FULL Currentzis conducts Schuberts Winterreise by Hans Zender Stuttgart 2020-2022 Sebastian Kolhepp

• Work Title: Currentzis conducts Schuberts Winterreise by Hans Zender  
• Composer: Schubert Franz, orchestrated by Hans Zender  
• Libretto: Wilhelm Müller  
• Venue & Opera Company: Stuttgart, Germany  
• Recorded: 2020-2022
• Type: Concert Live
• Singers: Sebastian Kolhepp
• Conductor: Teodor Currentzis  
• Orchestra: SWR Symphonieorchester  
• Stage Director:   
• Costume Designer:   

Information about the Recording

• Published by: ARD, SWR  
• Date Published: 2023  
• Format: Broadcast
• Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
• Subtitles: nosubs  
• Video Recording from: ARD     FULL VIDEO
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

“Falsification? I say: creative change.” On Hans Zender’s “Schubert’s Winter Journey”

It was his best-known work, played in Japan as well as everywhere else in Europe. And it was the subject of much discussion, especially in the 1990s: is it permissible to treat one of the most important works of ‘classical music’ so cheekily? Zender irritated listeners and at the same time captivated them. His version, with which he invented the new genre of “composed interpretation”, aims to take the listener back to the disturbing and intense moments that Schubert’s music may have had at the time, using modern means and stylistic devices. Bathing in the all-too-familiarity of a classical song recital gives way to an acoustic rafting tour through changing water conditions – including rapids and spray. But all of this is already there in Schubert’s work, Zender would say.
Various interpretations have been lining the path of this composed interpretation for almost four decades now. Hans Zender himself loved the recording with Christoph Prégardien and the Klangforum Wien under the direction of Sylvain Cambreling, which (not the only one) has been released on CD. A concert with “Schubert’s Winterreise” in particular, however, presents the performers with decisions: Should the musicians really approach each other playfully at the beginning, as the score suggests, and “find their way” in a very real way? Is the singer always an actor too? Can the various “spaces” that we pass through when listening perhaps also be experienced visually? Most recently, the Dutch video artist Aernout Mik pursued this idea in a version of the Stuttgart State Opera.
The interpretation and testing of the work of Zender/ Schubert will probably continue in this sense. Also in the spirit of Hans Zender, who sharpened and demanded the serious and constantly new examination of the ‘traditional’ pieces of music. So that they remain fresh and still actually have something to say to us. Or as he puts it: “Falsification? I say: creative change.”
(Text by Lydia Jeschke, from the program booklet)