The Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra will give two performances in Hanoi on Sept 14 and 15 before setting off for a seven-city tour of Japan starting Sept 21.

The program, to take place at the Hanoi Opera Theater on Sept 14 and 15, will be taken to seven major Japanese cities from Sept 21, which marks the 40th anniversary of ties between Vietnam and Japan, to Oct 1.

The program will be under the baton of Japanese conductor Honna Tetsuji and feature renowned Japanese pianist Kodama Momo along with artist Le Khanh as the narrator and many others.

The Vietnam orchestra will perform three masterpieces by Ludwig van Beethoven, “Requiem for Strings” by Takemitsu Toru, one of Japan’s leading 20th- century composers, the ballet suite “Spider's Thread” by another Japanese composer Akutagawa Yasushi along with the epic “Concerto Vivo” by Vietnamese-French composer Nguyen Thien Dao.

Another highlight is the orchestra transcription of a “Quan ho Bac Ninh” (northern traditional love duets) piece called “Vao chua” (Visiting the pagoda) by composer Ngo Hoang Quan. The transcribed piece will be performed on Oct 1 in front of the Buddha statue on the main altar at the Todaiji Temple, or the Great Eastern Temple, one of Japan's most famous and historically significant temples as well as a landmark in the city of Nara.