Beethoven built up a Herculean tone in his incidental music for Goethe’s Egmont. From the start, the overture conveys a spectacular and marvelous atmosphere. Before this work was written, Beethoven composed a victory ode proclaiming the defeat of fate in his Fate symphony. And then in the Egmont Overture, he elevated his ideology of hero worship. To Goethe, the Count of Egmont is a tragic hero who made many sacrifices to free his people; to Beethoven, death is not the end, but the ultimate triumph in eternity. Peers might laugh at contemporary composers who try to write their autobiographies through music. However, Richard Strauss subconsciously adopted a roundabout route to complete an autobiography for himself in score form. His last symphonic poem Ein Heldenleben was written in 1898. He was thirty-four years old when he composed the work, yet elements of his work eerily reflect the circumstances of his latest years. What a coincidence! If this work reflects his life journey, then what we heard would be his musical autobiography. Providing music that reflects the journey of life in all its candid detail, the violin concerto La Joie de la souffrance written by Qigang Chen depicts the sorrows and joys of his life. Walking through several family tragedies, Qigang Chen regards life largely from a philosophical perspective. He realized that so-called ‘sorrow and joy’ of life is actually just ‘loss and gain’. He intends to portray the emotions in La Joie de la souffrance. Employing the tune from the guqin piece Three Refrains on the Yang Pass Theme as its main theme, this twenty-four minute long concerto leads the audience to walk through a different consciousness of life.