French conductor to dazzle HCM City audience

She will conduct the HCM City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera (HBSO) to feature works by composers such as Francesco Geminiani, Benjamin Britten, Astor Piazzolla, and Guillaume Lekeu.

Mozart’s Symphony No25 in G Minor, K183, one of the master’s most popular works for chamber orchestras, will be staged at the event.

The orchestra will perform Simple Symphony, Op.4 by Britten, a composer, pianist, and conductor, and one of the outstanding figures of the 20^th century British classical music.

The work, meant for a string orchestra or quartet, was written between 1933 and 1934.

The evening will open with Geminiani’s La Folia, a work for chamber and instrumental orchestra.

It will be followed by Belgian composer Lekeu’s Molto Adagio and Argentine composer Piazzolla’s Tango, both for the string orchestra.

Lekeu, born in 1970, studied under French composer Cesar Franck and has composed some 50 works that have all been recorded multiple times.

He wrote Molto Adagio at the age of 16, inspired by the words of Christ in the garden of Gethsemane: “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death.”

Piazzolla, born in 1921, was an Argentine tango composer and bandoneon player. He made over the traditional tango into a new style called nuevo tango, incorporating elements from jazz and classical music.

He composed more than 1,000 works all with an Argentine flavour. His life and music have influenced young generations worldwide.

Le Dizes won the first prize for violin and chamber music at the Conservatoire National Superieur de Paris in 1958.

She became the first woman to win the First Gold Paganini Prize in Genoa in 1962.

In 1983, she won first prize at the International Competition of American Music in New York, the US.

She has performed in Europe, Japan and the US.

The show opens at the Opera House in District 1 at 8pm on March 9.

Tickets costing VND200,000-400,000 are available at the theatre.