[for those of you who expressed interest earlier...]
The Vietnam première of M3 took place in Hanoi on Monday night at an Opera House that had a lot of empty seats. The Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra was led by Tetsuji Honna, with participation of the Women’s Chorus of the Vietnam National Opera and Ballet and the VNSO ‘Mahler Cycle Boy’s Chorus’. The alto solo was Anna Einarsson (Swedish). The VNSO forces were augmented by a couple of foreign musicians (including two excellent Japanese harpists) as well as 5 wind players from the military’s 781 Ceremonial Music Group.
Originally Honna wished to place the boys’ choir and bells/chimes up in the rafters for the 5th movement, as Mahler calls for in the score. However this did not work out as the Opera House management declined to remove lighting equipment currently situated there. He programmed a brief intermission after the 1st movement, which accords with Mahler’s instructions asking for a long pause at that point. The soloist and choruses came on stage after the 3rd movement.
The high point was the finale, quite well played. The low point was the scherzo, where the ‘post horn’ soloist went to pieces. After a promising start (playing backstage), he clammed a note, missed a high note, and then seemed to throw in the towel—he simply stopped playing for a while. Throughout the rest of his solos he continued to appear and then disappear. The fifth movement was fine, good bells but the choral forces were too small (15 boys and 15 ladies) to make the necessary impact (some proud parents ran up near the stage to videotape their sons singing). The first movement was pretty well conceived with good trombone solos and strong tutti passages. There were the usual ensemble problems, and an insanely fast coda (Honna seems fond of these), which sounded horribly messy. As I expected, he also sprinted through the coda of the 3rd movement.
I had finally secured a meeting with Maestro Honna on Sept. 5th to talk about the upcoming M3 performances and the VNSO’s Mahler cycle more generally. According to him, it was he who suggested the idea of a Mahler cycle to the VNSO board some years ago. I have the feeling that he did so somewhat on a whim, but to his surprise, they readily agreed, perhaps not aware of the logistical, financial, and promotional burdens associated with such an undertaking. Thus they are short of budget for all of the ‘extras’ that come with performing Mahler—extra musicians, large choruses, decent publicity, and the expensive orchestral parts (rented mostly from Universal Edition, although Honna says UE are offering the VNSO a ‘special’ discount price). Honna claims that only one of the VNSO’s Japanese sponsors directly support this cycle, and he has approached the Austrian Embassy for more help (their name appears on the M3 program). Honna also invited me to attend some rehearsals, and last Friday I dropped in during rehearsals of the 4th movement (with soloist), as well as the 6th movement.
Honna admitted the poor quality of the VNSO’s program notes for the earlier M5 and M6 performances, saying that he had no time for it and that the VNSO had been very lax in this area. Therefore my own existing notes for the Third Symphony (written some years ago for my wife!) were submitted and accepted. Unfortunately, without my knowledge they were heavily edited before being inserted into the glossy program (together with a Vietnamese translation which was less severely cut). This was particularly disappointing as upwards of two-thirds of the audience members last night were foreigners. In addition, there is a somewhat laughable and error-filled bio of Mahler in the program, much worse than the admittedly brief one used for the earlier M6 performance.
Regarding the 8th Symphony scheduled for 2010, Honna quickly agreed that the Hanoi Opera House is too small, and his intention is to organize the performances at a much larger venue (possibly the International Convention Center), using forces from across Vietnam and indeed from all around the region. He wants it to be a real international event. I wish him luck. He and most of the musicians are giving it their best, but in choosing to do this cycle they have bit off a bit more than they can chew, and the VNSO management is clearly more interested in promoting its own ensembles and personnel than in improving quality and engaging and educating the Vietnamese public about this music.
Mike Bosworth
Hanoi
Topic: First Vietnam Performance of M3 (Read 4185 times)