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The only solo recording of the old Willis/Harrison organ in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford (apart from mine in the British Sound Archive, which even I cannot access) which I have been unable to get a copy of has popped up in the Archive of Recorded Organ Music on YouTube. Played by Paul Morgan while organ scholar there. Carillon - Herbert Murrill Larghetto in F sharp minor - S.S. Wesley Fugue in E flat ("St. Anne") - J.S. Bach Sadly, the transcription has a lot of wow, and the end of the Wesley is missing. (My recordings in the British Sound Archive are of Paul rehearsing for this release, and also some hymn accompaniments he recorded for a missionary to use in his church....) Paul

That is Magnificat news ! But, inside gen ? Can you reveal more ?

The Trompeta is being kept

I think your assumption is correct. The latest information I have found on the Church website (incidentally a very impressive one) indicated as recently as last month “In 2025 we will be installing a four-manual pipe organ, currently in use in St John’s College Chapel, Cambridge, and are amid a major fundraising campaign to pay for the organ’s renovation and installation.”

I'll accept the accolade with grateful thanks. (Sorry: I couldn't resist !) But, seriously, I seem to have missed spotting which builder will be doing the work on the old St John's instrument and then installing it in Kennington. Perhaps it is not in the public domain, as yet. In any case, it will probably have to head West or North, before journeying to Cobbett's Great Wen. I'm still most interested to discover whether the 1955 Trompeta Real will be retained in Cambridge - re Tippett's Magnificat.

Very droll.

Thanks, that makes a lot more sense. (I wish this forum had likes / reations, rather than having to put up a whole post just to say thank you!)

It is pretty much the same size as the previous instrument but laid out very differently - the Mander has all the manual action soundboards in the west case with the pedals in the east. The old organ was laid out across the two bays - all manual action soundboards being directly behind the cases with pedal chests behind, so the sound got into the chapel much better

I'm a bit confused by this! I was under the impression that what everyone didn't like about the old Mander was that it was too big, and essentially muffled itself in the cramped chamber. But this new proposal is four stops bigger!

As I said, this is something of a mystery as the up to date specification was on the H&H website where I read it a few weeks ago. For future readers who are interested, the link I provided to NPOR N00289 is reliable and instant. Just add the new Vox Humana 8’ to the Swell reeds to complete the picture. Everything else is correct and up to date. There are photographs, including the famous (or infamous?) 32’ Bombarde!

Wasn't quite as simple as that but, with slightly more 'fiddling', it worked, thanks. The functionality on that website isn't the best.

The M11 ?

Is the route by which the former St John's organ will end up in Kennington to remain a mystery then?

Nice to see a Larigot! They seem to be rather unpopular these days for some reason. After all, it can't be a space problem!

The spec` can be found on the H & H site; but it does involve a little bit of ferreting around to get at. The " A _ Z " page of organs on H & H`s site shows the page to be unavailable but if you get their help page up you just type " winchester " in and hey presto it comes up!

Well, this is something of a mystery as I saw it on H&H’s website, fully updated, but today that page is not available. The 1988 specification is here, the only tonal alteration being the addition of a Vox Humana 8’ on the Swell. All else unchanged, so now an organ of 80 speaking stops. https://npor.org.uk/survey/N00289 Perhaps I should add that the NPOR link is a little misleading in appearing to refer to Hele as a principal builder. That was never the case and only two of their 1905 ranks survived in the 1988 rebuild, the Swell Violin Diapason and the famous Pedal Bombarde unit.

Nope.

Am sure it will be on the builder/restorers web site?

Despite going back and forwards on the net, I have so far been unable to track down a specification for the Winchester organ's latest incarnation. Can anyone assist, please ?

A series of recitals to mark the restoration of Winchester Cathedral’s Father Willis/ H&H organ 1854-2024. The inaugural recital is by Olivier Latry, (Notre Dame, Paris) on Saturday 27th April at 6.30 pm. Subsequent recitals, all on Sundays at 3.00 pm: 19th May Claudia Grinnell 16th June Andrew Lumsden 7th July Sarah Baldock 15th September Joshua Stephens 6th October Katherine Dienes-Williams 17th November Ben Cunningham https://www.winchester-cathedral.org.uk/event/organ-festival/

Annoncement of the appointment of Emmas Gibbins as new DOM at Chelmsford Cathedral https://www.chelmsfordcathedral.org.uk/news/chelmsford-cathedral-appoints-new-director-of-music

Following the recent post about the passing of the Finnish organist & composer Kalevi Kiviniemi - https://mander-organs-forum.invisionzone.com/topic/5083-kalevi-kiviniemi-rip/ - here are a couple of videos featuring him. Firstly an arrangement, presumably by Kiviniemi, of "Zug zum Münster" (Elsa's Procession to the Cathedral) from Richard Wagner's opera "Lohengrin". This clip is played on the Grönlund organ (2007, III+P/ 55) of the Sibelius Hall, Lahti, Finland and I very much like the effect given by the stop changes at 1:34 and again at 1:54. The Xylaphone (specification: http://www.gronlunds-orgelbyggeri.se/instrument/sibelius-talo/) goes well with this piece too at 3:13 which makes me wonder how the chimes or tubular bells of the Royal Albert Hall organ would sound in lieu for that bit. In my imagination the tubular bells would perhaps be better. Next up is Kviniemi's "Toccata" on the main organ (one of three in the building) of Turku Cathedral (Veikko Virtanen Oy, 1979-1980; IV+P / 78). The organ has its own website which is at https://www.turkuorgan.fi/en/; the specification, under the "Organ" tab, shows that the swell and pedal sections both contain 7-rank Mixtures. [b]Note:[/b] The clip does not appear here in the usual way that the one above does: embedding / playbaack on other websites has been disabled at the YouTube end. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ki95-UbTeo Another one from Turku but this time a fantasia, by Kiviniemi (I presume) on the well-known tune "When Johnny". The shots of the ship hanging from the cieling of the cathedral seem quite appropriate given that "When Johnny" is a tune with maritime origins. A pity I never got to hear KK play live: may he rest in peace (or should that be "rest in piece"?) Dave

The international Finnish organist Kalevi Kiviniemi died last week after suffering a heart attack. Although he didn't play any concerts in recent years, his exuberate style and improvisation skills won him many admirers. He also had over 200 titles in his discography and was the first to record the complete organ music of Jean Sibelius. He was awarded the Finnish State Prize for music in 2009. Fraser Gartshore, a long time friend of his, dedicated last Friday's organ programme on YouTube to him. Definitely worth a watch for the anecdotes and old photos as well as the music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f687aa9X2jw My favourite YouTube clip of his is a spontaneous improvisation after an ambulance siren interrupted a recording session at St Ouen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gVVdj8hocA

The wife and I are going to see Anna Lapwood at Manchester Cathedral in a few weeks. She is an excellent example of young people who are going to resurrect interest in the organ in this country. Jonathan Scott is another very impressive organist who can really make the organ sound as if it's being played by TWO organists!

David Pipe - not Pipes!!! Yes, I just read that too! And I agree with what you say!! It's high time that the organ, and the organists, got out of their 'fusty' archaic selves! Good on David Pipe - and Anna Lapwood - and all of those fine young players working so hard to drag the instrument screaming into the 21st century.