Florentine orchestra to perform in capital

Classic perfomers: Italian Orchestra Citta di Firenze will perform at the Ha Noi Opera House tomorrow. — File Photo

Performing for the first time in Viet Nam, the orchestra hopes to bring the passion and romance of Italian classical music to a local audience.

The orchestra was established by some of the most talented Italian musicians and now boasts instrumentalists, both soloists and chamber musicians, from around the world. They hold concerts regularly throughout Italy and has also toured Japan and Bulgaria.

Skanderbeg began his conducting career at 17 and has since worked as a conductor and composer at various opera houses and conservatories in Italy, Romania, Croatia, and Finland. He received special acknowledgement in the First International Competition of Conducting "Franco Ferrara" in Teatro dell'Opera di Roma in 1995. He has also acted as chief conductor of renowned titles, such as the "Novi Musici" Orchestra of Naples.

The concert will also feature tenor vocalist, Leonardo Melani. Melani began his musical training on the trumpet, studying at the Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini in Florence. He started his tenor career at the Festival Verdi in 2001 at the Teatro Regio di Parma. After his debut, Melani played Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor of G. Donizetti at the Teatro Manzoni in Pistoia and then was invited to sing at the first world performance of Circo Minore.

In 2003, Melani did a solo tour in Japan with performances in Tokyo, Kanazawa, and Nakajima. He has been a member of Coro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino since 2005. In 2008, Melani sang the role of Alfredo in La Traviata at the New Theatre in Oita, Japan.

He has received numerous prizes in international competitions such as Concorso Voci Verdiane "Citta di Busseto", 5th Concorso "Maria Callas" Nuove Voci per Verdi, and Concorso "Hariclea DarcIee" (Braila Romania).

Joining Melani and Skanderbeg's orchestra will be Vietnamese pianist Luu Hong Quang. Born in 1990, Quang was first introduced to the piano at age five by his father, Luu Quang Minh, a renowned accordionist and jazz expert in Viet Nam. Since receiving a full scholarship to the Australian International Conservatorium of Music in 2006, Quang's skills as a pianist have developed quickly under the guidance of the esteemed Professor Lee Kyung-hee.

Quang has gained a reputation as an exceptional young pianist in Viet Nam, earning a series of international prizes, including third prize at "the Piano Contest – 19th century"; first prize at "the Piano Recital Award" in Sydney, Australia in 2008; first prize at "the Chopin Piano Competition" in Sydney in 2009; the prize of excellence at "the Chopin International Piano Competition for Asia" in Tokyo in 2006; and third prize at "the Valtidone International Piano Competition" in Italy in the same year.

Quang has given solo performances alongside orchestras from Viet Nam, Japan, Australia, Italy, and Serbia.

"It is a great pleasure and honour for me to participate in the Toyota Classics 2010. I hope that together we can present a beautiful picture of the fighting strength, rising spirit, humanism, philanthropy and nobleness of Beethoven's music to the audience," said Quang

The Thieving Magpie, a two-act drama by Gioacchino Rossini first performed at the Milan Scala in 1817, will open the concert. Cinderella Overture, another piece by Rossini, will be performed along with Beethoven's Concerto No3 for piano, Verdi's Giovanna d'Arco Overture and the prelude from The Fallen Woman. Italian songs, Ungrateful Heart by Salvatore Cardillo, Return to Surriento by Ernesto de Curtis, and A Spanish Fantasia by Mexican composer Augustin Lara will also be performed. The concert will conclude with Giacomo Puccini's The Fairies and Luigi Denza's Funiculi-Funicula.

The concert will kick off at 8pm. The Toyota Classics 2010 will also be held in Brunei on October 29, Thailand on November 3, South Korea on November 5, Taiwan on November 8, The Philippines on November 10, and India on November 11. — VNS