Recent news of HCOM

Hanoi Orchestra Performs in Tokyo

The Conservatoire Symphony
Orchestra performs in Hanoi.

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

Nguyen Khac Uyen (R) and Tran Ngoc Bich.

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

On October 17 1849, 150 years ago, the heart of the Polish composer of genius Frederic Chopin stopped beating forever in Paris (France). In commemoration of his death, during the days of the last year of the 20^th century, many grand meetings were held in his homeland of Poland as well as in France where he had resided in the last years of his life. And in Vietnam, a sole concert in celebration of the composer’s death was organised on 3 December 1999 at the Hanoi Opera House.

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
Singing high praise of the Polish girls?"

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".

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.

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