HCMC – Billed as A Night of Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms, the HBSO concert on April 27 at the Saigon Opera House will consist of Beethoven’s Overture to his opera Fidelio, Mozart’s Violin Concerto Number 5, and Brahms’s 3rd Symphony.
Prominent in the publicity for this event is the presence of Bui Cong Duy as the solo violinist in the Mozart concerto. The fans for this 43-year-old Vietnamese prodigy consider him the supreme expert on this instrument in Vietnam. Based in Hanoi, where he teaches advanced violin students, he is nonetheless also a frequent performer with HBSO in Saigon.
Beethoven only wrote one opera. It is the story set in 18th century Spain and concerns Leonora and her husband Florestan. Florestan has been imprisoned by the authorities for supposedly subversive activities, and Leonora sets out to help him by disguising herself as a boy, Fidelio, and getting work in the prison where he is held.
Mozart wrote five violin concertos, all when he was still a teenager. All five have their advocates, but Number 5 is certainly one of the finest of them. Mozart probably performed them all himself, on tour, as solo violinist. He was a proficient performer on the piano, violin and viola, dressed in his favourite red jacket.
Brahms composed four symphonies, though waiting several decades before issuing the first. Number 3 is much loved, being warm-hearted as well as tuneful. It is perfect in every way and will close an evening of highly congenial music.
The concert will be conducted by Tran Nhat Minh.
Ticket prices for the concert range from VND400,000 to VND750,000. The concert will begin at 8 p.m.
