KVT – Paganini Paradise

The grand old Opera House is certainly getting some grand music resonating around its plush interior as it celebrates its centenary year and last Saturday night was one of those pinnacles of grandness that made you feel warm and shivery all over.

It all began when the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra launched into Rossini’s theatrically exciting overture from his opera “The Italian Girl in Algeria’. Now, like a lot of you, I cut my classical listening teeth on Rossini’s overtures from ‘The Thieving Magpie’, ‘The Barber of Seville’ and notably, ‘William Tell’. So when a Rossini is on an orchestral program now I sort of grit my teeth….but the slow, dramatic start to this one, leading into a great allegro made me start to beam with anticipation as I realized that tonight the VNSO was in top form.

And top form continued when the Italian theme of the evening slid delicately into Resphigi’s ‘Ancient Airs and Dances Suite No 3’. This suite was arranged for strings only and as the string section is the VNSO’s strong point, the intended sweet melancholy of the music, based on Renaissance lute and classical guitar composition, swelled and swooned over a capacity audience. At its conclusion the players, and that wonderful conductor, Ong Honna, looked more than satisfied with themselves.

Respighi’s four piece Suite was a grand foil for the night’s piece de resistance, Paganini’s gushy‘Violin Concerto No1’.

Paganini was a superb violinist and he made sure that the concerto showed off all of his extra-ordinary skills. So much so that brilliant, youthful violinists often take to it with great gusto because it allows them to really strut their stuff and amaze an audience. Robert Levine writes of then 25-year-old Hilary Hahn’s 2006 recording of the concerto: ‘There are plenty of trills, runs that move over large ranges of notes and lots of double stops, all played effortlessly, flawlessly and with emotion. Especially astounding is a section at the end of the first movement which involves runs that are played with a sliding effect, instead of punctuated.’

Or as a reviewer writes of Sarah Chang’s 1995 recording with the Berlin Philharmonic when she was 15: ‘Sarah Chang tosses off the tremendous technical difficulties in the Paganini with disconcerting ease. Even the long passage of double-harmonics in the third movement is note-perfect. Her performance is a perfect blend of splendid virtuosic flair and heartwarming lyricism.’

But it’s doubtful that Hahn or Chang would surpass Ryu Goto, the 22-year-old American/Japanese performer that we saw and heard (for to see the First played really well can be breathtakingly astounding). Check him out here playing the third movement as a 7-year-old child prodigy in 1995

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxjGZeK3Yzo [/youtube]

and then this one that features the finale to the third, this year. (you can see here).

As he matures and continues to develop, Ryu will probably become an iconic name when you think of solo violinists and could be tossed off in the same breath as his famous sister Midori Goto who was already 17 and on her way to the top when Ryu was born.

Now I read somewhere that the young man has been influenced by famous electric guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix and that sometimes he uses an aggressive, fiery and ferocious playing style and that appears to be pretty accurate when you hear him play. (You should have been so lucky to witness the two, long, solo encores he wowed us with even though he must have been exhausted and mentally drained after his 40 minute virtuoso performance. Most soloists throw off a bit of a tried and true chestnut after they’ve soaked up the applause but not Goto! He revved up an incredible notch and bowed us a storm.)

He has the most amazing stage presence. Although he is concentrating enormously on the score imprinted in his mind and has probably blocked out everything but the conductor and the music coming at him from the orchestra, he appears to be connecting with his audience via eye contact. At times I thought he was sharing a particular poignant moment or two with me alone. It makes you feel really special even though you know everything out in front of him is in a pitch black chasm.

Goto has played with some of the world’s great orchestras and conductors so he wasn’t at all fazed with our pretty wonderful VNSO which, under Ong Honna, did him proud. He’s signed up with the Deutsche Grammophon label and I’ll keep a hopeful eye out for a CD of his when I’m next at my favorite pirate shop.

A truly memorable night that any Opera House worth its 100-year-old salt would be proud to host.

Now whatever would we classical music lovers in Hanoi do without the continued financial support that the Japanese give the VNSO…and all those soloists they keep sending our way? And Japanese audiences are so wonderful too…no phones or cameras or chatter. Even the kids make perfect audiences.

And all of this brilliance for only 450 000VND for the best seats in the house….Where else in the world!!!!?