Chamber Concerto No. 2: The Lost Garden for 8 Musicians is the second piece for my first concerto cycle, which I have been working on since 1999. The other three works are: Chamber Concerto No. 1: Yueh Fei for Eight Musicians (ca. 19 minutes), Chamber Concerto No. 3: Divergence for 5 Musicians (ca. 11 minutes), and Chamber Concerto No. 4: Confluence for 15 Musicians (ca. 15 minutes). ‘Concerto’, in old Italian, means “to bring together," and was used to describe works in which individual lines, either instrumental or vocal, were assembled into a harmonious whole. The whole concerto cycle not only focuses on different individual instrument, but also the ensemble as a dramatic whole and various combinations among them. In other words, it is about dialogues of musical instruments. The whole concerto cycle is linked together both musically and theatrically. Musicians and conductor are asked not only to act with body motions and movements, but also to sing, chant, and speak with their pure human voices. Therefore, these concertos are not just for instruments, but for performers. Thematically, the four concertos can be divided into two circles. The first two are both written for eight players with the same instrumentation; the last two complete the circle of process from divergence to confluence, which also converges the whole cycle. All four concertos can be performed individually as four independent pieces, or in any combination, or together as a full cycle. They represent the different stages and styles of my writing in the past few years.

It is a journal of my traveling in both the Western and Eastern world from the past through today, and to the future. The Lost Garden is an imagination world, full of joy and sorrow. You can find your lost memories, or you can bury them piece by piece; You can feel the wind, and hear the bird’s singing; never again, will it sound the same. The Lost Garden has four sections, but is played without pause.

– Huang Ruo