TŮMA J. ORGAN IMPROVISATION - live recordings on eight instruments / J.Tůma organ

1. Improvisation on the name BACH 9:33

Passau (Germany), Passauer Dom 20. 6. 1991

organ by L. Eisenbarth, 1981, the largest church organ in the world

2. Salve regina 10:11

München (Germany), Frauenkirche - Munchner Dom, 3. 8. 1994

organ by Georg Jann, 1994

3. Variations on the song "Ei, du feiner Reiter" (Samuel Scheidt) 15:07

Doksy (Czech Republic), St Bartholomew Church, 1. 10. 1994

the unknown organ-maker, 1627 (reconstructed by Vladimir Slajch, 1992)

4. Cantabile in B 6:21

Cambridge, Massachusetts (USA), The Harvard University Memorial Church, 9. 11. 1993

the Charles B. Fisk Organ, 1967

5. Fantasy in D 8:27

Milano (Italy), S. Alessandro, 2. 5. 1994

organ by Orto-Lanzini (after G. Silbermann, 1722)

6. Homage to the Earliest Anonymous Keyboard Composition (c. 1325) 9:16

Karlskrona (Sweden), the Frederik Church, 15. 7. 1993

the Wahlberg Organ, 1764 (reconstructed by Groenlund company, 1987)

7. Passacaglia on the thema by Andrew Lloyd Webber 9:26

Frankfurt / Oder (Germany), St Gertraud Church, 28. 6. 1994

organ by W. Sauer, 1879

Improvisation on the French Song "A vous dirais-je maman" 10:23

Annaka, (Japan), Niijima School, 15. 4. 1995

organ by Kuhn A.G., 1991

Jaroslav Tůma - organ

Live recordings on eight different instruments throughout the world: Doksy (Czech Republic), Passau, Munchen, Frankfurt (Germany), Milano (Italy), Karlskrona (Sweden), Cambridge (United States), Annaka (Japan)

Jaroslav Tůma's eight organ improvisations present a masterful and widely viewed confrontation of music cultural past and present. Already an idea on its own is a unigue challenge to so called classical music where an improvisation as a art linked to the nonmediate creative source has almost disappeared. Tůmaś creations, however, are heading further: there it is not only interpreted a brilliant technique that still luckily, in the long run, constantly belong to basic professional skill of every organist but also we can feel there a many hundred years of unique complex practice of a royal instrument.

(Arta Records)