Hoàng Phó: LẬP XUÂN (立春) | Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra

Hoàng Phó: Lập Xuân (立春)
for orchestra

Commissioned by Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra
With generous funding support from Japan Foundation

World Premiered by:
Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra
Honna Tetsuji, conductor

Performance Date:
June 16 2024
at Vietnam National Academy of Music Grand Concert Hall, Hanoi, Vietnam

Program Note:

In Spring 2022, I had a chance to discuss with maestro Honna Tetsuji about cultivating new music in Vietnam. This culminated in a commission of a new orchestral work to be premiered by Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra. To facilitate presenting this project to the Vietnamese audience and commemorate the time I and maestro Honna started our collaboration, I chose to write about Spring, which is a common theme in East Asian cultures. The title Lập Xuân was named after the first term of the twenty-four solar periods in the East Asian lunisolar calendar that indicates the beginning of Spring.

Lập Xuân recollects my memories of Spring since I grew up, signifying my impressions as I witnessed the transformation of nature when the season changed. The rejuvenation of living beings often left me in awe that I saw extraordinarily sacred. In addition to that, celebrating the traditional Lunar New Year every year, with all the positivity that people bestow on each other, has even furthered my awareness of Spring’s beauty and power. I wanted to revive those memories in aural terms using the immense expressive possibilities of the orchestral instruments.