The Hanoi Conservatoire Symphony Orchestra performs in Tokyo October 4, 1999 as part of an Asian Music Festival. Before leaving Hanoi, the orchestra performed at the Hanoi Opera House on September 30 under the baton of Japanese conductor Hikotaro Yazaki with the participation of Vietnamese French violin soloist Stephane Tran Ngoc. |
A violin recital night, performed by Nguyen Khac Uyen,
an overseas Vietnamese living in Norway, will be held
on December 5 at the Hanoi Conservatory's Main
Concert Hall. Nguyen Khac Uyen is a former pupil of
the Hanoi Conservatory. He was then a pupil at the
Oslo Conservatory in Norway and the London
Conservatory in England. He is at present working
for the Swedish Malmo Opera-ballet Orchestra.
At this performance, Khac Uyen and Tran Ngoc Bich, a student of the Hanoi Conservatory and holder of the first prize at the second national autumn musical contest, will perform some works by Brahms, Cesar Frank, Chausson, Ysaye, Debussy, Ravel and Schoenberg. Vietnamese Music Performed in South Korea
Performing with traditional music instruments.
A Vietnam national musical troupe named 'Vietnamese
Girls' from the Hanoi Conservatoire has been
performing at a month-long arts fair and exhibition
in the Republic of Korea (RoK), starting in early
October 1999. The performance was televised
continuously on RoK Television.
This is a good opportunity to introduce Vietnamese national music to the Korean people and international visitors | |||
Chopin Night in Hanoi
Frederic Chopin is known in Vietnam only through
the pianists who performed his musical pieces and
only a handful of the Vietnamese connoiseurs who
could be able to enjoy his refined music. For several
decades now, Frederic Chopin seemed to be known by
Vietnamese everywhere only through his piece
"Tristesse" with its lyrics translated into Vietnamese
and its music written for the guitar by Forre. It is
worth mention that Chopin is also known to the
Vietnamese through To Huu’s poem "Poland, My
Dear!":
"Is it Chopin with immense love The Vietnamese learned more about Chopin’s
life and work when pianist Dang Thai Son won the first
prize at the tenth Chopin international piano contest
(1980). On that wonderful night, the only Asian at the
contest - Dang Thai Son, together with the Hanoi
Conservatory Symphony Orchestra greatly inspired the
audience.
This is the first time two of Chopin’s
concertos for the piano and orchestra were
performed: Concerto No1 in F minor (o.p 21) and
Concerto No2 in E minor (o.p 11). These concertos
were written by Chopin in two consecutive years before
he left Poland for France (1829-1830). As a world
famous pianist at that time, Chopin considered the
concerto as a means for him to illustrate the
perfection of the piano. The orchestra does not
participate in the substance of the piece, but
provides a background. Dang Thai Son, with the clear
music of his piano and his expressive look, was the
star of the Chopin night in Hanoi.
The French conductor Xavier Rist who had just taken
charge of the Hanoi Conservatory Symphony Orchestra
really created the necessary linkage and response
between the orchestra and the solo pianist.
The theatre was full to capacity on the Chopin
night, the audience was deathly quiet when the music
was flowing smoothly and then roaring with applause
at the end of each performance. Dang Thai Son has been
loved and admired for a long time in Vietnam.
In response to this admiration of the audience, he
played an encore of another Chopin piece called
"Le Grande Polonaise".
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HCOM's Symphony Orchestra Wins Praise at Asian Music Festival
For Vietnamese musicians, the event of the year was
the invitation for the symphony orchestra of the Hanoi
Conservatoire to perform at the Asian Music Festival
in Tokyo on October 1-4, 1999.
The 70-member orchestra performance was so spectacular that former Japanese Prime Minister Nakashone came up to the stage to congratulate the Vietnamese musicians. He expressed his pleasure with the talent they displayed and he felt that they played Tchaikovsky's fifth symphony in a way close with Asians' hearts. Japan's famous conductor Hikotaro Yaraky described the performance by the orchestra as "excellent". Violinist Stephan Tran Ngoc, an overseas Vietnamese living in France, who joined the Vietnamese orchestra during the show, expressed his appreciation of his colleagues' talent and his hope for another joint performance. The orchestra's success at the major regional music event reflected the rapid growth of the Hanoi Conservatoire in academic music only 42 years after its establishment. With devoted service by the conservatoire's staff members in training young musicians, especially by the late rector Ta Phuoc, the late "People's Artist" title winner Dinh Ngoc Lien and the late conductor Nguyen Huu Hieu, and with assistance from the former Soviet Union and other East European countries, several music groups have gradually matured and merged into the present symphony orchestra. In 1997, the Hanoi Conservatoire was awarded the "Royal Prize" by the Japanese Arts Council in recognition of its contributions to international music. In regard to the Tokyo festival, the conservatoire's rector Tran Thu Ha, a "People's Artist", said the orchestra has a wide repertoire of classical pieces and performs the pieces with passion. |