Tālivaldis Deksnis, organist. Pauls Dambis Toccata alla fantasia. Walcker organ, Riga Cathedral LV

Описание: Tālivaldis Deksnis (1946. 27.X - 2018. 17.III) was an organist, a professor at the J. Vītols Latvian Academy of Music, an organist at the University of Latvia, and an organ expert and restorer. He was a graduate of the Latvian Academy of Music, where he was taught piano by Nikolajs Federovskis and began his career as a concert pianist. Later he also graduated from the organ performance class taught by Pēteris Sīpolnieks. Deksnis spent time at the University of Southern Illinois in the United States, took part in international organist seminars in Toulouse, France, Mallorca, Spain and Croatia, and participated in master’s classes taught by many recognised professors of organ performance in Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands and Latvia. For many years, Deksnis was accompanist to the Radio Latvia Choir, a soloist at the Latvian Philharmonic, and accompanist to the Leonīds Vīgners Chamber Choir. Since 1984, he was one of the main concert performers at Riga Cathedral. Deksnis performed in Latvia and abroad – many European countries, as well as Russia, China, the United States, Canada and Australia. He served on the juries of several international competitions and worked with numerous performers and groups – the vocalists Aleksandrs Antoņenko, Egils Siliņš, Solveiga Raja, Jānis Sproģis, Kārlis Zariņš, Leonarda Daine, Sonora Vaice and Inga Šļubovska-Kancēviča, the violinists Valdis Zariņš, Raimonds Ozols, Andris Baumanis and Paula Šūmane, the flutist Dita Krenberga, the French horn performer Arvīds Klišāns, the National Academic Choir Latvija, the Radio Latvia Choir, the Ave Sol and Dzintars choirs, the Estonian National Men’s Choir, the Chamber Orchestra of the Latvian Philharmonic, the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra, the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, etc. Tālivaldis Deksnis was always an active promoter of Latvian organ and piano music, and he premiered many new compositions. For this reason he received an award from the Latvian Association of Composers (1986) and the Latvian Music Award (2007). Deksnis also received the Latvian Great Music Award (1996) and the Order of Three Stars (2007). He was for many years an organ expert for the Latvian Cultural Monument Inspectorate and made a major investment in researching and restoring organs in Latvia. Deksnis recorded records and CDs and was one of the most active producers of a series of records titled Latvia’s Historic Organs.

Pauls Dambis (1936) is a Latvian composer, organist, professor and former head of the Composition Department at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music and a professor at the Latvian Academy of Culture.
He composed Toccata alla Fantasia for organ while working as a church organist in Germany, where he premiered the work in Eggebek in 1993.

Toccata alla Fantasia was premiered in Latvia in 1995 in Riga Cathedral, also by Dambis. It is a one-part, concerto-type work that the composer describes as a play of Baroque forms and styles. Toccata alla Fantasia was one of Tālivaldis Deksnis’ favourite works and is also often played by other organists.

The organ of Riga Lutheran Cathedral is a prominent chapter in the history of organ-building, not only as far as Latvia is concerned, but also on a global scale. It preserves the oldest part ever used in Latvia for organ construction – the central part of the prospectus enclosure, made in 1601. In a global context, however, it is perfectly sound to claim that the last version of the organ (made by German organ manufacturer E.F. Walcker in 1884) was the world’s largest at the time. The organ has 116 sound registers with 124 switches and 6714 sounding pipes. The insignificant alterations and damage caused over time were repaired during the wide-scale restoration work between 1979 and 1984 by the staff of Flentrop Orgelbouw in Zaandam, the Netherlands, who returned the instrument to its original shape, as far as possible. The organ of Riga Cathedral is still among the world’s most outstanding examples of organ craftsmanship of German Romanticism. Its impressive size and the rich variety of tone colours lends itself to organ music of diverse styles and epochs.