KVT – A Great Night for an Aurora
(Shortened Vietnamese version available)
KVT thinks that this trio chose an apt name
The piano trio that comprises talented pianist, Tran Thai Linh, equally talented cellist. Nguyen Hong An, and ditto talented violinist, Nguyen My Huong, has had two really listenable outings in a week…with different programs. They did a really nice open air gig last Friday evening at The Japan Foundation, and as Trio Aurora performed beautifully in the auditorium at Goethe on Wednesday.
Both events were outstanding for me because their audiences were jam packed with young Vietnamese classical music aficionados. Jam packed because they offered free entry- which is a grand gesture on the part of the organizers and a gesture that I wish more overseas cultural groups would offer instead of having affairs for the world weary glitterati set.
The Brazilians did the free entry thing with their excellent young classical guitarist at the Music Conservatory on Monday to a large crowd of young enthusiasts and the French and L’Espace always offer really cheap tickets to their classical events. Brilliant pianist, Roger Muraro thrilled a young crowd at the Opera House on Tuesday…a crowd that was really happy that owners of the 200 000VND most expensive seats, like me, got drenched to their armpits it the major storm that night and couldn’t get through the flooded streets. The savvy youngsters in the upper gallery snuck down into these seats and got great piano playing as it’s meant to be heard.
What amazes me is that, in a world where cheap and tacky stuff usually placates the fevered souls of the young (and, regrettably, the middle aged) there is a huge cohort of youthful Vietnamese who will sit (and stand) through pretty challenging and intelligent classical music. Amazing!
TRIO AURORA gave us one of those intelligent performances at Goethe, and if you arranged to get there early and got a close up position, the sounds they made were lush and glorious.
Linh got us going in an enthusiastic manner on the baby grand with Robert Schumann’s 9 minute long ‘Abegg’ Variation. He played the six sections with spontaneity and vivacity that the composer’s youthful work demands. There are a few guesses as to how the composition got its unusual name with the least fanciful being that the first five notes of the theme are A-B-E-G-G (in German the B corresponded with English B-flat). Anyhow.We all realized that we were in for a good night’s music as soon as the personable young man got stuck into the first of the work’s variations.
Cellist and Violinist really decided to stretch themselves with Norwegian Johan Halvorson’s ‘Passacaglia’ which is transcribed from one of Handel’s harpsichord suites.There is an intense conversation between the two instruments in the 8 minute long piece which demands that the players have enough virtuosity to make the two instruments have the resonance of a string quartet. They have to play two or more tones simultaneously. It was a very successful interpretation.
The trio got together more than admirably in Beethoven’s commonly nick named ‘Ghost’ which has three movements. The second was considered to be unusually scored and when played well sounded very eerie and hence gave the whole thing its ghostly name…though there are other stories connecting it to the ghost of Hamlet’s father. It was in the same year as the great man’s Fifth Symphony so was definitely flowing with rivers of creative juice. One of Beethoven’s biographers, Maynard Solomon’s, describes the trio as having two unproblematic and relaxed movements that bracket that powerful and romantic largo with all its atmospheric tremolo effects and sudden dynamic contrasts. And Aurora, using intense eye communication, got it all pretty well spot on in a very congratulatory manner with the instruments picking up and echoing their intertwining dialogues. Heres a clip of the largo by Ace the Space Trio with Martha Agerich on piano
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d30MHPDYM14[/youtube]
After all that exhaustive work the Trio could have basked in lots of bravo type applause and called it a night but they still had Astor Piazzolla on the menu and they played his relatively short, 1960 tango, but probably his most popular work, ‘Death of an Angel’ enthusiastically and foot tappingly beautifully. It’s full of driving rhythms and has a reflective episode in the middle that leads back into its almost diabolic opening mood.Played well it’s gut tighteningly fabulous…and the trio did it just that well.
Piazzolla’s Tangos, originally written for a quintet of bandoneon, piano, violin and bass, have been successfully arranged for a variety of instruments and groups, with the one for piano trio, as we heard at Goethe, being really effective.
They were called back on stage several times and the audience was obviously hanging out for an encore but they wisely refused and left us with that angel flirting with the devil deliciously hanging in the sultry night air like a wavey and shimmering aurora.
| Kiem Van Tim is a keen observer of life in general and the Hanoi cultural scene in particular and offers some of these observations to the Grapevine. KVT insists that these observations and opinion pieces are not critical reviews. Please see our Comment Guidelines / Moderation Policy and add your thoughts in the comment field below. |
