Tomasz Zając - Renner: Organ Music (2019)

The pieces by Joseph Renner presented on this album, played by organist Tomasz Zajac, show to the listener the full spectrum of the harmonic and expressive range of the organ.

Joseph Renner was born on 17 February 1868 in Regensburg. His first music teacher was his father, also Joseph (1832-1895) composer, organist, head of the Regensburg choir, and organiser of a private music institute. In 1887, he took the post of a choral conductor in the Austrian town of Bludenz, and in 1893, when he returned to Regensburg, he became the organist in the local cathedral. Two years later, he launched pedagogical activity. In 1900, he became acquainted with Max Reger, a great composer and organist, who spoke exceptionally favourably of his solo works.

Tomasz Zajac's output includes radio and television recordings. In 1994, he recorded a cycle of Arias of Poor Clares in Stary Sacz, which took place in the Diocesan Museum in Sandomierz on probably the world's smallest chest organ. He played the organ during the world pre¬mieres of Gerald Spitzner's Cantico delle Creature, Georg Reutter's Mass in G major, Son of God Mass, or Nunc dimittis by James Whitbourn. The CD with the first recording of the Mass in B minor by Ignaz Ritter von Seyfried, on which he performed the organ part, received the Golden Orpheus Award of the French Académie du Disque Lyrique in 2016. His interpretive research concerns the work of Max Reger and Louis Vierne. The natural consequence of this activity was an interest in the works of Joseph Renner, a German Romantic composer. Immediately after graduating from his studies, he launched his teaching career at the Faculty of Music at the University of Rzeszow, where he currently works as an assistant professor, and since 2011, he has been the deputy dean for didactics.