BEETHOVEN'S FIFTH: Pianist Liao Hsin-Chiao will perform in “A Night of Beethoven” concert at the HCM City Opera House on February 18. — Photo courtesy of HBSO

HCM CITY — The HCM City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera (HBSO) will kick off the 2023 season with a night of Beethoven music at the Opera House on February 18.

The “A Night of Beethoven” concert will highlight the Piano Concerto No 5 in E-flat major, which is popularly known as “Emperor Concerto”.

Beethoven composed the concerto in 1809. Its first public premiere was held in Leipzig in 1811.

The concerto will be performed by pianist Liao Hsin-Chiao along with the HBSO symphony orchestra.

The pianist began her piano studies in her native Taiwan at the age of five. She received her Doctor of Musical Arts from Stony Brook University, New York in 2018.

She has performed in several well-known venues in the US such as the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., Symphony Space in New York, and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, among others.

She moved to Hà Nội in 2021 and has since been active as a concert pianist and a music educator.

The pianist is currently a member of Schubert in a Mug (SiaM), a classical music project in Hà Nội. She has twice appeared as the soloist with the Việt Nam National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Japanese principal conductor Honna Tetsuji.

The concert will also feature Coriolan Overture, which was written in 1807 for Austrian dramatist Heinrich Joseph von Collin's 1804 tragedy Coriola based on Shakespeare’s play Coriolanus.

Another Beethoven composition, Symphony No 5 in C minor, Op. 67, will be performed as well.

The work, written between 1804 and 1808, is one of the German composer's most famous compositions. It was first performed at Theater an der Wien in Vienna in 1808.

Both compositions will be presented by the HBSO symphony orchestra.

CLASSICAL LEADER: Meritorious Artist Trần Vương Thạch, former director of the HBSO, will conduct the concert. — Photo courtesy of HBSO

The concert will be conducted by Meritorious Artist Trần Vương Thạch, former director of the HBSO.

Thạch studied at leading music schools and conservatories in Belgium and the Netherlands.

He has performed in many countries, such as Germany, Italy, Scotland, Spain, France, Japan and South Korea.

In 2020, he was granted the title Knight of Arts and Letters (Chevaliers des Lettres et des Arts) from the French government for his efforts to promote arts exchange between Việt Nam and France.

The concert will begin at 8pm at 7 Lam Sơn Square in District 1. Tickets are available at the venue. — VNS