A Homeland Echoes in Every Hush of Music
08 pm, Sat 16 Aug 2025
Halle, Goethe-Institut Hà Nội
56-60 Nguyễn Thái Học, Ba Đình, Hà Nội
Registration link
From the organizer:
As a continuation of the Kurt Weill concerts Youkali by the Hanoi Brass Community and Berlin im Licht at the Ho Guom Opera House, this programme presents another close collaborator of Bertolt Brecht: the German-Austrian composer of Hanns Eisler – a formative figure in 20th-century European music.
Hanns Eisler, composer of the national anthem of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), addressed social injustices, melancholy and the hope for human solidarity in his musical works.
At the heart of the program is Fourteen Ways to Describe Rain (1941), composed during Eisler’s exile in the United States. Here, rain becomes a symbol of longing, transience, and time. A new arrangement for brass instruments brings out the work’s experimental essence in a fresh way.
Also featured are selections from Eisler’s iconic Hollywood Songbook, especially the Hollywood Elegies, which reflect the emotional dislocation of an artist in exile. These modernist songs move from inner unrest toward quiet acceptance — a musical journey through estrangement and reconciliation.
In contrast, Vietnamese songs about love and friendship offer warmth and lyricism — a counterbalance to Eisler’s sharper sound world. They reveal a different cultural path toward unity, comfort, and hope.
We warmly invite you to this evening of musical dialogue, where German expressionism and Vietnamese lyricism meet — a shared journey through sound, memory, and the longing for peace.
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