Hans Zender

Four settings by Hans Zender of the Cántico espiritual by St John of the Cross, the 16th-century Spanish mystic, presented here for the first time as a cycle. The works, from 2008 to 2014, use different forces: violin, soprano and ensemble, choir and orchestra, choir alone, and three groups of singers and players. They contain first recordings. All are steeped in Zender's microtonal harmony, which divides the octave into 72 steps.

Zender was born in Wiesbaden on 22 November 1936 and died in Meersburg on 23 October 2019. He studied with Wolfgang Fortner in Frankfurt and Freiburg. As a conductor he led the Saarbrücken radio orchestra from 1971 to 1984 and the Hamburg Opera from 1984 to 1987. In ¿Adónde? Wohin? soprano Angelika Luz and violinist Ernst Kovacic play with Klangforum Wien under Sylvain Cambreling. Oh Bosques | Oh Wälder brings Luz together with the Bavarian Radio Choir and Symphony Orchestra under Susanna Mälkki. The SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart sings the two later works, under Marcus Creed and, with the SWR Sinfonieorchester, Emilio Pomàrico. The recordings come from Ö1, BR-Klassik/musica viva and SWR.

Out of dissatisfaction with equal temperament, Zender pushed micro-intonation to 72 divisions of the octave. Making this sound like a natural enrichment needs great vocal and instrumental mastery, and the harmonic results are rich in possibility yet extremely fragile. ¿Adónde? Wohin? (2008/10), the longest piece at 23 minutes, is for violin, soprano and instruments. Oh Bosques | Oh Wälder (2010) sets soprano and mixed choir against a small orchestra, with an echo soprano. ¿Por qué? Warum? (2011) divides the choir into two groups a cappella. Oh Cristallina … (2014) is for three groups of singers and instruments.

The Cántico espiritual counts among the high points of Spanish Golden Age literature. Zender set the first fourteen of its forty verses, in a manner described as "entirely like Mozart". His pluralist view of music and literature moves between Hölderlin and Joyce, Shakespeare and Michaux, Dada and the Bible. It finds closer links between Surrealism and Zen, or Meister Eckhart and the Zen master Ikkyu, than one might expect.

CD, Wergo WER 7336 2, released in 2016.