KVT – A ‘Gorgeous’ Night with the VNSO

KVT gets into fox trot mode at Nha Hat Lon

When I read the PR for the show at Nha Hat Lon I thought that they’d plagiarized one of the adjectives I like use with gay abandon in my opinion bits (gay because I stole the word and intonation many years ago from a very over the top, gay, artisty cum dilettantey friend who is not only gay but overtly hilarious….his stress was a prolonged 4 second beat on the first syllable….gorrrrrrrrrrrrjus).

The ‘Gorgeous Night’ by the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra under the very capable baton of guest conductor Dorian Wilson quite often lived up to its name and was often, delightfully gorrrrrrrrrrrrjus.

The night began with Rossini’s overture from ‘Semiramide’…easy on the ear. Particularly so because the brass section had it just right! The opera itself is pretty much full of Abyssinian blood and gore but the light and melodramatic overture doesn’t hint at the mayhem to come. Once, as a wayward youth, I heard the overture played by a provincial orchestra in Sicilian town square on a hot night with the air full of the fecund smell of residue and virgin oil from a nearby olive pressing factory.

On Friday night the VNSO had me back on that pavement for a too brief, but gorrrrrrjussly evocative moment.

My main reason for going along was to hear Schumann’s cello concerto which is just about the most popular cello work around. Celebrated cellist Pablo Casals described it as sublime from beginning to end – as it is when you hear him play it. Thus it slotted nicely into the ‘gorgeous’ category of the night.

Soloist, Ngo Hoang Quan tackled the concerto with verve and heroism….heroism because the 25 minute piece has to be played without a pause between movements so the soloist can’t even take a small breather. Schumann made it thus because he hated audiences clapping between movements and destroying the overall mood.

Throughout, the cellist has to prove his worth and in the first movement make sure that the lowest registers are crisp and clear. Then in to close off the last movement he has to sweep through the instrument’s total range. A difficult call for even the best and most proficient soloists and ours did the whole a very concentrated justice.

I missed the delicacy of the duet between soloist and lead cellist that opens the slow movement but was totally wrapped up in it all remembering a pre-concert reminiscence of its total gorrrrrrjusness in a scratched rendition by Jacqueline Du Pre and being very thankful that we have a local soloist with a nice touch of delicacy and fire to play it to us live.

Most interpreters of the concerto dispute that it shows any of Schumann’s mental derangement and hallucinations that were happening when he was putting the finishing touches to it before sending it to his publishers ….6 days after doing so he attempted suicide by throwing himself into the Rhine (and died in a sanatorium a couple of years later).

Schumann’s wife Clara – who was a very nice cellist and not at all biased! – said that the concerto gave her a happy hour each time she played it. She adored its romanticism and its flight and freshness as well as its humor and she found that the interweaving of the cello and orchestra was gorrrrrjus to the max! And if you don’t believe her just listen to this really gorrrrrrjus You tube rendition of the total concerto.

The VNSO played very, very capably and allowed us some precious interwoven moments.

But you had a sneaky feeling that the players were saving a bit in reserve for the second half of the show when Gershwin and Bernstein could strut their gorgeousness.

They began the second half by successfully tackling Bernstein’s overture to ‘Candide’, a really great classical musical cum opera. The overture had much more initial success than the show and became one of the most played American compositions in the latter half of last century and apparently it can be a monster to play and get the time signature spot on.

As soon as they launched into the stirring first bars you knew that that they were onto something really good, and brass and woodwinds were superb (strings and tympani as gorgeous as usual).

With big smiles on players’ faces and with the conductor, at times, almost dancing on the podium it was visually and aurally gorrrrjuss…. just as it is here

Gershwin followed with music from his 1927 musical ‘Funny Face’ which movie buffs will remember was a gorrrrjus movie featuring Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn and which would have been right up my happy friend Robert’s alley. Many the night I’ve sat around his dining table, loaded with good food and red wine, Gershwin and his ilk on the CD player, and suddenly Robert would jump to his feet, grab the nearest partner, regardless of gender, and quick step around the room….slow, slow, quick, quick slow. Or burst into a fox trot or an extravagant swing era waltz.

All too suddenly my reveries came to an end with the applause and a quick, quick push into Bernstein’s ‘West Side Story Suite’ which just about everyone knows and nods or grooves along with. It was very gorgeous as the orchestra knew it was going to be, but next time I’d like to see them extend it all and play the musical’s symphonic dances arranged by the composer.

Great applause from an audience totally won over by the gorrrrrjussness of it all, not to mention the totally gorrrrjuss conducting by Maestro Wilson that included fascinating dance movements throughout and that led into an encore of Sinatra’s “New York’ that just about made a lot in the audience want to leave their seats and dance an elaborate quick step up and down the aisle, and to which Franky would have given a mark of gorrrrjuss, gorrrjussss, gorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrjusss ! Which is just the manner in which my friend Robert intonates very loudly when something superb comes his way…… luckily his neighbors think he’s gorrrjussss too or are too hard of hearing to care!

A nice night’s music that earned its title.