Reviews

On 8CD-box with Olivier Messiaen - Complete Organ Works:

'This new set by Willem Tanke is most certainly Messiaenic heaven to me, and has placed the music far closer to my heart than any of the previous sets. This recent release is as close to perfect as I think I will find' (Simon Fitzgerald, The Organ)

'This stunning new recording is sure to cause great excitement. Incredible as it may seem there were only 3 edits in the entire performance! This is playing of an exceptional standard' (Cathedral Classical)

With virtuoso lightness, unfailing timing and inexhaustible wealth of colours, Tanke opens up Messiaen's heaven...his interpretations touch the heart through the organist's peace of mind and sensitivity...this collection is a milestone in the Messiaen discography and a great moment in his organ music' (Miquel Cabruja, klassik.com)

Overwhelming experience

(Henk ten Holt on a live perofmance of Olivier Messiaen and the Cave of Forgotten Sounds, Ugenda.

"Whoever attends this concert will be left flabbergasted, exalted (in the sense of feeling elevated), moved, and in any case unsettled, and afterward, remaining silent for a long time. The music has an indescribable force which overwhelms the listener. The word "violence" could be appropriate, but without negative connotations; the music is not only heavy but also lovely, consoling, and even touching. One concert attendee said, "Resisting is impossible". Another, while leaving fifteen minutes afterward, "I am still not back on Earth". The musical dialogue between Messiaen and Tanke is a radical mental and spiritual experience which, at the same time, touches you very physically. Descriptive words fail and it may sound very strange, but, while listening, I felt enclosed by a very tight time travel capsule, which forced my body to stretch and become rigid. I cast my eyes higher and higher, from the floor to the pews and the walls and, finally I gazed through the bowed windows of the church directly into, what appeared at that moment to be, uniform, grey eternity."

Ralph Blakely on Super Audio CD Meditations for a lent in American Record Guide:

I reviewed two fantasies by Willem Tanke (b1959) in the March/April issue of this year. I found Tanke one of the most fascinating composers I had encountered. Now, this work confirms and augments that judgement. This series of meditations is the product of a research project he called The Art of Doing Nothing. From his description, his practice of doing nothing is similar to the leisure or rest described by Rollo May that follows intense study and preparation and from which emerges significant creative achievement. Tanke has clearly studied music in close detail from every period in the past. While the influences of Messiaen and Ligeti in his music are clear, so are those of Josquin and Mozart.

Tanke performs his piece on the 2-manual, 12-stop organ built in 1880 by FB Loret in St Willibrord's Church in the town of Berkel-Enschot in the Brabant region of Holland. It is small and intimate, exactly suited for his purpose. He approaches the organ as if for the first time, exploiting its unique ability to sustain sounds indefinitely and the sounds made when wind pressure decreases, either owing to slowly closing stops or turning of the blower while the instrument is sounding.

An exposition of thematic material is followed by development in many ways, some with ancient precedent, others quite novel. He adds the sounds made by an Indian woodblock and a bell of the sort carried by griots, as story-tellers are known in West Africa. The work is almost Beethovenian in its originality. However, ingenuity does not make art; it is the remarkable beauty of this work that does.

This recording will be at the top of my critic's choice-list for the year. I believe it may be the most important recording I've reviewed for ARG. Tanke wrote that he intended to explore the direction music is heading in the 21st Century. If that be so, I am excited about where it is going.

Blair Sanderson on CD Imaginary Day for All Music Guide:

"...there is a peculiar unity in the whole work that takes its character from the blending of serious and comic as well as traditional and avant-garde elements. If the moods range from medieval solemnity to modern quirkiness and veer suddenly from the quantly evocative to outright violence, the whole set nonetheless feels all of a piece in its personal qualities: Tanke's music feels true to his varied interests, and his witty performances speak directly of his inquiring mind and imaginative music-making. "

Ralph Blakely on SuperAudioCD Max Reger: Variations and Fugue F sharp minor op. 73 and Willem Tanke: Two wind fantasies for

American Stereo Guide:

"Willem Tanke (b 1959) plays his First Wind-Fantasy on the 3-manual, 31-stop Marcussen organ from 1959 in St Lawrence's Church in Rotterdam and his Second Wind-Fantasy on the 4-manual, 86-stop Marcussen from 1973 in the same church. Both organs are very fine and are heard well in this program.

The form of both pieces is similar, though they seem quite idiomatic to the instruments they are played on. At the core of both is the organ's unique capacity among musical instruments to sustain a tone indefinitely. Tanke builds tone clusters over which he exposes and develops rhythmic and melodic motives. He explores the tonal resources of the two instruments in both the textures of the tone clusters and the stops he uses for the motivic development. An example is the use of the attack noise or “chiff” of a high-pitched pipe as a marimba-like percussive effect. This then is developed by playing the same sound while sustaining a tone at the same pitch, thus creating a warbling effect in the rhythm.

Tanke has one of the most interesting musical minds I have encountered in some time. He performs his pieces with the verve and panache they deserve. This is a very important release.

Also on the program is Reger's Variations and Fugue on an Original Theme. This piece consists of an introduction, theme exposition, 13 variations, and a fugue. Reger possessed consumate compositional skill and here he seems to have determined to show that he could flog every last bit out of the essence of his theme. Has this piece been composed before electrically produced wind was introduced for organs Reger would certainly have been forced to edit for the sake of the overworked bellowsmen. Tanke plays this piece splendidly on the 4-manual, 81-stop Edema organ in St Bavo's Church in Haarlem. "

Blair Anderson on Imaginary Day for All Music Guide:

Even though Willem Tanke's Imaginary Day : 21 Fantasies for organ (1996-2001) is a collection of diverse pieces largely based on his improvisations over the years, it has more of a consciously composed and structured feeling than might be expected of such spontaneous inventions. Tanke's compositional methods may be casual, or at least start out that way, but his organisation of these lively miniatures into three suites --corresponding to early morning, afternoon and night -- and his division of each suite into seven sections suggest some kind of coherent scheme; no matter how lightly or frivolously the music comes across, it seems to have balanced proportions. And while Tanke is plainly eclectic in his selection of organ styles and techniques, there is a peculiar unity in the whole work that takes its character from the blending of serious and comic, as well as traditional and avant-garde elements. If the moods range from medieval solemnity to modern quirkiness and veer suddenly from the quaintly evocative to outright violence, the whole set nonetheless feels all of a piece in its personal qualities: Tanke's music feels true to his varied interests, and his witty performances speak directly of his inquiring mind and imaginative music-making. The organs of four churches -- St. Antoine in Vouzières, the Domkerk in Utrecht, Stevenskerk in Nijmegen, and St. Willibrorduskerk in Berkel-Enschot -- contribute to the recordings exceptional variety and interesting registration choices, though Cybele's engineering is remarkably consistent and balanced for the four recording dates and locations.

"Limonadenflaschenteufel"

„...Mehr als nur Differenzen im Personalstil liegen zwischen den unterschiedlich streng organisierten Stücken Zachers und denen des dreißig Jahre jüngeren Niederländers Willem Tanke, geboren 1959. Es ist eine neue Zeit, die hier ihre organistische Sprache findet, weniger radikal, pragmatisch, polyglott, verspielt. Tanke hat einundzwanzig relativ kurze Stücke zu einem dreiteiligen Zyklus zusammengestellt, den er „Imaginary Day“ nennt. Die Titel – „Call of the Trumpet“, „Yehowah Kpo Kpo“, „Come and dream“, „Breakwave“ – verraten, daß Welten zwischen Zacher und Tanke liegen. Willem Tanke hat, als hochvirtuoser Interpret seiner eigenen Werke, eine Vorliebe für vertrackte und effektvolle Rhythmen, die teils von afrikanischer Musik inspiriert worden sind. In der Mehrzahl seiner Stücke wird eine Hauptstimme von solcherlei Rhythmen begleitet. Tanke weiß nicht nur den vier Instrumenten aus dem achtzehnten und neunzehnten Jahrhundert, die er benutzt die merkwürdigsten Farben zu entlocken, er reichert diese auch noch um Orgelfremdes an: Klänge von als Schlagzeug behandelten Wein- und Limonadenflaschen, Trommel, Fahrradhupe. Tönende Kalauer kommen dabei zum Glück nicht heraus, aber das Augenzwinkern ist unverkennbar. Die Textur der kleinen Stücke ist luftig, Willem Tankes Musik ist Lichtjahre von jener Behäbigkeit entfernt, die Unkundige mit dem Instrument Orgel in Verbindung zu bringen pflegen. Tanke hat die Orgelmusik fürs Crossover geöffnet...“

(Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung – „Schallplatten und Phono“ vom 12. November 2005)

Jonas Kellagher on Vidna Obmana's and Willem Tanke's Variations for organ, keyboard and processors for Fluxeuropa:

The result is a hauntingly beautiful record that creeps upon you and passes out into the universe. A truly great record.