Hans Zender

Schuberts 'Winterreise'

My 'lecture' of the Winterreise does not demand a new expressive interpretation, but instead systematically exercises the freedom which all interpreters allow themselves intuitively, such as: instrumental dilation i. e. acceleration of the pace, transposition into other keys and elaboration of characteristic color timbres. In addition, there are further ways of 'reading'; the music; jumping around in the text, repeating certain lines, interrupting the continuity, comparing different expressions of the same phrase ... All these new possibilities are subjected to my compositional discipline and form autonomous formal processes which are imposed on Schuberts original. The transformation of the piano tones into a multifaceted orchestra full of resonance is only one of many aspects.

(Hans Zender)