Hans Zender works as a musician in two ways: as conductor and composer. In the meantime, composing clearly comes first for him.

But Zender is not just a composer and conductor, but also a teacher, thinker and author with a far-reaching interest in the arts, cultures, and philosophies.

Zender dedicated special attention to the category of “harmony” – in part arising from the ever-growing insufficiency of the tempered tuning. He has organized the offerings of the harmonic and overtone series for the musician in a system and designed an ordered harmonic structure that brings tempered and pure possibilities together.

All the characteristics of Zender’s composing outlined above are combined on this CD: the recreation of a concrete music history model in “Dialogue with Haydn”, the immersion in the Asian mode of thought in the two “...no kyō” compositions, the use of microtonality in “Dialogue” and “Issei no kyō“. All three pieces share a humorous-ironic undertone.

with first recordings

Production: MDR / WDR