Heilong 黑龙 (Black Dragon)

In the winter of 2018 Lago visited the People’s Republic of China for the first time in his life; on tour with the Netherlands Wind Ensemble. One of the musicians joining the NWE on this tour was Lago’s colleague at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam percussionist (and great marimba virtuoso) Zhang Rachel Xi. Just before the tour Lago had heard a fantastic performance of his ‘Consecuencias’ for alto sax and string quartet featuring the Taiwanese Cheng Quartet and these players turned out to be great friends of Zhang Xi. 

So already before the end of the tour Lago started working on a piece for marimba and string quartet dedicated to all these musicians, inspired by traveling through China and based on the province where Zhang Xi comes from: Heilong (Black Dragon) Province in the north of China. 

The piece has three movements each depicting a different state of the Black Dragon.

The first movement: Flight飞 of the dragon, hectic, capricious and powerful. The second movement: Heart 心 of the dragon, a low and slow heartbeat, with even some warmth but also menace and finally great solitude. Third movement Fire 火 of the dragon: explosive, burning.