It was originally directed by Jiang Qing, wife of Chairman Mao, and since its highly acclaimed premiere in 1970[1] during the Cultural Revolution the Concerto has become popular in China and around the globe.
The piano concerto is meant to represent the very fighting spirit of Chinese people and the determination of a new-born nation, in the context of a long, vividly struggling history of the Yellow River.
This edition aimed at furthering the energy and momentum of the music, and in this light the rearrangement of the Yellow River Piano Concerto thirty years later is merely a continuation of that same practice.
Under orders of Madame Mao, a collective of musicians from the Central Philharmonic Society including Yin Chengzong (殷承宗), Liu Zhuang (刘庄), Chu Wanghua (储望华), Sheng Lihong (盛礼洪), Shi Shucheng (石叔诚), and Xu Feixing (许斐星) rearranged the cantata into a four-movement piano concerto: However, Madame Mao thought that the work could be improved, thence the standard performing edition (1970) was created, a piece more politically loaded and musically more conventional.
With the official end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976, the Yellow River Piano Concerto was banished from the Chinese concert stage, retaining a certain popularity outside China.