Tůma: Vesperae

František Ignác Antonín Tůma (1704-1774) – Vesperae de confessore* (1753), Stabat Mater, Litaniae Reginae martyrum* (1758), Ouverture in C*, Sinfonia in d*, Partita in g*

Romana Kružíková, Zuzana Badárová – soprano, Lucie Karafiátová – alto, Matúš Šimko – tenor, Jiří Miroslav Procházka – bass. Czech Ensemble Baroque, conductor Roman Válek

Tůma was a renowned mid-18th-century Vienna musical figure. He was primarily lauded for his sacred works, written either in the strict polyphonic stile antico or in the more modern figural style. The current album, a new instalment in Czech Ensemble Baroque’s series of Tůma recordings, focuses on specific types of liturgical pieces from the composer’s later creative period. The lustre of the vespers and litanies (Vesperae de confessore, Litaniae Reginae martyrum), designated for performance on major feast days, is enhanced by natural trumpets and timpani. The album includes one of Tůma’s eight surviving settings of the famous medieval sequence Stabat Mater. Furthermore, the composer wrote a great many instrumental pieces in which he applied elements of the modern galant style, while also embracing techniques characteristic of Italian and French music. The grandiose and lavishly instrumented Ouverture in C contrasts starkly with the more modest Sinfonia in d, based on the Neapolitan opera sinfonia, and the Partita in g, which, just like Stabat Mater, have survived within a music collection in Vienna. The pieces Tůma wrote during his late creative phase provide ample proof of his compositional mastery and ability to blend the old and new stylistic trends, with the result being remarkable sacred and instrumental music. With the exception of Stabat Mater, Czech Ensemble Baroque present all the works featured on this album in modern-day premiere.

Tůma’s top-notch sacred and instrumental pieces – more gems in modern-day premiere