Hanoi would be sad without Phú Quang’s music

“Hanoi would be sad without Phú Quang’s music.” That sentiment, repeated by the organizers of an upcoming concert, captures the place the composer occupies in the capital’s emotional landscape.

Phú Quang: An Everlasting Love will be staged at Ho Guom Theatre on October 12 by Phu Quang Music & Arts and the theatre. The event will mark five years since Phú Quang’s death and take place one day before his birthday.

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Hanoi would be sad without Phú Quang’s music.

At a press meeting, Major General Nguyễn Công Bẩy, deputy director of the Ministry of Public Security’s Department of Political Affairs and director of Ho Guom Theatre, said Phú Quang could not be commissioned to write on demand. He composed only when genuinely moved, a quality that allowed his music to enter listeners’ lives and memories. His attachment to Hanoi, he said, was unmistakable.

The capital in Phú Quang’s songs appears through old streets, almond trees, doorsteps, windows and drops of sunlight. A Ho Guom Theatre representative described that Hanoi as an allegorical figure, “a beautiful, timeless woman whom the artist continually dreamed of.” Director Phạm Hoàng Nam added that Phú Quang loved Hanoi, while Hanoi and its people loved him in return.

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Five years is long enough for a person to become a memory. But with Phú Quang, perhaps that memory has never closed, because as long as the music sounds, he is still present.

The stage design follows the symbolic theme “The Memory Room,” built around the sacred bond between three children and their father. Unlike earlier concerts, which Phú Quang largely narrated himself, this program will present private family stories through People’s Artist Lê Khanh. His three children will also appear together on stage for the first time.

The performers include saxophonist Trần Mạnh Tuấn, Black Rose band, conductor Trần Nhật Minh, the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra, and singers Bảo Yến, Thanh Lam, Tấn Minh, Thùy Dung, Hồng Nhung and Trọng Tấn. Asked whether the familiar lineup was too cautious because it included no young performers, pianist Trinh Hương, Phú Quang’s daughter, acknowledged that describing it as safe, or somewhat timid, was partly fair. She said the concert’s main aim was to bring audiences back to familiar memories, while the composer’s three children remained concerned about how to renew his musical legacy.

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Calling it safe or somewhat timid is partly fair.