Listen: Butterfly Lover's Violin Concerto, Played by Lina Yu, Gil Shaham, Ji Won Song

August 26, 2016, 4:25 PM · SHANGHAI -- I thought I'd gather a few versions of The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto, which has been featured so prominently this week at the Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition semi-finals. Here are two versions; the first is a 1988 performance by Lina Yu, the Shanghai-based violinist who premiered the work in 1959. After hearing it 18 times with piano, I have to say, it sounds great with orchestra! Read here for more about the piece.

A number of other violinists have recorded the work, which was written by Zhanhao He and Gang Chen. Here is a recording by Gil Shaham, with the Singapore Symphony.

Here is the performance by Ji Won Song from the 2016 Shanghai Competition, added after she was named the winner for "Best Performance of a Chinese Work."