German conductor Bernhard Epstein will perform at Ha Noi Opera House tomorrow night. File Photos

HA NOI (VNS) — The Ha Noi Philharmonic Orchestra will give a concert under the baton of German conductor Bernhard Epstein tomorrow night at the Ha Noi Opera House.

The all-German programme will feature composers Richard Wagner, Carl Reinecke and Robert Schumann.

It will open with Wagner's overture to his opera The Flying Dutchman. The 200th anniversary of his birth is being celebrated around the world this year.

Vietnamese flautist Le Thu Huong will then join the orchestra for Reinecke's Flute Concerto.

The concert will end with Schumann's Fourth Symphony.

"Vietnamese audiences will have a new experience about music which is a world with sea, storm and strong feelings," said the conductor when he was asked why he chose The Flying Dutchman to open the concert.

Responding to an invitation from the German Academic Exchange Service and the Goethe Institute in Viet Nam, Epstein, comes to work with the Viet Nam National Academy of Music (VNAM) this month.

He is highly appreciative of the Ha Noi Philharmonic and looks forward to working with them again.

"I feel their spirit when the musicians play," he said.

A musical match: Vietnamese flautist Le Thu Huong will share the stage with Bernhard Epstein. — File Photos

Epstein, a professor at the Music Academy of Stuttgart, studied in Stuttgart, Hanover and Berlin. Both a pianist and conductor, he has been awarded many prizes and scholarships. He has worked at the state opera ompanies in Hanover and Stuttgart and is the artistic director of the Opera School.

Besides an extensive operatic repertoire, Epstein has also conducted contemporary musical theatre productions and premieres.

Huong teaches flute at the VNAM and is a member of the Ha Noi Philharmonic. She studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen for four years. She has also taken part in world-famous flautist William Bennett's masterclasses in London in 2003, 2004 and 2005 and in local and international music festivals.

The Ha Noi Philharmonic is one of Viet Nam's leading orchestras. It comprises professors, lecturers and top students from the VNAM. Many of the musicians are graduates of overseas conservatories.

The orchestra performs annually with foreign guest conductors. Every year, it plays several concerts not only in the capital but also in other provinces and cities such as Quang Ninh, Hai Phong, Hue and HCM City. Its last trip abroad was to Japan last year.

Tomorrow's concert will start at 8pm in the Ha Noi Opera House. Tickets, priced between VND150,000-500,000 are available from the Goethe Institute, 56-58 Nguyen Thai Hoc Street; the VNAM, 77 Hao Nam Street; and the Opera House, 1 Trang Tien Street. — VNS