KVT – Prodigy and Piano

Cheering on good talent at L’Espace

I’m always wary when the term child prodigy comes up as I usually find that the prodigy is one only in the eyes of its parents and close relatives. But when I warily went to L’Espace on Tuesday night I discovered that 13 year old Do Phuong Nhi is a violinist with prodigous talent. Her parents are both leading violinists in the VNSO and they must still be glowing with pride.
I must admit that I really went along to hear 28 year old pianist Vu Ngoc Linh because I’d been at his home-coming recital in February last year when he returned to Hanoi after overseas studies. Then, his playing of Listz’ ‘After a Lecture By Dante’ was a real treat. This year, apart from very sympathetically and competently accompanying Nhi in two works, he reprised two compositions from that previous solo recital at the Opera House.

His interpretation of Busoni’s transcription of the Chaconne from Bach’s Partita for violin was mellifluous when called for and pleasingly dramatic. Busoni, in his time, was considered to be the world’s best pianist after Listz, and he usually only transcribed the work of other composers to show off his own flair and virtuosity on the keyboard. Linh met the challenge set all concert pianists admirably.

He followed up with Listz’ very popular ‘Leibestraum’. In the hands of a good pianist this always sounds so easy but the technical difficulties it sets in the path of unwary players are always glaringly obvious. Linh was able to surmount the complexities of the work and make it all sound so beautifully mournful, just as it should be…a lover’s quietly emotional lament.

Nhi began the night with two unaccompanied violin pieces by Bach and Paganini which I’m sure must have been gorgeous but I had the misfortune to sit in the vicinity of a hyperactive infant and thus only comfortably caught the last few bars of the Caprice when the child’s Dad took him out of the auditorium.

So I was all ears for the Chaconne by 17th century composer Vitali which is difficult because of its many key changes. The teenager played it with heightened concentration and the sounds she bowed forth made me glad that listening intensity had been attained in our part of the auditorium. When we applauded we weren’t clapping for the girl’s age, we were clapping real talent.

By the time she and Linh gave us Saint Saen’s well known ‘Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso’ we were well and truly under her spell. The work, composed for another child prodigy, Pablo de Sarasate, requires a lot of emotional intensity which we got in droves.

To paraphrase a song from the musical ‘Evita’, after the final bows, ‘the bouquets kept rolling in’……until you could hardly see the stage for flowers…..and, by the way, who ever put together that marvelous arrangement of white lilies at the rear of the stage deserves a big clap too.

Nhi solos with the VNSO next summer so look out for that performance.

A word from the wise to the Song Hong organizers. Please eliminate those tiresome oral introductions from your performances. The need to read out lengthy information from the printed program is more than a little stupid. Ok, so the sponsors need to say a word or two but the organizers should copy the French and say nothing at all. You make it look and sound so amateur and that takes a lot away from your polished performers.

And the wandering cameramen who seem to be more important than your paying customers!!!!!!!! Please put them under control or on a tight leash!

A nice night’s music….and, please, when’s the next one?