German musicians perform to open summer programme

A trio of classical musicians from Germany will perform to open Saigon Chamber Music (SCM) 2019 shows at the Ho Chi Minh City Conservatory on July 7.
Boulanger Trio from Germany will come to perform and have a class at Saigon Chamber Music 2019 from July 6 to 14.
Boulanger Trio from Germany will come to perform and have a class at Saigon Chamber Music 2019 from July 6 to 14.

The Boulanger Trio includes violinist Birgit Erz, cellist Ilona Kindt and pianist Karla Haltenwanger.

The musicians will bring an emotional performance of European music from the gentle melodies of Clara Schumann in Germany to the Slavic rhythms of Antonin Dvorak's music.

This year would have been composer Clara Schumann's 200th birthday.

The talented pianist and composer was less renowned than her husband Robert Schumann, one of the best known composers of the Romantic era, largely due to her desire to stay out of the limelight.

“Piano Trio is a beautiful melodic work written for the private soirées which where so fashionable at the time,” said Kindt. “The work has accompanied us for all our trio career - it was the first work we ever recorded in a studio in 2008.”

Two other pieces will be Litaniae by Swiss-Russian composer Paul Juon and Piano Trio by Czech composer Antonin Dvorak to close the concert.

The trio was established in 2006 and is based in Hamburg and Berlin. Over the years the three have gained an excellent reputation in the world of chamber music.

The German newspaper Die Welt described a performance of the Boulanger Trio as “irresistible” whilst composer Wolfgang Rihm wrote in a letter: “To be interpreted in this way is surely the great dream of every composer”.

The trio released 8 CDs and have played prestigious stages like the Vienna Musikverein, Elbphilharmonie concert hall in Hamburg, and Wigmore Hall of London.

The trio visited Vietnam for the first time last October to perform with Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra in Hanoi and in HCM City.

The musicians will also hold a class with students of the SCM 2019.

"It makes us very happy to share our love for music and our experience with the students. It’s so wonderful that this works despite our different languages and different cultural backgrounds since music remains the same language everywhere in the world," Kindt said.

SMC is a summer camp aiming at musical inspirational experiences, especially in the chamber genre for young people.

It was founded in 2014 originally by Norwegian project Transposition Programme for classical music development.

This year, SCM is being co-held by HCM Conservatory’s Centre for Music Talent and the Goethe Institute.

VNS/VNA

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