"Sweet & Bitter" Music of the Golden Twenties

For the Year of Jewish Culture in Saxony, the Saxon Wind Philharmonic has created a very special project: a concert featuring songs and texts primarily by Jewish composers who significantly shaped the culture of the 1920s and 30s. It evokes the vibrant music scene of the 1920s up to the Nazi seizure of power. The program is a narrative that, in turn, conceals biographical stories and fates. These include Henry Love, who composed the famous "Alte Lied" under a male pseudonym; Werner Richard Heymann, who, after being fired by UFA, composed film scores for Ernst Lubitsch in the USA; Hermann Leopoldi, who miraculously survived the Buchenwald concentration camp and translated his "Café in Hernals" into English in America; and Fritz Löhner-Beda, who was captured while fleeing and later murdered.

Singer Ethel Merhaut, who has Russian-Jewish roots, is an indispensable part of Vienna's vibrant young music scene and is now also internationally renowned. With charm and musical passion, she breathes new life into chansons, foxtrots, film scores, and tangos from the 1920s and 30s, as well as Yiddish songs by composers and lyricists of that era. In addition to her vocal talents, Ethel Merhaut is also a witty and charming presenter.