Video premiere: Cheng² Duo performs ‘Racing Horses’ for cello and piano

Comprising siblings Bryan and Silvie Cheng, the cello-and-piano Cheng² Duo performs an original arrangement of the Chinese folksong Racing Horses/Sai Ma (赛马) by Huang Haihuai.

The work utilises plenty of techniques that paint a clear picture of horses galloping and whinnying, while replicating the sounds of an erhu, a traditional Chinese stringed instrument.

Racing Horses  features on Cheng²’s upcoming album Portrait, which features world-premiere recordings, with four commissioned works by Canadian/American contemporary composers alongside two original arrangements of Chinese folk songs. It will be released on the Centrediscs label on 27 October 2023.

Stay tuned for a future episode of The Strad Podcast, where Bryan and Silvie will share their experiences of playing together since childhood, what their chosen album repertoire means to them, as well as the thoughts behind the crazy shredding witnessed in the above video!

Playing

In The Best of Technique you’ll discover the top playing tips of the world’s leading string players and teachers. It’s packed full of exercises for students, plus examples from the standard repertoire to show you how to integrate the technique into your playing.

Teaching

The Strad’s Masterclass series brings together the finest string players with some of the greatest string works ever written. Always one of our most popular sections, Masterclass has been an invaluable aid to aspiring soloists, chamber musicians and string teachers since the 1990s.

Calendars

American collector David L. Fulton amassed one of the 20th century’s finest collections of stringed instruments. This year’s calendar pays tribute to some of these priceless treasures, including Yehudi Menuhin’s celebrated ‘Lord Wilton’ Guarneri, the Carlo Bergonzi once played by Fritz Kreisler, and four instruments by Antonio Stradivari.