Vietnam Symphony (VNSO) performs with Japanese conductor.

VNSO, in co-ordination with the Hanoi Conservatory, will give a special concert with many famous works by Beethoven and Mendelssohn at the Hanoi Opera House on Feb. 19 and 20, 2001.

Artist Hoang Linh, born in 1959, lecturer of the Hanoi Conservatory, is expected to play violin solo at the concert. He is a promising violinist. He was a student of professors Hoang Cuong and Bich Ngoc and followed a post-graduate course at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory.

The concert will be under the baton of famous Japanese conductor Tetsuji Honna. This is the first time he has performed with the Vietnam Symphony Orchestra. Mr Honna, born in 1957, studied at Tokyo Fine Arts and Music College. He used to conduct the Osaka Symphony Orchestra and Japan Chamber Music Orchestra. Mr Honna has won many international awards, including the Luthasan prize in Tokyo in 1985; the second prize in Parma (Italy, 1990) and the first prize in Budapest (Hungary, 1992.) In addition, he won the Nippon Steel award for young musical talents in 1995. Honna has conducted many well-known orchestras such as the national symphony orchestras of Hungary, Slovenia and the Netherlands. He has been conducting the Nagoya Symphony Orchestra, one of the leading orchestras in Japan, since 1997.

Baton Bravado

Forget bungling into unharmonious bastardisations of classical music masterpieces. As Christopher Tidyman and Ngo Hong Hanh witnessed, the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra was an undoubted paragon of virtue under the stirring stick of London Royal Academy of Music Professor Colin Metters.

Seasoned symphony fans and newcomers alike had the rare opportunity to watch Prof. Colin Metters of London's Royal Academy of Music conduct the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra at the newly restored Hanoi Opera House.

Metters' appearance was part of an ongoing project between the two countries to give Vietnam's symphony orchestra international quality and larks his third series of concerts with the musicians.

"For me there are two parts of the project. Firstly, to help take the orchestra outside of Vietnam to show what we have achieved... and that Vietnam has a very fine symphony orchestra that is fully Vietnamese. Secondly, the long-term future of the orchestra should be based on making it self-sufficient in terms of funding and eventually full-time," said Metters, adding that he'd rehearsed with the orchestra 6 hours a day for eight days leading up to the first performance.

Metters is pleased with the progress the orchestra has made, saying the project has proved very worth his time and so he keeps him coming back.

"The orchestra has made very strong progress and has developed very well," said Metters. "There is tremendous potential in the young people."

The Big Night

Form the start of the first performance of the night, the overture "Roman Carnival" by Berlioz, one could sense that the audience had given something over to the night, in which many were initiated into the sonic duality of conductory and orchestra. It seemed as if the evening's performance melded a definable purpose and production onstage

Bruch's "Violin Concerto in G Minor" was next on the programme - the first of two pieces showcasing the young Vietnamese violinist Nguyen Huu Khoi Nam, currently studying in France. While this first encounter failed to fully illustrate the young soloist's prestigious talents, there were a few interludes when the crowd glimpsed a true musical unison of hands. And when those moments did arise the audience felt they'd experienced something special indeed.

But it was the next piece, Vietnamese composer Dam Linh's rhapsody "Bai Ca Chim Ung" which appeared to map a path to the soloist's heart. The piece returned the orchestra homeward, shading local melodious colours into the palette of European harmonic history.

Reminiscent of other successfully realised east-west musical excursions - Yehudi Menuhin and Ravi Shankar come to mind - Dam's composition was truer to cross-cultural soundscaping than the hacked and bludgeoned bastardisations such endeavours often result in. Nam and the orchestra both appeared to rejoice in playing within such a context, his choice of solo attack and retreat became more reasoned, the orchestral sections drawing greater strength and giving more.

The second half of the evening was given over entirely to the Czech composer Dvorak's "Symphony No 7". A composer steeped in the pursuit and unearthing of simplified rather than simple melody, Dvorak was the absolute right choice for the night's final performance - as evidenced by the knowing nods and warm grins of those symphony aficianadoes in the crowd. Metters prodded, coaxed and swayed the orchestra into articulated variation upon pronounced variation of the symphony's central theme - tumbling over itself as it expanded towards a panasonic and panoramic statement of intent.

There were confusing moments through all this though. I couldn't help but hear an illustrious Ellingtonian brass section oomph of Count Basie swinging the whirring and thrust of the collective cellist bowlines. But perhaps it was just a momentary illumination of the power of music to stir and grip us as perhaps no other art form can, and the piece was truly the tantalising performance pinnacle of the entire evening.

A Talented Violinist

Duy is the first son in a musician family. His mother, Pham Thuy Lan, is a cello teacher and his father, Bui Cong Thanh, a violin teacher. He was introduced to music by his father when he was five years old, and at nine years of age he won his first violin contest "Autumn". This result earned Duy a place at Lise School of Glinka Conservatory (Novosibirsk, Russia). Since then, every two years was marked with another titles: first prize at Demidov contest at 12, first prize at Bron-Novosibirsk at 14, and at 16 he ranked first at Tchaikovsky contest in Saint Petersbourg. To open a new learning opportunity for Duy, the musician couple Cong Thanh-Thuy Lan had to sacrifice their tranquil life in Ho Chi Minh City to go to the snowy Novosibirsk to take care of their then 10- year old son.

Bui Cong Duy - a Talented Violinist

To cover Duy's living and study costs, there were nights when the father, an associated professor and a violin teacher had to put aside his arche to work as a taxi driver. He even had to do several other part-time jobs so that Duy could go to school without having to worry about his family's financial situation. The result? "All our efforts and sacrifies had not been in vain", as his mother Thuy Lan exclaimed after being informed of Duy's perfect mark in the Tchaikovsky contest. His father was equally happy and proud: "Only Duy could make all my dreams come true".

In the afternoon of January 6 this year, Bui Cong Duy flew to Hanoi to prepare with the Orchestra for the upcoming concert. A few days later, in the evening of January 9, Hanoi Conservatory Hall was filled with people, and hundreds had to stand outside to watch and listen to Duy's performance. Duy said about his way to express the "soul" of a piece of music: "When I was in Russia, I had a feeling of a vast country, it seemed that I could have a "breath" of natural landscape, so music must be expressed in a similar way, long and wide. But when I was in Gemany, my felling was switched because of the enourmous and closeness of this country. To be specific, when performing musical pieces of Beethoven, Brahms etc.. , you've got to listen to the original music and other performers and then choose your own style". Duy also revealed that the Sonate of Cesar Franck was his favourite piece. We happen to know that Duy frequently performs overseas. This year, his schedule is as follow: May-performance in Russia, June - in Germany, August - in Switzerland, and in October, Duy plans to paticipate in a major contest - N.Paganini in Italia. The Novosibirsk newspaper (Russia) had an article "Little Prince" about Bui Cong Duy, "Could it be easy to find a prince , or a princess in real life?. But there is a 16 year -old boy who followed his father, a conservatory teacher to Novosibirsk. When he steps out on stage, we can see that the sound of voilin in his hands is telling every one that he is truly the prince of music". It is very touching to listen to Duy performing to perfection the excitement of Izai sonate, or the stormy yet dreamy sounds of Franck sonate.

Autumn Concert in Hanoi

Two concerts by the Vietnam Symphony Orchestra under the baton of English conductor Colin Metters were held at the Hanoi Opera House on October 29 and 30, 1999.

Professor Colin Metters is the Director of Conducting Studies at the London Royal Academy of Music. He is an excellent teacher and one of the few international lecturers who specialise in hosting seminars on conducting. He has worked as a musical advisor and a key conductor for the Vietnam Symphony Orchestra since 1997 in a three-year project to develop the orchestra into an international force.

The other foreign musician participating in the performance is Igor Chistrtop. Born in Ukraine, he received a piano Master's degree in piano playing at the Odessa National Conservatoire. He has been working in Vietnam for five years and is now teaching piano at the Ho Chi Minh City Conservatoire.

The performance consists of three musical works by different composers. It will begin with the prelude 'Cockaigne' by Edward Elgar (performed for the first time in 1901). The prelude describes London and a couple who take a walk in the park. It will continue with 'Rhapsody on the Theme of Paganini' by Sergei Rachmaninov. Rachmaninov was born in Russia in 1873 and died in the United States in 1943. He was one of the greatest pianists in the world. 'Rhapsody'was composed in 1934 with 24 variations.

The performance will be closed with 'Symphony No.2 in C minor', by Tchaikovsky, which was composed in 1873 with the title 'Little Russia' Tchaikovsky used Ukrainian folk melodies in the symphony.

Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra Performs in Ho Chi Minh City

The Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra (VNSO) performed in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) on November 13, 1999 under the baton of a Swiss conductor, Andr� Raoult. The VNSO performed the Prelude "Der Freischiitz" by Weber, a Mozart Concerto for bassoon and Symphony No.9 by Schubert.

Cultural Medal for Japanese Conductor

The Ministry of Culture and Information presented a ‘Cultural Fighter’ Medal to Y. Fukumura, Japanese conductor, for his contribution to the arts in Vietnam, on December 20.

Mr Fukumura is a well-known Japanese conductor. He has been working with the Vietnam Symphony Orchestra since 1992 and has organised many successful concerts.

At present, he is planning to organise performances with the orchestra to celebrate 1000 years of Hanoi.

Performances to Welcome New Century

The Vietnam Symphony Orchestra will give a performance entitled ‘Welcoming the New Century’ at the Hanoi Opera House on January 8 and 9, 2000. The programme includes ‘Hanoi - Confidence and Hope’, ‘Miss Hanoi’ and ‘Milk Flower Season’.

One hundred and forty artists will take part in the show. Many foreign news agencies will report the performance.

April 21 and 22, 2000: Orchestra to Perform with English Conductor

The 87-member Vietnam Symphony Orchestra will give its fifth performance on April 21 and 22 under the baton of professor Colin Metters from the London Royal Music Conservatoire under the sponsorship of the British Council.

The programme will begin with a work by A. Sullivan and end with the second Symphony in D Major op 43 by J. Sibelius. Two works by Do Nhuan will also be played in the programme with the participation of People?s Artist Le Dung. Co-ordinators of the programme will be the Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City Conservatoires and Ho Chi Minh City Opera House?s Orchestra.

Vietnamese Conductor Wins Musical Prize

Pham Hong Hai, conductor of the Vietnam Symphony Orchestra, was presented the gold medal of France's Metz National Conservatory for the 1998-1999 academic year, along with a cheque worth of 1,000 francs, by the vice mayor of Metz city. Pham Hong Hai is now studying at Metz National Conservatory which is attended by 7,000 students. Pham Hong Hai is the only foreign student to win the gold medal in recent years.

September, 2000: VNSO's first abroad tour with Japanese Conductor

The 87-member Vietnam Symphony Orchestra gives its first abroad concert-tour of China under the baton of Japanese conductor, Yoshikazu Fukumura under the sponsorship of Sony Vietnam. The tour's soloist is a Chinese Pianist, Mao Wei Hui.

VNSO plays first night in Millenium Hall in Beijing on Sept 15 and then tour of Shanghai, Guangxi and Nanninh.