KVT – VNOB Concert at Hanoi Opera House

….was the title given to a very good concert played by the Orchestra of the VNOB (Vietnam National Orchestra and Ballet). This is the second time recently that I’ve been impressed with their work. I can only say WELL DONE!
I think the tightness and, in particular, the well rounded sounds issuing from their often loose brass and winds sections was due to the ministrations of Norwegian conductor Terje Grondahl, who is a renowned trombone soloist and composer.

I was really surprised and excited when Leonard Bernstein’s Candide Overture swung over us with a very rounded brass section showing their ever pleasant string colleagues that they too had the ability to mix it with the best.

Grondahl soloed his own composition “Elegy” and made you realize that the trombone can be a great classical instrument in its own right. Then he played the first movement of the Trombone Concerto by namesake and fellow countryman Launy Grondahl (1886-1960) and made you wish for more.

He conducted the orchestra as violin soloist Dinh Thi Doan Hoa very gorgeously gave us Svendsen’s “Romance” (1881) and a  haunting version of Saint-Saen’s ‘Rondo Capriccioso’ and I thought we’d reached the evening’s climax until he conducted 3 movements from his six movement Orchestral Suite that is, at times, cinematic, at others Bernsteinian, and mainly pure Grondahlian. Wouldn’t it have been a treat to have had a feast of the whole Suite!

Thanks Maestro Grondahl for your solos, your compositions, and your work in making this orchestra shine.

And thanks to the Norwegians for their often unheralded but always thoughtful contributions to classical musical development in Vietnam.