In his program notes, Chou Wen-Chung describes his Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra as a fusion of mid-century American modernism, European classical form, and East Asian aesthetics, adapting the classical model of the concerto a three-movement work juxtaposing a soloist against a large ensemble into a portrait of the individual surrounded by natural beauty, as in Chinese landscape painting. Thus its three movements bear the suggestive titles “Rocks, Clouds and Wind”, “Musings on the Mountain”, and “Cascades, Whirlpools and Rapids”, and its pitch content is based on Chinese variable modes. The open strings, stopped notes, and harmonics of the cello part can also be taken to represent Taoist concepts of earth, humanity, and heaven, respectively.

Though originally commissioned by Paul Tobias with a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts’ American Bicentennial program, the composition of the concerto was interrupted for over a decade. Between Chou’s first draft of the cello part in 1978 and the completion of the concerto in 1992, the piece was radically reworked, and it received its premiere in 1993 by Janos Starker and the American Composers Orchestra under the baton of Dennis Russell Davies. 30 minutes in length, it is available for purchase as a full score published as part of the Peters Contemporary Library, with solo part and orchestral materials on hire.

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