HCM City pianists Nguyễn Thùy Yên (right) and Phạm Nguyễn Anh Vũ will perform at a concert celebrating the 250th birthday of Beethoven at the Opera House on June 13. Photo courtesy of HBSO

HCM CITY —  The HCM City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera (HBSO) will host a concert celebrating the 250th birthday of Beethoven at the Opera House on Saturday.

The concert’s highlight will be one of the German composer's most famous compositions, Symphony No 5 in C minor, Op. 67, written between 1804 and 1808.

The symphony was first performed at Theater an der Wien in Vienna in 1808.

It is one of the best-known compositions in western classical music and one of the most frequently played symphonies.

Another Beethoven's composition, Coriolan Overture, will be performed.

The work was written in 1807 for Austrian dramatist Heinrich Joseph von Collin's 1804 tragedy Coriola, which was based on Shakespeare’s play Coriolanus.

The concert will also present Concerto for Two Pianos in E-flat written by Mozart in 1779 when he was 23.

The work has three movements. Its first and third movements are fast and energetic, while the second is languid and hauntingly melodic.

The performance will feature pianist Nguyễn Thùy Yên, deputy head of the piano department at the HCM City Conservatory of Music, and Phạm Nguyễn Anh Vũ, the conservatory’s piano lecturer.

The pianists will perform together with HBSO orchestra.

Yên received a Bachelor's of Music in piano performance and a Master’s degree at the conservatory in 2000 and 2005.

She has performed as a soloist as well as a chamber music pianist with HBSO and the Saigon Philharmonic Orchestra.

She has played at the Kimbrough Concert Hall at Washington State University in the US, and at the first and second International Piano Festival in 2011 and 2013 in HCM City.

Vũ began studying piano when he was six. He received a Bachelor's of Music in piano performance in 2002 at the conservatory where he earned a Master’s degree in conducting in 2012.

He has performed with local and foreign soloists Patrick Zygmanovsky, Igor Chystoklevtov, and Lê Hồ Hải, and worked with conductors Trần Vương Thạch, Jan Stulen, Christian Schumann, and David Gomez Ramirez.

In 2009, Vũ was selected to join the “Cultural Visitor Programme for Young Artists" held by the US Department of State and Kennedy Center of Performing Arts in Washington DC.

The concert will be conducted by Meritorious Artist Trần Vương Thạch, HBSO’s director.

The concert will begin at 8pm at 7 Lam Sơn Square in District 1.

HBSO is offering 20 per cent off for tickets on the occasion of its return after a long-term break due to COVID-19.

Tickets are available at the venue and at www.ticketbox.vn. — VNS