The 'orphaned' banyan tree… Phu Quang

If he had stayed, on October 13, Phu Quang would have celebrated his 75th birthday, coinciding with the bustling occasion of Hanoi celebrating the 70th anniversary of the capital's Liberation Day.

This is also the occasion when his famous songs such as Em oi Ha Noi pho , Ha Noi ngay tro ve, Chieu phu Tay ho ... and the best songs about Hanoi resound more than ever at a series of music programs held on the occasion of this great holiday.

It has been nearly 3 years since the winner of the For the Love of Hanoi award left this world (December 2021), but somewhere in the mist of Hanoi, the image of "an artist wandering the streets, suddenly finding himself unable to remember a single road" still lingers - as he once admitted, "I see myself in that talented verse of poet Phan Vu"...

Musician Phu Quang in the annual composer music nights at the Hanoi Opera House

Nhac Phu Quang is a passport to Hanoi

Singer Duc Tuan, who worked with musician Phu Quang on his last music album before he passed away - Hanoi and me when autumn and winter come, considers Phu Quang's music as the passport that brought him to Hanoi.

The singer said that although he was not born and raised in Hanoi, there is a lyric by Phu Quang that makes him feel as if it is dedicated to the children of Ho Chi Minh City when they come and leave Hanoi with so much excitement and nostalgia: I am moved when I touch the shadow of the city gate.../Hurriedly returning, hurriedly leaving, unable to go through every street ...

"Ever since he was a teenager, never having set foot in Hanoi, Duc Tuan knew the lyrics by heart: Oh, Hanoi street/I still have the scent of magnolia/I still have the scent of milk flowers/The deserted road whispers a small rain/Who is waiting for someone, hair is loose on soft shoulders ... He didn't know anything about Hanoi, but those were truly enchanting lyrics, haunting him, and luckily, thanks to the flow of life and career, Tuan was able to become more attached to Hanoi, and sing the most beautiful songs by Phu Quang about Hanoi. Among them, Tuan loved the song " Autumn is very real autumn is when early winter comes" - the shortest song among Phu Quang's songs about Hanoi, but it most delicately describes the most beautiful moment of Hanoi: the hesitant moment when autumn and early winter come...", the male singer confided.

The lifetime albums of musician Phu Quang

Art collector Tran Hau Tuan, an "outsider" but also a close friend of Phu Quang during the years the musician lived in Ho Chi Minh City, said that "Phu Quang is a joy, sometimes a pride, an attraction for a Hanoian when we sit somewhere with him...".

The owner of the Phai Street painting collection talks about another Hanoi that he found in Phu Quang's music : "I think we should not use the word "best" here but should use the word "standard". In my opinion, Phu Quang is a very accurate writer about Hanoi. Phu Quang's music is exactly like Hanoi."

The art collector also realized that Hanoi in the music of that talented musician is truly Hanoi, truly the elegance and romance of an old Hanoi. According to him, Phu Quang has chosen the most beautiful pieces of memory to recreate the most beautiful portrait of Hanoi.

"He acts like an artist, like Phai Street! He removes all the roughness of real life, removes the sadness that everyone has to endure, removes all the hardships that we often have to bear, there is no other way.

He pushed everything back into his memory, into his memories. His Hanoi was the Hanoi of nostalgia, so everything suddenly became very sparkling, very beautiful and very romantic, and that's why it was very Hanoi.

He did not write about Hanoi building, Hanoi fighting like the contributions of many other great musicians. He wrote about Hanoi as an excuse to talk about his love...", Mr. Tuan "felt" about Hanoi from Phu Quang's music.

Musician Phu Quang on his return to Hanoi

"Saigon has the merit of making Phu Quang miss Hanoi"

As the poet who has the honor of having the most poems set to music by musician Phu Quang, and also being the musician's close friend from the same hometown for decades, having chosen Ho Chi Minh City as his "winter residence" land, poet Thai Thang Long shared: "Phu Quang once told me that one of the things he regrets the most is that he has lived in Saigon for so many years but has not written a song about the city. Although I know that he actually loves Saigon and its openness, he has also written the song Saigon Night ...

In 2006, when he decided to leave Saigon to return to Hanoi, on the afternoon of saying goodbye to me, he cried. Even in the last years of his life, he once told me "I want to return to Saigon but it's too late...".

In return, it was only in Saigon that he (or I) could write so much and so well about Hanoi. Saigon had the merit of "making" Phu Quang miss Hanoi. Phu Quang should thank Saigon for that!

Saxophonist Tran Manh Tuan, another close associate of musician Phu Quang, who always accompanied musician Mo ve noi xa lat on his tours in Europe; also a son of Hanoi who "went south" and became famous in Ho Chi Minh City, expressed: "In Phu Quang's music as well as in the musician himself, there is always a deep love for Hanoi. Hanoi has long been a sacred place for him. He has spoken for us the nostalgia of children far away from home...

Although it is said that the musician "brought Hoan Kiem Lake to winter", in fact, Hanoi has never left Phu Quang's side, even when he toured Eastern Europe or lived in Saigon. It is both old and always fresh in that beautiful nostalgia...".

"The orphaned banyan tree in winter..."

The author of the lyrics of the song "Silent Night of Hanoi" , also the author of the poetry collection "I Want to Spread My Arms in the Sky and Shout " - poet Pham Thi Ngoc Lien was teased that: The time she asked to "spread her arms in the sky and shout" was not as resonant as the time she "was silent" before the "immense mirror of the lake" in the "cold, misty late autumn night" that year in Hanoi.

The person who wrote the heavy verses: "Only you left/Silent to the point of numbness" said that, at the moment she heard the news that the musician of Em oi Ha Noi pho had passed away, she also once again experienced the same feeling of "silence to the point of numbness"!

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/cay-bang-mo-coi-phu-quang-1852410100939549.htm