Grammy-award-winning violinist Joshua Bell presents a captivating performance of The Butterfly Lovers Concerto, one of the best-known classical works in China and inspired by the ancient legend of the same name. Released through Sony Classical it is now available on CD. Bell performs new arrangements of well-known Western classical repertoire adapted for the Singapore Chinese Orchestra, an ensemble of traditional Chinese folk instruments and conducted by Tsung Yeh. The recording also features Bell as a soloist in three popular Western Romantic works for violin and orchestra, all specifically arranged to be performed with the SCO’s virtuosic ensemble of Chinese instruments. Hear the lush Méditation from the opera Thaïs, the passionate Zigeunerweisen, and the virtuosic Introduction et Rondo capriccioso with a unique orchestral sound.

Inspired by a hauntingly romantic Chinese legend, the concerto was written in 1959 by Chen Gang and He Zhanhao. The original version, richly scored for a full Western symphonic orchestra, has achieved global popularity. For this recording, Bell performed an adaptation of the work by Yang Hui Chang and Ku Lap-Man for an orchestra of traditional instruments. The concerto, in seven concise but evocative movements, recounts the ancient Chinese legend of the youthful “butterfly lovers,” a story as passionate and star-crossed as that of Romeo and Juliet. The new arrangement for the Chinese orchestra lends the concerto an authentic clarity of sound and a timeless atmosphere, in which Bell’s violin becomes a poignant voice telling and inhabiting a story of tragic but transcendent love.