REVIEW: Hanni Liang: Dreams - A Peaceful, Emotional, and Beautifully United Concert

©️ T Wu at Hanni Liang: Dream

Pianist Hanni Liang is reimagining classical music through her innovative concerts, which serve as spaces for questioning and reflection. Inspired by Claude Debussy’s Rêverie, Liang has crafted a unique concert experience where your dreams shape the performance.

What happens when a single dream connects us all? Before the performance begins, each audience member is given paper and pen, prepared by pianist Hanni Liang herself, and invited to complete the prompt: “I once had a dream, where…” It might be a vivid dream you’ve never forgotten, or one that surfaces unexpectedly. No one knows what will emerge. We then exchange these dreams, stepping into the rare intimacy of sharing a fragment of our subconscious with a stranger.

From this simple act, something quietly magical begins to take shape. Audience members type their own or others’ dreams onto an iPad, and Hanni transforms these dream fragments into improvised music, expanding upon Claude Debussy’s Rêverie. Her playing flows with agility and grace, yet carries a tenderness and attentiveness that fills the hour-long concert.

The music is accompanied by cascading visual projections, like waterfalls of words and imagery, that merge sound and sight into a single sensory experience. The atmosphere is both contemplative and connective, as if each dream becomes a thread woven into a shared tapestry.

This is a one-of-a-kind concert, full of emotional swells and gentle moments of reflection. The diversity of dreams - some whimsical, some poignant - seems to soothe and unite everyone in the room. In the end, Hanni Liang has not only reimagined classical music but also created a space for beauty, healing, and communal listening.

★★★★★

https://www.eif.co.uk/events/hanni-liang-dreams#programme