VietNamNet Bridge – A concert with popular pieces from international and Vietnamese composers will take place at the new Vinh Phuc Theatre on August 19.
Double trouble: Artists To Loan and Dang Duong performed at the press conference. Photo Nguyen Thuy Binh
The Toyota Concert 2017, held by Viet Nam National Symphony and Orchestra (VNSO) and Toyota Motor Viet Nam, will be held in the northern province of Vinh Phuc for the first time, as well as Ha Noi and HCM City.
The Vinh Phuc concert will include Johann Strauss’s overture The Bat; Johannes Brahams’s Hungarian Dance; Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No 9; and Vietnamese songs performed by Dang Duong and Dao To Loan.
The Vietnamese songs include Truong Ca Song Lo (The Lo River Epic); Du Kich Song Thao (The Thao River Guerilla); Tinh Ca (Love Song); Nguoi Ha Noi (Ha Noi People) and Tinh Ca Tay Bac (Tay Bac Love Songs) which were among the most popular pieces in the country in the 1940s to 1950s.
“The songs by veteran composers praise patriotism and nostalgia of soldiers, many of whom never returned,” said Nguyen Tri Dung, the VNSO’s director at a press conference in Ha Noi.
The Lo River Epic was inspired by Van Cao’s trip to the northernmost Viet Nam army base.
The epic was published in 1948 and quickly laid on top of patriotic-inspired music.
Van Cao (1923-95), from Hai Phong was the composer of the Vietnamese national anthem. He composed romantic songs and later composed patriotic marching songs when he joined the Viet Minh Front.
He was posthumously given the Ho Chi Minh Prize in 1996 a year after he died.
Streets in Hai Phong, Ha Noi, HCM City and many other provinces were named after him.
Magic fingers: Pianist Nguyen Viet Trung will perform with Viet Nam National Symphony and Orchestra in the Toyota Concert later this month. Photo news.zing.vn
Love Song was composed by Hoang Viet in 1957 as he suffered the pain of family separation during the war and it quickly became popular.
The concerts in Ha Noi and HCM City will feature pianist Nguyen Viet Trung and the VNSO under the baton of conductor Tetsuji Honna. The repertoire entitled The Melody for Incomplete Love Stories features pieces from Chopin and Brahms.
Trung is currently studying at the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music, Bydgoszcz, Poland and won first prize at Lodz 2005 Emmy Alberg Competition in Poland.
Trung is one of eight young pianists invited from across the world to perform in the Junior Academy programme Eppan in Italy in 2013.
Trung will play Chopin’s Piano Concerto No.2, which was dedicated to Chopin’s first love.
“I’m honourable to perform in a Toyota Concert for the first time,” said pianist Nguyen Viet Trung in a video clip from Poland screening at the press conference. “I know the concert to be a significant event for music talents. I’m eager to make my contribution to the event,” he said.
The concert will begin at 8pm at HCM City Municipal Theatre on August 16 and Ha Noi Opera House on August 25 26. All proceeds will be used for Toyota Scholarship for Vietnamese Young Music Talents. Please see Page 25 for ticket information.
VNS