Vietnam National Symphony, Ariadne auf Naxos and War Requiem
After a rather paltry musical life the past few months, things are beginning to pick up.I never wrote about a performance by the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra in Hanoi because of laziness. I was in Hanoi and wandered over to the French colonial opera house to see if anything was on - the only way to see the interior. As it happened, that evening (December 20) there was a performance, and for about $10 I got the best seat in the house.
Although the exterior of the house is very grand, the interior is surprisingly intimate. I recalled those Russian novels where people are always noticing the attendance of other swells in their boxes; and, being used to large houses, I always wondered how they could spot each other so easily. Now I knew - it was quite easy to see everyone in this small house.
The performance was conducted by Pierre-Andre Valade and featured the old chestnut Ravel's Bolero as the opener. This was followed by a concerto for cello, percussion and orchestra by Ton That Tiet (sorry for the absence of the proper accent marks) - which featured an array of Vietnamese drums. Sorry to say that the piece was instantly forgettable.
After an intermission, we heard the Six German Songs by Grieg sung by Siri Torjesen. Sweet and lovely and brief. Then the Grieg Piano Concerto performed by Dimitris Kostopoulous, a young man with the skill to give this piece a creditable reading.
All in all an innocuous evening of music but a chance to see the opera house and people watch.
In January I attended a performance of Ariadne auf Naxos here in Tokyo performed by the Kansai Nikikai company. It was an all-Japanese cast. They sang all the notes and the orchestra played well, but the piece lacked the necessary sparkle. Needless to say, the overacting was rampant.
But today, we were back in business with a fine performance of Britten's War Requiem with the New Japan Philharmonic under the direction of Christian Arming. It is an emotional piece - and although one of the very best performances of anything I've ever heard was of this piece in San Francsico with Robert Shaw, today's performance held up and was, in the end, very moving. The soloists were fine, the children's choir was excellent and ethereal, the main choir was adequate. The ending part, "Let us sleep now" was sublime.
posted by Larry Wells @ 5:59 PM
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