Feike Asma (1912-1984) was both the most popular and most controversial Dutch organist of his generation. Both Festivo boxes (eight CDs in total) provide an intriguing picture of Asma's organ art. It is worth listening to it alone because one can only be surprised that a phenomenon like this has ever happened. For example, the performance of Bach's Toccata, Adagio and Fugue (around 1950) must be
… the worst registration ever, so many mistakes, wrong pedal notes and sudden tempo changes pass by. Asma apparently consciously chose to elevate this kind of tampering to a stylistic tool, in order to please his supporters of mostly messy organ amateurs. In the second box - Collection II - we still hear another Asma. Here he appears to be a compelling advocate of the (then lesser known) great romantic organ repertoire (Reubke and Liszt, among others). Here, too, we still hear the typical idiosyncrasies, but - just as with Horowitz or Gieseking - they are more in the service of a well-considered vision. For example, the opening of Liszt's Ad Nos is without a doubt impressive. The colorful performance of the Variations sur un Noël by Dupré is for the most part so neat that you as a listener sometimes start to doubt who is actually behind the keyboard. (HJ) The colorful performance of the Variations sur un Noël by Dupré is for the most part so neat that you, as a listener, sometimes start to doubt who is actually behind the keyboard. (HJ) The colorful performance of the Variations sur un Noël by Dupré is for the most part so neat that you as a listener sometimes start to doubt who is actually behind the keyboard. (HJ)more
