Violin Concerto 'Butterfly Lovers'

The Butterfly Lovers concerto was written in 1958 by He Zhanhao and Chen Gang, then students at the Shanghai Conservatory, as part of a campaign to produce works in a national style; He supplied melodic material from Yue opera, Chen the orchestration and harmonic scheme. It was first played on 27 May 1959 in Shanghai with Yu Lina as soloist. The single movement follows the legend of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, ending with the lovers' transformation into butterflies. The work was banned during the Cultural Revolution and both composers were attacked for it before its rehabilitation.