Classic music festival to praise Baroque style

Hanoi (VNA) – Nearly 30 talented classical music artists from Vietnam and the US will gather to present the beauty of Baroque music - a style of European classical music from the years 1600 to 1750 - during the Vietnam Connection Music Festival.

Set to take place in HCM City and Hanoi, the festival will open on August 7 with a concert at the HCM City Conservatory of Music. The concert will feature violinist Zhan Shu, who is a member of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

At the Zhan Shu and Friends concert, Shu, who began studying his instrument in his native China and received his undergraduate degree in the US, will present a repertoire featuring the music of Antonio Vivaldi, who brought Baroque music (with its typical contrast of heavy sonorities) and evolved it into an impressionist style.

The concert will also include performances of Shu and other talented violinists.

Music by Johann Sebastian Bach will be presented during the Vietnam Virtuosi and Special Guests which will take place at HCM City Opera House on August 9.

The concert, which will be held in collaboration with the HCM City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera, will present the Brandenburg Concerto No 3 in G Major, BWV 1048; the Concerto for 2 violins in D Major, BWV 1043; and the Brandenburg Concerto No 4 in G Major, BWV 1049.

The repertoire will also feature the Concerto for 2 pianos in C Major, BWV 1060; and the Concerto for 2 violins in C Major, BWV 1061.

The third concert of the festival will be held in Hanoi, at the Goethe Institute on August 11.

Entitled The Four Seasons in Brandenburg, the concert will charm audiences with the sweet melodies of pieces by Vivaldi and Bach.

Audiences in Hanoi will also have the chance to enjoy the Vietnam Virtuosi and Special Guests when the concert is scheduled at the Vietnam National Academy of Music on August 13.

The festival will wrap up with a gala on August 14.

A celebration of songs and dances, the gala will present for the first time in Vietnam several famous music works, such as Prelude & Scherzo for String Octet, Op 11 by Dmitry Shostakovich; Cafe Music by Paul Schoenfield; and Kaiser-Walzer, Op. 437 by Johann Strauss II.

Other works that will premiere in Vietnam include Lensky’s Aria from Eugene Onegin by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky; Elegie, Op. 30 by Henri Vieuxtemps; Piazzolla’s Suite for Four violins and Bass by Julian Milone; and Capriol Suite by Peter Warlock.

Vietnamese leading classical musicians who will play at the festival including violinists Bui Cong Duy, Tang Thanh Nam, Ngo Hoang Linh, Nguyen Trinh Huong; violists Tran Thi Ngoc Thuy and Tran Thi Mo; cellist Nguyen Tan Anh; flautists Le Thu Huong and Nguyen Thi Dieu Quynh; pianists Dao Trong Tuyen and Nguyen Huy Phuong.

Guest artists from the US include violinist Chuong Vu from the San Angelo Symphony in Texas; cellist Lan Jiang, contrabass artist John Moore, and cellist Bronwyn Banerdt - both from the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra; and Elliot Figg - a keyboardist and composer, who graduated from the Historical Performance Program at the Juilliard School in New York.

Taiwanese violist Yi-Wen Chao, who is currently a viola lecturer at the Taiwan University of Arts, is also among the guest artists.-VNA