Saturday, 05 November 2022
20:15 on 3sat
https://www.3sat.de/kultur/musik/schuberts-winterreise-102.html
Ballet by Christian Spuck
Music by Hans Zender
Ballett Zürich
Philharmonia Zürich
Mauro Peter, tenor
Benjamin Schneider, conductor
Franz Schubert’s Winterreise, a cycle of 24 songs for voice and piano set to poems by Wilhelm Müller, is not only regarded as the zenith of Schubert’s song composition, but as the pinnacle of German art song in its entirety. German composer Hans Zender arranged the cycle in 1993 with the title: Schuberts Winterreise – eine komponierte Interpretation, or a composed interpretation. Zender’s version for tenor and chamber orchestra reveals the cycle’s potential to disturb, and approaches Wilhelm Müller’s poems in its own way. Zender pushes into the darkest regions of human existence. With his interpretation, he brings to light emotions that pulsate just beneath the surface in Schubert’s work, uncovering the uncanny layers in
the depths of the music.
Like Hans Zender, Christian Spuck’s production, which was awarded the renowned «Prix Benois de la Danse» in 2019, concerns itself less with illustrating the external stations of the traveler’s journey. Instead, it approaches the cycle with thoroughly comprehensive abstraction. Using a mixture of large ensemble scenes and intimate solo images, Christian Spuck
undertakes a journey into the innermost self. As he does so, he explores such timeless themes as love, longing, alienation, and abandonment, allowing the medium of dance to provide new perspectives on one of the greatest works of classical music.
A production of Accentus Music
In co-production with SWR
In co-operation with Opernhaus Zürich, Arte Concert
Recorded at Opernhaus Zürich