Soloists team up to perform classical Brahms piece

The Vietnam National Symphony and Orchestra (VNSO) together with guest musicians American Grace Ho and Vietnamese Bui Cong Duy will be performing classical pieces at the annual Toyota Concert in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

The Vietnam National Symphony and Orchestra will perform under the baton of conductor Tetsuji Honna.

The concert which begins at 8pm at the Hanoi Opera House on August 10-11 and at the HCM Opera House on August 14, aims to bring international level music to audiences with a performance of J.Brahms’s Double Concerto by cellist Ho and violinist Duy.

Cellist Ho is an active soloist and chamber musician in the US and Asia. She has achieved numerous awards including first prize at the Manhattan School of Music Eisenberg-Fried Concerto Competition in 2011, winner of the University of North Texas Concerto Competition in 2007, and a silver medal at the Crescendo Music Awards in 2007. She is currently a Doctor of Musical Arts candidate at the Manhattan School of Music.

Ho has performed in prestigious concert halls such as Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium and Zankel Hall in New York, Meyerson Symphony Centre in Dallas, Taiwan National Concert and Recital Halls, and HCM Opera House with the orchestras such as the Lewisville Lake Symphony Orchestra, Manhattan School of Music Philharmonic Orchestra and University of North Texas Chamber Orchestra.

She is a founding member of the Ulysses Quartet which won the grand prize and gold medal winner at the 2016 Fischoff Competition and second prize at the 9th Osaka International Chamber Music Competition. Ho is also a principal cellist for the Miami Symphony.

"This is the first time the VNSO will perform with soloist Ho," said the orchestra’s violin master Le Hoang Lan. "I have a chance to perform with Ho in HCM City and I think her cello sound is very sweet.

"The VNSO has performed Double Concerto before with different soloists but each soloist inspires us in his or her own way. With different soloists the orchestra will have different emotions to play the piece," Lan said.

Duy, who began playing the violin at the age of four under the instruction of his father and violinist Prof Bui Cong Thanh, is a graduate of the Tchaikovsky National Music College in Moscow.

He has won top prizes at international competitions, including first prize and a gold medal at the 3rd International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in 1997.

He has performed as a soloist with orchestras worldwide including the Novosibirsk Philharmonic, Saint-Petersburg Kapella Philharmonic, Moscow Philharmonic, Berliner Symphoniker, TrondheimSolisten, and Busan Philharmonic Orchestra in countries including Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Norway.

He is currently deputy-director of the Vietnam National Academy of Music.

By combining a violin and cello for the solo portions of Double Concerto, Brahms was able to create a "super" stringed instrument with sonority and range that neither alone could offer. It was composed in the summer of 1887, and first performed on October 18 of that year in Cologne, Germany.

The concert also features Beethoven’s Symphony No7 which was the seventh of the composer’s nine symphonies. Beethoven remains one of the most well-known composers in the modern world. His symphonies number only nine; each one unique, each one preparing the way for the next.

Toyota Concert 2018 will be led by conductor Tetsuji Honna.

All proceeds will be used to support the Toyota scholarship for young Vietnamese musical talents.