On Saturday November 28 the Ho Chi Minh City Ballet, Symphony Orchestra and Opera(HBSO) will present another evening celebrating the 250th anniversary of Ludwig Van Beethoven’s birth.

The program contains his first great symphony and his last and greatest piano concerto. The piano concerto will come first. It’s known as the “Emperor” concerto. No-one knows why it received this nickname – it may have been on account of its general grandeur and melodiousness.

Beethoven himself originally intended to dedicate his Third Symphony, the “Eroica”, to Napoleon Bonaparte, but withdrew the dedication after Napoleon declared himself “Emperor” in 1804. The two items in the HBSO’s concert are therefore indirectly linked. Beethoven may have wanted to be the solo pianist in the concerto’s premier but his increasing deafness made this impossible. Instead, the first performance was given by an archduke, Rudolf, who was a friend and piano pupil of Beethoven’s. In Saigon the soloist will be Nguyen Duc Anh.

Born into a musical family in Hanoi, he completed his studies at the University of Music in Freiburg, Germany, graduating with the highest honors. He returned to Vietnam two months ago and has been appointed head of the piano department at Saigon’s Soul Music and Performing Arts Academy. Almost every famous pianist has recorded the Emperor Concerto. Glenn Gould recorded it with Leopold Stokowski and again with Kark Ancerl, and Claudio Arrau recorded it four times. The work is in the traditional three movements.
The first opens with the piano in magnificent style, while the second and third movements are linked. After an intermission comes Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony, his Symphony Number 3

Artist Profile

Duc-Anh Nguyen was born in a musical family in Hanoi, Vietnam. He started learning piano from the age of seven in Vietnam National Academy of music. Since 2013, he continued his study in Freiburg Music University Germany. Between 2015 – 2017 he completed a bachelor’s and master’s degree with distinction for piano performance under the instruction of Professor Tibor Szász and Professor Éric Le Sage. In recent years, Duc Anh won the prize of the “Hanoi Chopin Association” in the 2nd International Piano Competition in Hanoi in 2012.From then to 2014 he won the second prize (1st prize not awarded) in the “Alkan-Zimmerman International Piano Competition” in Athens, Greece.

A year later, Duc Anh received a certificate of merit from the minister of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam for the above impressive achievements. During this time, he had the opportunity to work in Masterclasses with some renowned musicians such as Robert Hill, Denis Pascal, Bernhard Wulff. Duc Anh was also a guest artist in the Autumn International Festival in Ho Chi Minh City in 2015; the Gina Bachauer Music Festival in Corfu, Greece; and the Long Lake Festival in Lugano, Switzerland. He was invited to perform with the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra, Hanoi Chamber Orchestra, Hanoi Philharmonic Orchestra. At the end of 2017, he was one of the four founders of the first Vietnamese Classical Music Startup named “Maestoso”. Duc-Anh Nguyen is known as one of the leading pianists in his country.

As an enthusiastic and passionate musician, Duc-Anh has always desired to perform uncommon but high-quality works by forgotten composers. He was the first person who introduced Charles-Valentin Alkan’s piano works to Vietnamese audiences. He is also honored to be the first Vietnamese Blüthner Artist. From 2020, he is working in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam as the
Head of the Piano Department at Soul Music and Performing Arts Academy.

Trần Nhật Minh / conductor

Tran Nhat Minh studied at Magnitogorsk State Conservatory(Russia) majoring in Chorus Conducting and graduated with distinctions in 2004. In 2007, he earned his Master of Art degree at Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Conservatory, majoring in Chorus Conducting with professor Boris Telvin.

In 2012, he completed the Conducting course from Italian Conducting Academy. He has additionally taken part in master classes given by conductors such as Vladimir Spivakov, Theodore Kurenzis, Gudni Emilsson as well as studied in Symphonic Conducting course with the Moscow Bolshoi Theater’s conductor – Pavel Klinichev. During the studying time, he won the Second Prize at the International Competition for Young Conductor in Vladivostock City (2003) and the Incentive Prize in the Fourth All – Russia Competition for Professtional Conductor(2006). Beside this, he had performed with Chamber Chorus of Moscow’s Conservatory in Russia, France, Italy...
He has joined in many workshop of Chorus conducting in Netherlands, USA and Russia. In 2009, he joined in the modern-ballet “The Windows” by Ho Chi Minh City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera and was awarded “The Best Conductor” prize at the National Competition of Voice-Dance and Music. In 2014, he won the Gold Award for the Southern Choir at the International Choral Festival organized by Interkultur in Hoi An. At present, he is a Deputy Head and Chorusmaster of the HBSO Opera.