Let Fly (2013)

Program Note

Let Fly—Concerto for Violin and Orchestra was commissioned by the Detroit Symphony, the London BBC Symphony, and the Singapore Symphony. The composition was written for Gil Shaham, to whom it is dedicated.

World premiere: October 4th, 2013, Gil Shaham, Violin, Detroit Symphony conducted by Leonard Slatkin; Asia premiere: January 4th, 2014, Gil Shaham, Violin, Singapore Symphony conducted by Shui Lan; European premiere: May 9th, 2014, Gil Shaham, Violin, The London BBC Symphony conducted by Sakari Oramo. Instrumentation: solo violin, two flutes (second doubles piccolo), two oboes (second doubles English horn), two clarinets in Bb (second doubles bass clarinet in Bb), two bassoons (second doubles contra-bassoon), four French horns in F, two trumpets both in Bb and C, tenor trombone, bass trombone, timpani, three percussionists (playing crotales, glockenspiel, vibraphone, low bass-drum, large tamtam (60”), wind gong, large tambourine, low bango, high and low congas, guiro, triangle), harp, and strings.

Borrowed from a folk song genre in southeast China (‘flying song’), the title of the work came from two inspirations. First, it is the aural image of the violin melody just flying off in the air, an everlasting sensation when I first saw Gil Shaham perform a concert. The second inspiration of the title came from my daughter Fayfay (homonym for ‘to fly’ in Chinese). I wrote a child rhyme named after her when she was born on November 15th, 2010. And the first phrase of the song appears a few times in the composition.

The work is simply structured: three movements in one, with a cadenza between the second and third movement. The soloist is encouraged to write his or her own cadenza, of no more than 1-2 minutes, ideally based on the materials which have appeared up to this point of the concerto.

—Bright Sheng

小提琴与乐队协奏曲《飞飞歌》是由底特律管弦乐团、伦敦BBC交响乐团以及新加坡交响乐团联合委约创作的。这部作品是为吉尔·沙汉姆而作并题献给他。

这部作品的名字取自于中国西南部的一种民歌(飞歌），它在这里有两层内涵。首先，它的听觉感受正是悠然漂浮于空中的小提琴声音的感觉，这种感觉就是我第一次听吉尔·沙汉姆的音乐会是所感受到的那种刻骨铭心的感动。其次，这个标题的第二个灵感来自于我的女儿飞飞。2010年11月15日，我的女儿出生时，我就以她的名字写过一首儿歌。这首儿歌的第一句就在《飞飞歌》这部作品里出现过很多次。

这部作品的结构并不复杂：三个乐章连成一体，其中第二和第三乐章之间有华彩的段落。独奏家尽可以自由地创作自己的1-2分钟的华彩段落，并可以使用协奏曲中曾经出现过的任何素材。

—盛宗亮