Hans Zender - Think With Your Senses

A portrait of distinguished composer, conductor and essayist Hans Zender.

At the age of 82 composer, conductor and essayist Hans Zender can look back on a distinguished career. He studied piano and composition and later gained first stage experience at Freiburg. During scholarships at Villa Massimo in Rome he befriended B. A. Zimmermann who was instrumental in bringing Zender, the composer, to work towards an approach between classical music and the ideas of the avant-garde.

After having been music director at the Bonn Opera, principal conductor of the Radio Symphony Orchestra Saarbrücken, GMD at the Hamburg Opera and principal guest conductor at La Monnaie Zender was appointed permanent guest conductor of the SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden and Freiburg until his recent retirement.

Music journalist Max Nyffeler will interview Hans Zender in the spectacular setting of the “Glaserhäusle” at Meersburg on Lake Constance where Zender and one of his former composition students demonstrate the Microtonal Keyboard Zender uses to compose. We will hear about his collaboration with composers as John Cage, Olivier Messiaen and Bernd Alois Zimmermann, his infatuation with Japanese culture and get an interpretation of one of his priceless calligraphic scrolls.

Zender will also open his archives with plenty of photographs and let us film correspondence to underpin his recollections. Archive footage from memorable audiovisual recordings, in particular his “composed interpretation” of Schubert´s “Winterreise”, will round off the profile of a major influence on the contemporary music scene paying homage to an innovator and champion of music of our time.

Duration 58min.
Director Reiner E. Moritz
Production Company RM Creative
Video format 4K