SYMPHONY OF TEACHERS: Piano teachers from Việt Nam Academy of Music (VNAM)'s Department of Piano will perform together in a four-piano concert to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the VNAM. — Photo baovanhoa.vn

HÀ NỘI — On November 1, an extraordinary four-piano concert will take audiences on a musical journey from global masterpieces to contemporary Vietnamese compositions.

The concert will feature 32 teachers performing orchestral works arranged for four pianos.

The repertoire spans a range of musical styles, from Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 and Mikhail Glinka’s overture Ruslan and Lyudmila to Mendelssohn’s overture A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Bedřich Smetana’s symphonic poem Vltava and Tchaikovsky’s ballet suite The Nutcracker.

A highlight is an excerpt from Bizet’s Carmen Suite: Toreador Song, arranged by Edmund Parlow and performed by eight musicians. Meanwhile, George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue explores the fusion of jazz and the American symphonic tradition.

Richard Addinsell’s Warsaw Concerto, featured in the 1941 film Dangerous Moonlight, will be performed in a four-piano arrangement specially created by Vietnamese young conductor Dustin Tiêu.

The performance will feature Associate Professor Nguyễn Huy Phương, director of the Việt Nam National Academy of Music (VNAM); Dr Đào Trọng Tuyên, head of its Piano Department; and artists Nguyễn Hoàng Phương and Lưu Đức Anh.

According to the organisers, the arrangement will be presented to the public for the first time.

Professor Trần Thu Hà, former director of VNAM, will perform Mozart’s works with artists Trần Thục Anh, Nguyễn Trinh Hương and Phạm Linh Chi. For Smetana’s work, she will perform alongside Nguyễn Thị Hương Giang, Trần Thị Trang and Phạm Mai Nhi.

Vietnamese music will be represented by composer Đặng Hữu Phúc’s Suite for Four Pianos, featuring two movements, Dance and Phiên Chợ Vùng Cao (Highland Market). It is the only work in the concert originally composed for four pianos, bringing Vietnamese folk melodies and rhythms into a contemporary piano idiom.

Phúc has composed piano and vocal music in styles ranging from classical to avant-garde. His best-known works include Chùm Hoa Việt Nam (Bunches of Flowers of Việt Nam) and Ru Con Mùa Đông (Winter Lullaby), as well as award-winning scores for stage productions and feature films.

He won the Jinjue Award for Best Music at the 8th Shanghai International Film Festival in 2005.

Established alongside the Việt Nam School of Music in 1956, the Piano Department was one of the pioneers of professional piano training in Việt Nam.

Despite limited resources in its early years, it gradually built its teaching staff, expanded its training programmes and developed professional activities integrating teaching with performance.

This tradition is closely associated with educators who made significant contributions, including the late People’s Artist and piano pedagogue Thái Thị Liên (1918–2023), one of the seven founders of VNAM.

She was also dean of the Piano Department until she retired in 1977. During 20 years of service, most of it at a time of war, Madame Liên taught piano and wrote textbooks and curriculums, and her work was to train the first Vietnamese pianists.

Many of her students have become established pianists like Nguyễn Hữu Tuấn, Hoàng My, Phương Chi and her son Đặng Thái Sơn.

A major milestone came in 1980, when People’s Artist Đặng Thái Sơn won the International Chopin Piano Competition, putting Vietnamese artists on the international classical music stage.

The concert celebrates the 70th anniversary of the VNAM. — VNS