KVT – “Piano’s Journal” Concert by Trang Trinh
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Update: see below for new images of the concert
Can she play the piano? Sure can!
Vivacious 24 year old Trang Trinh returned for a sojourn in Hanoi after completing her masters degree in piano performance at The Royal Academy of Music in London and gave a very accomplished solo recital at Nha Hat Lon on Wednesday night.
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She cunningly called her recital ‘The Piano’s Journal’ and the idea was to preface each piece she played ranging alphabetically from Beethoven to Schumann and in time line from Mozart to Elgar with a linking piece of poetic text. My Vietnamese friend was really impressed with the prose, splendidly voiced behind the scenes by Nguyen Huu Chien Thang, who is a well known media personality. The English version, on overhead projection, was unfortunately too florid or inaccurate to serve its desired purpose. (Which leads me once again to offer my editing services, free of charge, to classical musicians and dancers who want to get their translated messages and program notes into readable form, contact me through The Grapevine).
Trinh’s approach, working with a young and enthusiastic production team, seemed to be to revolutionize the usual and often staid classical approach to performance and give it a multi-media touch that would make it more accessible to and acceptable by a young audience…or an audience whose ears aren’t ready to listen to anything but commercial pap.
This scenario is common in many countries and often involves the inclusion of popular singers or musicians playing with their classical counterparts; popular music arranged for classical performance; and sometimes offering the full blown MTV treatment.
Trinh’s team settled for a more sedate style with huge graphics and animation projections that aimed to soothe the mood of each musical piece (there were 13), and accommodate eyes that are unused to static performance and need to be continually stimulated. The poetic voiced-over texts gave listeners pegs to hang their earlobes on.
Most selections were sensibly short, especially in Part One, where all were elegantly played and the pianist’s deft and light touch made easy listening and easy viewing. Elgar’s ‘Salut d’amore’, originally written for piano and violin, was an engagement present to Caroline Roberts and if it was premiered for her as delightfully as we heard it, then you can understand her alacrity in accepting his proposal. It was Trinh’s playing of Beethoven’s uncompleted rondo, ‘Rage over the Lost Penny’ that gave you an inkling that later in the program she would show her depth as a concert pianist.
Part Two started with Chopin’s revolutionary ‘Revolutionary Etude’ (which, incidentally was the last piece of music played on free Polish Radio before the Germans took control in 1939) and then his short Mazurka op 67 no 4 led us delicately into a lovely and concentrated interpretation of Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight Sonata’. It is this piece I want to hear her play again, especially her very poetic first movement. Her touch with the last movement, one of the most difficult compositions for a young pianist to get right as it demands excellent technical skill, was lovely. But, for me, next time I’d love just the ‘Moonlight’ without the voice interruptions between the movements.
As if ‘Moonlight’ wasn’t enough, Trinh followed up with Debussy’s explosive prelude ‘Feux d’artfice’ or Fireworks. My night was replete and I could have done without the Schuman. Though I’d give up a candlelit dinner with caviar and the best champagne to hear Trinh play all 13 of Schuman’s ‘Scenes from Childhood’…. without explanation between scenes. A multi-media approach would work fabulously, too, for ears virgin to classical piano.
It was a brave and laudatory recital and perhaps the beginning of a new approach to the classics in Hanoi…..it was apparently broadcast live but the plethora of cameras and their minders was surprisingly unobtrusive. The production team would have learned a lot from this effort and the next will undoubtedly be more sophisticated.
Can Trinh play? Gorgeously! And after Europe this year, perhaps Hanoi again?
PS: I loved the whimsical program booklet too.
Not a reviewer, not a critic, “Kiếm Văn Tìm” is an interested, impartial and informed observer and connoisseur of the Hanoi art scene who offers highly opinionated remarks and is part of the long and venerable tradition of anonymous correspondents. Please add your thoughts in the comment field below. |
HI KVT, THANK FOR YOUR INTERESTING COMMENTS! BEST REGARDS.