Event

Concert featuring works by Wang Xilin and Isang Yun, followed by a discussion with Wang Xilin about Wang Bing’s documentary film "Man in Black" (2023)

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 there of spying for North Korea. He was tortured again in prison. The intervention of the international music community 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 frames a conversation with the Chinese composer around the octets by WANG Xilin and Isang YUN, in conjunction with the screening of the documentary film by WANG Bing 王兵 (*1967) *Man in Black* (2023). The film portrays the body and soul of a man scarred by a life of torture and suffering, yet still capable of deep and sincere compassion. To the sounds of his music, he revisits the terrible events that remain vivid in his memory as a testament to an (ongoing) era in which the entire Chinese nation was and continues to be dehumanized and deprived of all its freedoms.

ensemble aisthesis
Conductor | Ekkehard Windrich

The KlangForum concerts are presented in cooperation with Heidelberg University and the Confucius Institute, and in conjunction with an exhibition by the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities titled "From the Will to Freedom," which is part of the initiative PERSPEKTIVE: FREIHEIT by the Union of German Academies of Sciences and Humanities and is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research as part of the Year of Science 2024 – Freedom.