Pianist Dang Thai Son opens the Chopin Festival, in honor of Nelson Freire

Pianist Dang Thai Son opens the Chopin Festival, in honor of Nelson Freire


The Vietnamese musician talks about his upbringing and friendship with the Brazilian musician

The memory of those days survives, five decades later. When the war broke out, lectures at the conservatory in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, have been discontinued. The teachers were taken to various locations in the country. And Dang Thai sonat the age of 8, she saw her life completely change.

“The constant was the piano,” he recalls. The peasants who housed the artists did not like having the instrument at home, as they feared that the sound would prevent them from hearing enemy planes. But the huts were built so that the music could continue to be made.

“And that was where my relationship with the work of chop it started. I sat on the floor and listened to my mother play. And the composer’s music was there, always present “.

Over time, Son became one of the great pianists of his generation. He went to study in Moscow. In 1980 he won the Chopin competition, in Warsaw. And he has become a reference interpreter of this repertoire, with which he performs this Tuesday, 18, al San Paolo room, at the opening of Chopin Festival. “The beauty of the composer’s music has always fascinated me. The poetry, the magic. Over time I began to understand the depth of what he wrote,” he explains.

But the relationship went beyond the musical aspects. “I recognize in your production a feeling of nostalgia that sounds familiar to me. chop also had to leave Poland. There is a homesickness, something that has kept him close to his origins, which I feel too. Chopin has become the language with which I communicate with the outside world “.

The recital program will focus on the composer’s works, as will also happen in the other recitals of the festival: the Polish Jakub Kuszlik will play on the 23rd at São Pedro Theater; Canadian JJ Li Bui will perform on 26 al Theater B32; and the Polish Ewa Poblocka takes the stage Municipal Theater on 30.

Son has decided, however, to open his recital today with the Sonata No. 11 – Alla Turcain Mozart. The piece was chosen with care. The festival honors the Brazilian pianist Nelson Freire, who died last November. And the Vietnamese pianist says that it is one of the songs that he most appreciated listening to his Brazilian colleague.

“I’ve been in contact with Nelson ever since I heard him on an album, still in Moscow. It was a revelation,” says the pianist. Over time, living in the West, Son met Freire in person and the two began living together frequently. “Nelson was generous with the younger musicians. Listening to him play, I realized that being free on stage means being free in life.”

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Source: Terra

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