Schuberts Winterreise

Eine Produktion von Ensemble Modern mit Julian Prégardien und Daniel Cohen. Gefördert durch die Adolf und Luisa
Haeuser-Stiftung für Kunst- und Kulturpflege.

Schuberts Winterreise (Schubert’s Winter Journey): this is the title of a work by Hans Zender that was premiered by Ensemble Modern in Frankfurt am Main in 1993 and has become one of the most frequently performed of Zender’s works. It illuminates Franz Schubert’s well-known vocal cycle in instrumental and conceptual terms, so that Schubert’s daring anticipation of the music of the future becomes audible. Zender gave the subtitle “composed interpretation” to his piece.

This genre is actually indebted to Zender, created by taking the music further, making contours more precise, deconstructing forms or reworking them. Now the work can be experienced in Frankfurt again after a long break, performed by Ensemble Modern, Ian Bostridge – the British tenor and Winterreise-expert – and conducted by Daniel Cohen.

Ensemble Modern
Daniel Cohen Dirigent
Julian Prégardien (Tenor)

Ensemble Modern

Since the Ensemble Modern EM) was founded in 1980 it has become one of the leading ensembles for New Music. It brings together some 20 soloists from Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, India, Israel, Japan, the USA and Switzerland, whose backgrounds provide the cultural backdrop of the formation. The Ensemble is based in Frankfurt am Main and is known for its exceptional grassroots democratic organizational structure and manner of working. Artistic projects, partnerships and financial matters are decided together and collective responsibility is taken for them. Ensemble Modern’s uniquely broad repertoire includes music theatre, dance and video projects and chamber music, alongside ensemble and orchestral concerts. Tours and guest appearances take Ensemble Modern to festivals of renown and top venues all over the world, e.g. the Berliner Festspiele, Bregenzer Festspiele, Cité de la Musique, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Festival d'Automne à Paris, Hellerau Dresden, Holland Festival, Klangspuren Schwaz, Konzerthaus Berlin, Kölner Philharmonie, Kunstfestspiele Herrenhausen, Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ Amsterdam, Ruhrtriennale, Queen Elizabeth Hall London, Wien Modern and the Wigmore Hall London. In their home city, the Ensemble Modern performs at the Alte Oper Frankfurt, where it holds its own series of concerts for which season tickets are available.

Music theatre productions in collaboration with the Frankfurt opera house take place regularly as well as a workshop concert series “Happy New Ears”. Since 2011 Ensemble Modern has also cooperated with the hr-Sinfonieorchester (Hessen radio symphony orchestra) to organize the festival “cresc … Biennale für aktuelle Music Frankfurt Rhein Main”. Further collaborations and projects round off the multi-facetted profile of Ensemble Modern.

Some 70 works per annum are being created by Ensemble Modern in close collaboration with the respective composers and grounded in the aspiration to achieve the greatest possible authenticity; about 20 of these are premieres. This has led over the years to unusual and often prolonged collaborations. These include working together with John Adams, Mark Andre, George Benjamin, Peter Eötvös, Brian Ferneyhough, Heiner Goebbels, Hans Werner Henze, Mauricio Kagel, György Kurtág, Helmut Lachenmann, György Ligeti, Olga Neuwirth, Enno Poppe, Rebecca Saunders, Simon Steen-Andersen, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Steve Reich, Frank Zappa and Vito Žuraj, as well as exceptional artists from other genres.

Foto Julian Prégardien: Peter Rigaud
Foto Daniel Cohen: Kaupo Kikkas