Vêpres

Description

Tuma was a renowned Viennese musical figure of the mid-18th century. He was primarily praised for his sacred works, written either in the strict polyphonic style of stile antico or in the more modern figural style. The current album, a new installment in the Tuma recording series by the Czech Baroque Ensemble, focuses on specific types of liturgical pieces from the composer’s last creative period. The splendor of the vespers and litanies (Vesperae de confessore, Litaniae Reginae martyrum), intended to be performed during major feasts, is enhanced by natural trumpets and timpani. The album includes one of the eight musical settings of the famous medieval sequence of the Stabat Mater. Furthermore, the composer wrote a large number of instrumental pieces in which he applied elements of the modern galant style while adopting techniques characteristic of Italian and French music. The grand and sumptuously orchestrated Ouverture in C contrasts sharply with the more modest Sinfonia in D, based on the sinfonia of Neapolitan opera, and the Partita in G, which, like the Stabat Mater, have survived within a collection of music in Vienna. The pieces that Tuma wrote during his final creative phase provide ample evidence of his mastery of composition and his ability to blend old and new stylistic trends, resulting in remarkable sacred and instrumental music. With the exception of the Stabat Mater, the Czech Baroque Ensemble presents all the works on this album in modern premieres.