Tag: He Zhanhao

The composer of the “Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto of the East” has died. Chen Gang’s most famous work, “The Butterfly Lovers Concerto,” was an enormous success at its premiere in 1959.

Frequently co-credited to He Zhanhao, who was the soloist on that occasion (and who is said to have contributed the opening theme), the concerto suffered a reversal of fortune during the Cultural Revolution, when it was condemned by the Chinese Communist Party for its Western tendencies.

Part of the issue was the program, an ancient Chinese Romeo and Juliet story about the daughter of a rich landlord, who disguises herself as a boy in order to get an education. When her secret is discovered by a classmate, the two fall in love. However, the girl has been promised in marriage to a wealthy man. The boy dies of grief, and on the day of her wedding, the girl hurls herself into his tomb. The lovers emerge as butterflies fluttering freely in the air.

The music was blasted too, for its stylistic cosmopolitanism and bourgeois decadence.

For their celebration of redemptive love and liberation and their embrace of Western classical forms, the composers were publicly accused of crimes worse than murder, and everyone associated with the work was imprisoned.

Chen was incarcerated for two years, then was placed under house arrest at the Shanghai Conservatory, with manual labor in the mornings and self-criticism sessions in the afternoons.

It was after the Cultural Revolution that “The Butterfly Lovers” took flight. Though still far from being universally recognized in the West, it is unquestionably a crowd-pleaser. I can’t vouch for the assertion, but it has been said that it is now among the most performed concertos of the 20th century.

Chen died on Saturday at the age of 91.