Japanese conductor leads Vietnam Symphony Orchestra

      Japanese conductor Tetsuji Honna has been appointed musical director and principal conductor of the Vietnam Symphony Orchestra (VNSO) by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. What the position means to him?
How do you feel now you have been appointed musical director and principal conductor for the VNSO?
I accepted and received it very seriously. Ngo Hoang Quan, the director of the VNSO, said the work of the musical director had never been given to a foreigner before me.
The job is new to the VNSO. How important do you think it is for the orchestra?
Basically the musical director is one of the most important positions for the orchestra because they decide what the orchestra will play.
You have worked at the VNSO for a long time. Has you work changed at all since you started your new position?
It hasn’t changed at all. Quan has asked me to do almost all the musical direction since I started working with the VNSO in 2001.
Do you have any plans for the future with the VNSO?
First of all, the VNSO will celebrate its 50th anniversary in May this year. Between 2007 to 2011 we are performing all of Mahler’s Symphony Cycle.
We will specially perform Mahler’s Symphony No 8, Symphony for 1,000 people, in 2010, for Ha Noi’s 1,000th anniversary.
In 2011 it will be not only be the centenary of Mahler’s death, but also the 100th birthday of the Ha Noi Opera House, which was built in 1911.
Now we have started inviting choral groups from all over the world for our performance of Mahler’s Symphony No 8, which we will perform next year. We hope we will have many people to sing this great symphony for the concert in 2010.
At the same time we just started work on Beethoven’s symphonies this year. The cycle will be completed in 2011 with different conductors and soloists. The cycle is also very important psychologically for the symphony orchestra. Beethoven reminds us of many basic things during rehearsals and in the performance.
What are your ambitions as musical director and principal conductor?
Basically I will decide almost of all our programmes for each year along with Quan, our director.
To decide the programme is one of the most important things for an orchestra. The musical director decides how we go and where we go. I’ve been doing the same thing for a long time but this time I received the title very officially from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Vietnam.
I will try to be a better conductor with the VNSO and hope it will be a really professional orchestra in the near future.
You have worked with many orchestras in the world. Do you see a difference between them and the VNSO?
There are some differences. Vietnamese musicians never come on time. Almost always, someone turns up late to rehearsals. This would never happen in other countries.
At the same time, they don’t get a very high salary. This is also a bad point. But I learn a lot from them. It is not easy to say everything is simple.
In other countries, the musicians are always very good after just one or two days in rehearsal.
In some countries sometimes the musicians show no emotion – they are technically perfect but play with no heart. In this respect, the Vietnamese musicians are always wonderful in rehearsals.