This program consists of two pieces, including Liszt’s Piano Concerto Number 2 and Dvorak’s Symphony Number 9, “From the New World”.
Antonín Dvořák was one of the most popular composers of his day. He was born in a small town in Bohemia (in what is now the Czech Republic) in 1841. In 1892, he traveled to the United States to become director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York. His compositions with the spirit of the folk music of his native land and other lands created his own musical tradition. The Symphony Number 9, the last that Dvorak wrote, is the most popular of all his symphonies, and probably of all his works.
Fran Liszt was a famous virtuoso pianist in the mid-19th century. Liszt was not only the greatest piano virtuoso of his time but also a composer of enormous originality and a principal figure in the Romantic movement. As a composer he radically extended the technique of piano writing, giving the instrument not only brilliance but a full and rich, almost orchestral sound. Most of his compositions bear titles and are representations of some natural scene or of some poetic idea or work of literature or art.
His second piano concerto is one single, long movement, instead of the usual 3 movements, divided into six sections that are connected by transformations of several themes. It differs from his first piano concerto in giving the orchestra more prominence. The first piano concerto is a virtuoso piece for the pianist, whereas the second has the soloist frequently following the lead of the orchestral musicians.
Luu Duc Anh was born in 1993 in Hanoi. He began studying piano at the age of 4 with his father, Associate Professor-Doctor-Artist of Merit. Luu Quang Minh, leading educator and performer of Accordion and Jazz in Vietnam.
From 2000 - 2011, he studied at the Vietnam National Academy of Music. After graduating the Intermediate level with Distinction, he continued his study at the Royal Conservatory Liège – Belgium.
The young pianist graduated his Bachelor degree in 2013 and Master degree in 2015, received a lot of praise for his interpretation of Franz Liszt’s Piano Sonata.
He has won several national and international music awards, such as the Second Prize at the “Classical Sonata” competition 2009 in Sydney – Australia, the Second Prize at the 1st International Piano Competition 2010 in Hanoi, the second Prize at the 9th Piano Competition of Belgium-Luxembourg 2014 in Liège – Belgium, the First Prize at the 2nd “Leopold Godowski” Piano Competition 2014 in Warsaw – Poland, the First Prize at the 33rd “Andrée Charlier” Piano Competition 2015 in Charleroi - Belgium.
In 2015, Duc Anh was voted as one of the 5 most outstanding students of the conservatory to contest in the Classic Academy competition, organized by Liège Philharmonic Orchestra.
In 2016, he received full scholarship to pursue advanced studies at the Malmö Academy of Music, Sweden under the tuition of the famous professor and pianist Hans Palsson. Duc Anh also studied with international acclaimed professors such as Avedis Kouyoumdjian, Johan Schmidt…
In June 2017, he was one of the nine young pianists invited to the Marinaro Grand Prix and performed at the music festival "Piano à Collioure” in southern France.
He has performed in many stages in Belgium, France, Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Poland, Italy, Vietnam, Australia, Japan.
With huge success in his musician career as well as his contribution to the classical music field in Vietnam, he was nominated in the Top 10 most brilliant young person of Hanoi in 2017 and Top 10 most promising young person of Vietnam in 2017.
He has started teaching at the Piano Department, Vietnam National Academy of music as the youngest lecturer of the department from 2018 and also served as headmaster of Inspirito School of Music in Hanoi.
The concert will be conducted by Honna Tetsuji who is Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra in Hanoi since 2009. He won First Prize in the Budapest International Conducting Competition in 1992, and has received many other awards.
Pianist Luu Duc Anh
Japanese conductor Honna Tetsuji
