Yellow River Piano Concerto

About the work

Based on Xian Xinghai's 1939 Yellow River Cantata and arranged as a concerto in 1969 by a committee led by pianist Yin Chengzong. Its four movements move from the boatmen's struggle against the current, through the broad hymn of the Ode, to a finale of variations on 'Defend the Yellow River'. The piano writing fuses Lisztian bravura with figurations imitating the guzheng and pipa — one of the defining sounds of twentieth-century Chinese orchestral music.

Upcoming performances