The Castillo de San Felipe stands on the headland on the southern side of the mouth of Maó harbour. On 30th July this headland was the setting for an open air concert given by Menorcan pianist Joana Pons and guitarist Hang Nguyen, from Vietnam. With tickets sold out 48 hours before the concert, an audience of 500 attended. Organisation was by Ajuntament d'Es Castell and Consorcio del Museo Militar de Menorca with all funds raised being given to Caritas Diocesana de Menorca, for people living in poverty in Menorca. The concert highlighted the plight of such people in 2010 – a year designated as European Year of the fight against poverty and social exclusion.
As settings go the headland by the castle provided enough incentive to attend, leaving aside the beauty of the musical treat that everyone enjoyed. This island is an exceptional place for the variety and great quality of musical performances that are offered to us each year, especially during the summer. On this particular occasion the audience had the privilege of listening to a duo of talented young performers who have played in theatres and concert halls around the world.
Meeting with her a week after the concert I spoke with Hang about her life here on Menorca and formerly in Vietnam. Born in Hanoi, capital of what was formerly NorthVietnam, she moved to Spain in 2001. Her move was directly a result of the newly established diplomatic relations between the governments of Spain and Vietnam. To mark this new relationship the Spanish government arranged for two musical scholarships to be awarded to particularly gifted and promising Vietnamese young musicians. Hang was one of them. She studied at the Conservatorio del Liceo de Barcelona and obtained first class honours. After five and a half years in Barcelona she moved to Menorca with her husband José. They had visited the island for holidays and come to love its tranquil contrast to the city life, so moving here was the logical step. Living in Maó, they have a 23 month old son named Hugo José. Like his mother, who was playing the piano at five years old and the guitar at six, Hugo is already showing his love of music, whether it is on television or the sound of Mum lulling him to sleep.
Hang has performed concerts around the world in France, Germany, Spain, Greece, Brazil, China, South Korea, Egypt, Indonesia, Philippines and Malaysia to name a few. To enable her to perform in the theatres of such diverse countries her dedication to practice needs to be complete. To this end a typical day will include five or six hours of practice. She demonstrated the extreme suppleness of her fingers derived from these many hours of practice by showing me the extent of movement she has in her hands. Although she has tiny hands the flexibility that she can achieve is astounding. Her guitar, a Fleta, was designed for her in particular by Josep Henrique Luthier, her first guitar teacher.
I asked her about performing outdoors and with a chuckle she mentioned the drawbacks of performing al fresco, all of which had a part to play on the evening in question. Not surprisingly in Menorca the wind is a problem. At the San Felipe concert it gave Joana Pons problems with her music score being blown about. Hang was troubled by a persistent insect that was both annoying and distracting. Then of course there are acoustical problems – Hang admits that the sound quality for the audience must suffer. However, where else would the audience be treated to a display of jumping dolphins just as the performance was about to begin. Hang and Joana were particularly mystified by the way in which a sizeable number in the audience stood up to watch this display instead of watching them as they were tuning up.
Hang played six complex pieces of music for an hour. She had no music score. It was all in her head, memorised from those hours of practice. I couldn't resist asking whether she ever panics about forgetting what comes next. Panic does set in occasionally she assured me, especially when an insect is doing its level best to distract her.
Her father was a musician and teacher of music. At the moment Hang is continuing the family tradition, teaching her skills in schools in both Ferreries and Alaior. This will come to an end in October when she will return to Vietnam for two years, along with her husband, son and her mother, who is currently living with them in Maó. Hang wants her son to become used to his mother's culture and get to know her country of birth. Hang speaks Vietnamese to him in their home. She and her husband speak to him in Castellano, so he is already bi-lingual.
The interview took a bizarre twist when Hang asked me for my opinion on families that have just one child. Unknown to her she was asking the right person, for this is something I can give an opinion about, based on fact. My father was an only child, I am also and so is our son. Hang wanted to know if I agreed with her or with her mother who would like her to have more children. At the end of this "mini interview" of about five minutes she thanked me for my views and was pleased that I had reassured her – so much for the planned script!
Turning to deeper philosophical matters, Hang explained the satisfaction she gains from giving people the pleasure of listening to her music. She feels that we are on Earth to help fellow humans as much as possible and to bring happiness wherever we can. Her name is derived from a Vietnamese legend about an elf that lives on the Moon. It also expresses the idea of living for an eternity. Her gifts are such that the music she plays lives in the minds of her listeners for ever. She will return to the Balearics next August to perform in Pollensa, Mallorca.
Sin comentarios
Para comentar es necesario estar registrado en Menorca - Es diari
De momento no hay comentarios.