Pianists and teachers from the piano department of the Academy pay tribute to their great teacher and artiste. — Photo courtesy of Trần Bá Việt Dũng

HÀ NỘI — The auditorium exploded in long applauds as students and successors from four generations took to the stage for a deeply moving concert at the Việt Nam Academy of Music last night.

Many generations of pianists, some of them in their 80s, performed to pay tribute, and each in their own way carry on playing as their esteemed master did, performing at her 100 years of age, with one of her clips reaching 8 million views on You Tube.

"It's a privilege to be in the audience today," Nguyễn Trung Hiếu told Việt Nam News, "to learn about such a remarkable life and great artiste."

Nguyễn Hoàng added: "She would be delighted to see the piano department growing so strong today, producing some of the country's best performing artistes and teachers."

The audience was deeply moved as images of her eventful life with many ups and downs along the treacherous path of Việt Nam's history of the 20th century, unfolded on the stage.

Born in Sài Gòn in what was French Cochinchina in 1918, when the First World War ended. She grew up in a prestige life of education and familial wealth to become an emerging talent when she premiered at Sài Gòn City Hall at the age of 16.

Her love to free Việt Nam from the French rule and occupation, a passion shared with many other Vietnamese intellectuals, trained by the French yet passionatedabout the ideals of the French revolution: Liberty, equality and fraternity, took her to secretly working for the revolutionary forces.

Pianist Đặng Thái Sơn tells stories about his mother and first piano teacher with pieces of music that he believes best represent her life and legacy. Photo courtesy of Trần Bá Việt Dũng

Wherever the love for her country took her, to Paris, city of Lights, or to the modest thatched homes in revolutionary bases deep in the jungle of Tuyên Quang Province in the north of Việt Nam, the biggest love of her life, music and piano, were always the sources of courage she leaned onto to overcome so many hardships that life thwarted her way.

The programme included music of Gabriel Faure, Rachmaninoff, Smetana and Bach - Vivaldi, and of course Chopin. The music in this programme reflected a life living in the luxury and comfort of Sài Gòn in the 1930s, then to Paris in the late 1940s, then to Prague in 1951 and deep down in the Việt Bắc jungle three years later, where she lost her then husband and no piano was around to comfort her.

More than 20 years living and working, teaching piano at the new Hà Nội Conservatoire, today's Việt Nam Academy of Music, evacuating from the city to the countryside twice to avoid American bombing, she had taught music in underground trenches, performed in a cooperative yard, where the only lighting was the moon.

Her son Đặng Thái Sơn, the first Asian to ever win the International Chopin Piano Competition in 1980, developed his music from those years studying in the countryside.

"Everyday, after a long exhausting working day, my mother would sit at the piano and started to play Chopin, and I grew up to fall in love with his music," he told the audience last night.

He played an all Chopin repertoire, a Nocturne, a couple of Ballads and Scherzo No. 2, Op. 31, a pivotal piece that took him to the final round at the competition 44 years ago.

Also last night, a trailer was played of a new documentary that took about 10 years to produce by lab Story4 based in Los Angeles, US.

It will be completed next year to tell the story about her life and legacy. VNS