The Variations and Fugue, a most difficult and complex work, demonstrates Max Reger's exceptional talent as a master of the musical variation, with at times drastically-altered repetitions of that which was previously stated musically. The work, which extends tonality to the breaking point, contains 16 movements.

As the interpreter of his own music, Willem Tanke presents his First and Second Wind Fantasies, two pieces which demonstrate an impossible spectrum of organistic possibilities. At the same time, these two pieces concern themselves with two episodes, one 'about' the historical and contemporary breath of the organ, and the other 'with' the breath audible in the moment when the organ sounds, that is, with the so-called 'wind' of the organ when the bellows send air to the pipes. Thus Tanke's pieces 'tell' of the coming into being of the organ, of its acoustical properties, of the archetypal sound images, of its immense drawing power. And the rhapsodic reports, the aesthetic form given to these works have a presence and an acoustical plasticity which - especially in the surround sound version of this SACD - evoke a haptic and physical mode of hearing in which the organ becomes a broadly-breathing timbral space, that is, as wind that has become music.

Musicians:
Willem Tanke, organ

Selections:
Max Reger (1873-1916)
1.-16. Variations and Fugue in F sharp minor Op. 73
Willem Tanke (b.1959)
17-18. Two Wind Fantasies for Organ

Total Time: 72:15