[Dang
Thai Son playing Chopin's Piano Concerto no. 2, op. 21, with the Warsaw
Philharmonic under Tadeusz Strugala, live at the Chopin competition on
18 October 1980. He won first prize that year. This recording is ripped
from an LP. To quote from a 1981 NY Times article.]
The pianist's mother, Thai Thi Lien, who studied at the Paris Conservatory and completed her education in Prague, began teaching her son in earnest when he was 5. At 8, he passed the entrance examination at the School of Music of Vietnam. A year later, the school, its faculty and 700 students and its 60 pianos were evacuated and dispersed into the countryside between Hanoi and the Chinese border, and continued functioning even under the most intense bombing.
''The peasants with whom we were quartered did not like the pianos in their houses because when we played - and each piano was played all day because there were so few - they could not hear the planes approaching,'' said Mrs. Lien. She and her son laughed, to keep an American from feeling that they spoke in accusation.
''We built grass huts just for the pianos, and trenches next to them, into which we jumped when the planes came,'' Mrs. Lien, who was head of the school's piano department, said. ''Still we played all day, and in the evening we had very intimate lecture-concerts by candlelight.''
Mr. Son finished his secondary studies in 1976, emerging first in his class, and was sent to the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow to study under Vladimir Natanson [and later Dmitri Bashkirov], whom he reveres.
''Professor Natanson told me that rarely had a student made so much progress as I did in my first year,'' Mr. Son said. ''It is not so surprising - it was the first time that I played on pianos that worked well. When I first saw the conservatory, I stood in front of it and admired it and was afraid to enter. They had to come out to bring me in.''
Unlike other winners of major competitions, Mr. Son took only a year's leave from the Tchaikovsky Conservatory to fulfill some of the engagements that are the reward for the winner in Warsaw's Chopin Competition. He will return this month to resume his normal studies. ''I have so much to learn,'' he said. His mother added, ''He must enlarge his cultural and intellectual baggage.''
------
''Most importantly, my sudden success will help to change the thinking of those who know Vietnam only as a country of war,'' he said. ''We were understimated. Now Vietnam also speaks to the world in the language of music.''
Данг Тхай Шон - Фредерик Шопен - Концерт для фортепиано с оркестром № 2
The pianist's mother, Thai Thi Lien, who studied at the Paris Conservatory and completed her education in Prague, began teaching her son in earnest when he was 5. At 8, he passed the entrance examination at the School of Music of Vietnam. A year later, the school, its faculty and 700 students and its 60 pianos were evacuated and dispersed into the countryside between Hanoi and the Chinese border, and continued functioning even under the most intense bombing.
''The peasants with whom we were quartered did not like the pianos in their houses because when we played - and each piano was played all day because there were so few - they could not hear the planes approaching,'' said Mrs. Lien. She and her son laughed, to keep an American from feeling that they spoke in accusation.
''We built grass huts just for the pianos, and trenches next to them, into which we jumped when the planes came,'' Mrs. Lien, who was head of the school's piano department, said. ''Still we played all day, and in the evening we had very intimate lecture-concerts by candlelight.''
Mr. Son finished his secondary studies in 1976, emerging first in his class, and was sent to the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow to study under Vladimir Natanson [and later Dmitri Bashkirov], whom he reveres.
''Professor Natanson told me that rarely had a student made so much progress as I did in my first year,'' Mr. Son said. ''It is not so surprising - it was the first time that I played on pianos that worked well. When I first saw the conservatory, I stood in front of it and admired it and was afraid to enter. They had to come out to bring me in.''
Unlike other winners of major competitions, Mr. Son took only a year's leave from the Tchaikovsky Conservatory to fulfill some of the engagements that are the reward for the winner in Warsaw's Chopin Competition. He will return this month to resume his normal studies. ''I have so much to learn,'' he said. His mother added, ''He must enlarge his cultural and intellectual baggage.''
------
''Most importantly, my sudden success will help to change the thinking of those who know Vietnam only as a country of war,'' he said. ''We were understimated. Now Vietnam also speaks to the world in the language of music.''
Данг Тхай Шон - Фредерик Шопен - Концерт для фортепиано с оркестром № 2
Source:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJWE3sLDtyg&spfreload=5
Dang Thai Son plays Chopin Piano Concerto no. 2 - live 1980
