encore.
Violinist Yu Lina said, "I feel very happy today for I am still alive at the age of 69. Secondly, I still can play solo, and on top of that, I am here in Beijing to perform at the National Centre for the Performing Arts. I am really excited."
The second part of the night opened with an impeccable performance by forty-year-old violinist Chai Liang. A former faculty member and assistant teacher to the "Godmother of Violin," Dorothy DeLay at New York Julliard Music School, Chai is thoroughly conversant with Western music and its conventions. He applies his virtuoso technique with panache in a solo performance of a D Major Concert from Tchaikovsky.
