Concert «Longing – Thiên Cổ Tình»

   Longing for Hanoi voiced by a cello, then the yearning of Rachmaninoff's concerto and the doomed love of Romeo and Juliet: on the eve of Liberation Day the Sun Symphony Orchestra (SSO) builds an evening around «longing», the ache for a person or a place. If you want to hear Rachmaninoff from one of today's leading interpreters of his music, this is the night.

   The concert is part of the SSO's Masterworks series, dedicated to the 72nd anniversary of the Liberation of the Capital (10 October 1954 – 10 October 2026), and is led by music director Olivier Ochanine. Under the city's anniversary plan (No. 350/KH-UBND), the evening of 9 October is the ticketed public art programme, conceived as an international music event for about 800 listeners: the Sun Symphony Orchestra leads it, with the Party and Political Affairs Department of the Ministry of Public Security and the Hanoi Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism as partners.

   The programme:
— Hoang Duong (Hoàng Dương): «Hướng về Hà Nội» («Toward Hanoi»), arranged by Tran Manh Hung (Trần Mạnh Hùng) for cello and orchestra, cello soloist Phan Do Phuc (Phan Đỗ Phúc)
— Trinh Cong Son (Trịnh Công Sơn): «Nhớ mùa thu Hà Nội» («Remembering an Autumn in Hanoi»), arranged by Tran Manh Hung (Trần Mạnh Hùng)
— Sergei Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18, piano soloist Boris Giltburg
— Sergei Prokofiev: excerpts from the ballet «Romeo and Juliet», Op. 64

   Boris Giltburg won the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2013. His Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich albums earned an Opus Klassik and a Diapason d’Or, in 2020 he filmed and recorded all 32 Beethoven piano sonatas, and he is widely regarded as a leading Rachmaninoff interpreter. Phan Do Phuc (Phan Đỗ Phúc), soloist and guest principal cello for the night, has served as principal cello of the SSO, the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra and the Hanoi Symphony Orchestra, and holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in cello performance from Stony Brook University in New York.

   The two opening songs hold Hanoi in memory: «Hướng về Hà Nội» looks toward the capital from afar, with the cello taking the place of the singer, while «Nhớ mùa thu Hà Nội» summons golden leaves, old tiled roofs, the scent of hoa sữa blossom and the still water of West Lake. Rachmaninoff wrote his Second Concerto mainly in 1900–01, after the poor reception of his First Symphony, and it marked his return to creative confidence. The evening ends in Prokofiev's Verona, from Juliet's playfulness and the lovers' meeting to the Capulets' ball and the death of Tybalt.

   It is an evening for symphonic music lovers, for anyone who grew up with songs about Hanoi and wants to hear them orchestrated, and for those who would like to mark Liberation Day at a concert.

   The following night, 10 October, the same theatre hosts the city's special art programme «Bản Giao hưởng Hà Nội» («The Hanoi Symphony») in three chapters, «Hào khí Thăng Long», «Tình yêu Hà Nội» and «Mùa xuân thế kỷ», for around 700–800 official guests.

   Tickets came in four categories, and the organisers delivered them free of charge for phone bookings. As of 8 October, the SSO's booking form says the concert is sold out. English-language booking line: 0913 489 858.

   See you on Friday night at Nhà hát Hồ Gươm (Ho Guom Opera), where Hanoi's memories turn into music.