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Howard Shore’s Ruin and Memory Premiered by Lang Lang at the Beijing Music Festival

Oct. 12, 2010

Howard Shore enjoyed two noteworthy performances earlier this month in the US and abroad. On October 8 and 9 the ever popular The Lord of The Rings-The Two Towers Live to Projection had its Radio City Music Hall debut in New York City. Following on the heels of that event, Shore’s Ruin and Memory, a new concerto for piano and orchestra, saw its world premiere at the Beijing Music Festival on October 11. Commissioned by the Beijing Music Festival Arts Foundation, the piece was written for Lang Lang in celebration of the 200th Anniversary of Frédéric Chopin. Howard Shore comments:

The piece is really my musical reflection of Chopin’s time and the life he lived. The title captures a bit of Chopin’s life, about where he came from and the world he lived in, and what became of him when that world no longer existed.

Shore aims to pay homage to Chopin and his musical legacy by gracefully infusing the concerto with Romantic compositional sensibilities as it touches on some of Chopin’s favored compositional styles including the nocturne, mazurka and waltz. Regarding the piece’s orchestration, Shore explains:

I was always very aware of not doing too much that would take away from the beauty of the piano. The orchestra is there as a frame to the soloist, and to give shape to the piece, but ultimately the piano is the center of the universe.

Though Chopin and the Romantic era remained the main artistic inspiration for Shore, the composer admits to the piece owing in some part to Mozart, with an instrumentation that calls for no brass, harp, percussion or clarinets; only flutes, oboes, bassoons and horns and string orchestra of 40 players.

Lang Lang debuted the concerto on October 11 at the Beijing Music Festival with the China Philharmonic, conducted by Long Yu.

Visit www.schott-music.com for more on Howard Shore’s music.

Howard Shore
Ruin and Memory (2010)
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra
For Lang Lang in Celebration of the 200th Anniversary of Frédèric Chopin

I. Andante
II. Larghetto
III. Prestissimo
2.0.2.2-2hn-pno-str
30’

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