Norwegian conductor Loddgard to come back for concert on October 9

As a long-time collaborator to HBSO, maestro Loddgard will lead the HBSO Symphony Orchestra. Loddgard was last seen in the city leading HBSO’s acclaimed production of Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute.

Loddgard told the Daily that he’s looking forward to coming back to the city. “I am very excited to present this program of old classics from my home country Norway together with new classics from Vietnam.”

The first half of the program will feature two stories from Norway, Johan Svendsen’s Norwegian Artists’ Carnival and Johan Halvorsen’s Entry March of the Boyars. 

The late 19th century and the early 20th century Norwegian composers had been instrumental to the development of Norwegian classical music. 

Their stories will paint a picture of Northern Europe of the previous century and people’s life more than century ago.

The first half will also feature A Gentle Wind and Skyline, two works by Vietnamese composers Nguyen Manh Duy Linh and Vu Viet Anh respectively. 

These pieces are a look at Saigon through the eyes of an artist, touching on the simplicity of life among the busy and bustling life of a city. 

These HBSO commissions have joined many HBSO programs featuring new Vietnamese music and allowing Vietnamese artists to experiment and express themselves through the classical performing arts.

The second half of the program will feature Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suites.

Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg’s career was extremely instrumental in establishing the identity of Norway music on the international stage. 

His expert use of Norwegian folk music in his works probably was among the reasons why he was asked to write incidental music for Henrik Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt, which is based on Norwegian fairy tale. 

The play was a huge success, acclaimed by critics and audience. However, Grieg was not entirely happy about the result; creative reasons led him to make changes to the music that did not turn out to be as exact as he wanted, and the long process working on the music had created a mild sense of disappointment in Grieg.

In the following years, Grieg extracted eight themes from the original 26 movements and created two four-movement suites for orchestra. 

The Peer Gynt suite instantly became a hit and has remained in international orchestral standard repertoire since. A few of these themes have been used widely and became familiar.

Tickets are priced at VND550,000, VND400,000, VND350,000, VND200,000 and VND80,000 for students. 

For reservations, call Ms. Huong on 0989 874 517 or Ms. Ly on 0903 604 539.