Chloe Chua - Butterfly Lovers & Paganini (NEW)
Chloe Chua - Butterfly Lovers & Paganini (NEW)
No. 1 Classical Top 100 - Apple Music Classical
No. 4 UK Official Charts - Specialist Classical Chart
No. 6 Billboard - Traditional Classical Chart
"Preternaturally mature and poised, she possesses a staggering technical ability but also an emotional grasp and musicality one more associates with someone twice her age." (Textura)
"The SSO give tremendously impassioned suport to the individual instrumentalists, led by Chua's expressive, story-telling violin." (BBC Music Magazine)
"Chloe Chua spielt mit großer Sensibilität, viel klanglicher Wärme und wird vom Singapore Symphony tadellos begleitet. Die wundervolle Stimmungen und die berückende Klangmalerei der Komposition werden optimal ausgekostet." (Pizzicato)
Rising star violinist Chloe Chua presents a recording combining Chen Gang and He Zhanhao’s Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto with Niccolò Paganini’s First Violin Concerto, performed together with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Rodolfo Barráez and Mario Venzago. The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto was written in 1959, and inspired by a tale often called the Romeo & Juliet of ancient China. Chen and He deftly combine a Western classical idiom with elements from Chinese opera, such as grace notes and portamento effects, and the work has become one of the most famous and acclaimed pieces of Chinese classical music. This album also features an interpretation of Chen Gang’s Sunshine over Tashkurgan, which adds Central-Asian maqam to the stylistic palette. The programme concludes with Paganini’s First Violin Concerto, musically inspired by Rossinian bel canto. The three works share a richness of melodic invention and orchestral colours, as well as breathtaking virtuosic demands for the soloist. The solo parts are in excellent hands with Chloe Chua, who admires the steadfast love and perseverance of the Butterfly Lovers, and feels fully at home in these evocative and exhilarating masterpieces.
Chen Gang & He Zhanhao: Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto (1959)
Chen Gang: Sunshine Over Tashkurgan (1976, orch. Yang Li Qing)
Niccolò Paganini: Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major, Op. 6 (1815)
Chloe Chua, violin
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Rodolfo Barráez, conductor (Butterfly, Sunshine)
Mario Venzago, conductor (Paganini)
Duration: 74 mins