KVT – Spring Concert 2011 at L’Espace

Flowing Along in Tune with the Song Hong

What a great concept… you put together some of the best string players from the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra and the Hanoi Philharmonic and form a chamber music group (and as some of my musical Japanese friends say, there’s an awful lot of depth in those there strings). The concept has called itself ‘Song Hong’ and I hope it flows as grandly as that mighty stream for many years to come.

Anyone who likes good classical music can’t go wrong in making sure that they take in the occasional recitals that the Song Hong is flowing our way. When they are held at the beautifully acoustic auditorium at L’Espace you know you are in for a real treat….and at only 150,000VND a ticket you’d be really silly not to rush the advance sales as soon as they are advertised. I think that the next one in Hanoi is in April. Anyway, I’m super impressed and I’m going to try and get an interview with the organizing honcho and get more details.

On Sunday we heard two compositions… at the conclusion of which the artists were rewarded with a gorgeous array of floral bouquets that just kept coming, though the Austrian Ambassador and his wife may have set a new and anticipatory trend….a single rose attached to a bottle of fine Austrian wine.

First up were the first two movements of Brahms Piano Trio No1, Op 8 with piano, violin and cello. It wasn’t long before the trio was in full flow with this long movement with its marvelous cello theme that is taken up by the other instruments. The second movement is really exuberant and exuberantly played by the trio who were now well and truly free of any nervously fluttering butterfly feelings and they brought it to its lovely conclusion.

Amazingly, the great pianist of the day, Clara Schumann was critical of the composition but thankfully Brahms didn’t take her dislike too much to heart and consign it to the rubbish bin.

When it was first premiered Clara was the pianist in the next piece on the program. Her husband, Robert Schumann had such a triumph with this magnificent Piano Quintet (in E flat major op.44 for piano, violins, viola and cello) that it probably enabled him, at last, to be famous in his own right, rather than being known around the traps as merely the husband of the great pianist. Mind you, Felix Mendelssohn was a good friend to have around as well and he helped in the assemblage of that gorgeous, if funereal, second movement which has some of the work’s most memorable moments.

The Quintet, said to be Schumann’s crowning glory, is an extrovert composition and the five musicians brought it to its glorious conclusion admirably. Pham Quynh Trang (piano), Pham Truong Son (violin), Phan Thi To Trinh(violin), Ho Viet Khoa (viola) and Dao Tuyet Trinh (cello) have set the Song Hong group a high standard to follow in the future. They were a delight to see and hear and I’m about to become one of their biggest fans.

Check out another great quintet playing that last movement of the Quintet…allegro mon troppo

They encored with Astor Piazzolla’s ‘Spring’ which was not only a tribute to the first warm day of 2011 and to Piazzolla and his wonderful tango-ey music but also to the talent of this chamber music group.

I was riding home along the dyke road and passed a mob of vendors with carts piled high with sầu riêng (durians) and their deliciously pungent aroma made a buoyant evening even more poetically memorable.

PS: for lovers of Piazzolla check out “A Night of Piazzolla” which will be a great music event highlighting all the seasons of Buenos Aires… March 19 at the Opera House.