FREEDOM I with works by Xilin Wang and Isang Yun

Concert with works by Wang Xilin and Isang Yun and talk with Wang Xilin about the documentary film "Man in Black" (2023) by Wang Bing

Isang YUN (1917-1995) is one of Korea's most important classical composers. Tortured by the Japanese as a freedom fighter during World War II, he was abducted to Seoul by the South Korean secret service in 1967 and accused of spying for North Korea. He was tortured again in prison. The intervention of the international music world prevented a life sentence. WANG Xilin 王西麟 (*1936) is one of China's most important modern classical composers. During the Cultural Revolution, he was subjected to severe persecution and had to endure beatings, imprisonment and torture. His musical oeuvre reflects these experiences. KlangForum Heidelberg frames a conversation with the Chinese composer with the octets by WANG Xilin and Isang YUN for the screening of the documentary film by WANG Bing 王兵 (*1967) Man in Black (2023) The film shows the body and soul of a man scarred by a life of torture and suffering, yet capable of deep and sincere compassion. To the sound of his music, he revisits the terrible events that remain vivid in his memory as testimony to a (continuing) era in which the entire Chinese nation was and is dehumanized and deprived of all its freedoms.

ensemble aisthesis
Conductor | Ekkehard Windrich