Music Three highlights in three concerts By Bradley Winterton Monday, Aug 20, 2018,15:10 (GMT+7) Three highlights in three concerts By Bradley Winterton France’s Arod Quartet treat HCMC audience to a chamber music performance in the Saigon Opera House on Sunday afternoon – PHOTO: COURTESY OF HBSO HCMC – What were the highlights of the three-concert festival entitled Vietnam Connection mounted by the HBSO last weekend? In my view, there were three. Saigon audiences are getting more demonstrative. I sensed that when the three pieces I most enjoyed were the ones that garnered the most enthusiastic response, with cried of “Bravo!”, from the attendees in the Saigon Opera House. First, a word about the festival itself. It consisted of a concert on Saturday evening, entitled Stephanie Chase and Friends, a chamber music performance by France’s Arod Quartet on Sunday afternoon, and then finally a Gala Concert on Sunday evening including all the artists who had appeared in the previous two events, plus others. Saturday evening’s concert began with Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, a piece I’ve come to feel over-familiar with. In addition, Vivaldi isn’t a composer you look to for profundity. But in the event Stephanie Chase, the violin soloist, gave it a sternness and sinuosity I hadn’t appreciated as being there before. It wasn’t one of my highlights, nonetheless. This came in the next item, Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor. Here Chase was joined by Vietnam’s celebrity violinist Bui Cong Duy. I have heard him many times, but this time he… [Read full story]
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