VietNamNet Bridge – Norwegian conductor Magnus Loddgard will conduct both Norwegian and Vietnamese works with cellist Nguyen Tan Anh and soprano South Korean Cho Hae Ryong at a concert with the HCM City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera (HBSO) on October 9.

Norwegian conductor Magnus Loddgard will conduct works by Norwegian and Vietnamese composers with HBSO at a concert at the HCM City Opera House on August 10. File Photo courtesy of HBSO

The concert at the Opera House will feature works by Norwegian composers Johan Svendsen, Johan Halvorsen and Edvard Grieg, and Vietnamese composers Nguyen Manh Duy Linh and Vu Viet Anh.

It will open with Svendsen’s Norwegian Artists Carnival Op. 14 and Halvorsen’s Entry March of the Boyars, followed by Linh’s Lan gio nhe bay (A Gentle Wind), and Anh’s Chan troi (Skyline), which will present Sai Gon through the eyes of an artist.

The second part of the concert will feature excerpts from Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite.

In 1875, Grieg was asked to write incidental music for Henrik Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt, which is based on a Norwegian fairy tale. In later years, he extracted eight movements from the original 26 movements and created two four-movement suites for orchestra. Peer Gynt Suite instantly became a hit.

“I’m very excited to present this programme of old classics from my home country Norway, together with new classics from Viet Nam,” said Loddgard. “The orchestra can learn Norwegian music from me, and I will learn Vietnamese music from the orchestra.”

Loddgard was trained as a pianist and conductor at the Norwegian Academy of Music, and continued his study with leading international conductors.

In 2005, he worked as a repetiteur for the Norwegian Opera, and later as assistant conductor with the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra and Trondheim Symphony Orchestra.

His debut as opera conductor came with a performance of La Bohême in 2009, and since then he has worked with prestigious orchestras such as the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Norwegian State Opera and Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra.

Loddgard was a conductor with HBSO for the Tchaikovsky ballet The Nutcracker in 2012 and Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute in 2013 and 2014.

The concert begins at 8pm at the Opera House at 7 Lam Son Square in District 1. Tickets are available at the venue.

Source: VNS