Concerto for Reeds
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Score title
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Concerto for Reeds
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Composer
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Chen Yi
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Program note
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The work was commissioned by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia's Swiss Cultural Programme in China for oboist Renato Bizzotto and conductor Li Xincao of the China National Symphony Orchestra, and premiered by the CNSO with guest soloist Renato Bizzotta, conducted by Jan Schultsz in Beijing, on October 28, 2008. Scored for solo oboe, sheng (Chinese mouth pipe organ), flute, oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, contrabassoon, French horn, trumpet, trombone, percussion, and strings.
The imagination of this music came from the figures in the murals carved in the Mogao Caves in the ancient city Dunhuang more than a thousand years ago. The name Dunhaung originally meant "prospering, flourishing". Lying at the western end of the Gansu Corridor in China, Dunhuang was very important in the Silk Road that carried new thoughts, ideas, arts and sciences to the East and West in the ancient time. The Mogao Grottoes were built and developed over 11 dynasties over more than 1,000 years (from the 4th to 14th centuries), with murals, sculptures, wooden cave buildings and books. It was really the heyday of the art of Dunhuang in the brilliant Tang Dynasty (618-907). The murals depict rolling dance gestures, the flapping streamer lines, the flying melodies around the clouds, and the fiery rhythms in the sky! It shows the high spirit and the strong power of the people and their society. All these impressions are translated into textures of the western and Chinese traditional instrumental solo parts and the chamber orchestra sound. It's mysterious, vivid, colorful and energetic, it brings us to dream of the ancient glory and yearn for the future...
Chen Yi