DaveHarries
-
Posts
775 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by DaveHarries
-
-
Do give us the name of the artist, who built the organ and when it was recorded (if possible) on this CD so that I can be proved wrong.
Best wishes,
Nigel
Hi Nigel,
The organ is by Ennio Bonifazi and was built in 1630. The CD was released in 1999 and is played by Czech organist Jiri Lecian who, from what I can read of the Italian on the inside front cover, was at one time a pupil of Fernando Germani at the "Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia di Roma".
The other thing with those photos I psoted earlier is that they don't give away the somewhat nice decoration on the case.
I think that the one track that gives this organ at its best is ths first track (which is CM Widor's "Marcia Pontificalis" from his "Sinfonia no. 1 in D minor, Op. 13").
If you want I will digitise that track and send you a link by PM for your benefit only: I somehow think that if I made that track open to all then I might find myself in breach of the forum rules. But it is great to listen to.
Dave
-
Hi all,
I have no doubt that the Italians try and look after the organs in their churches - especially the much older ones - the best they can. So on a recent visit to Rome I looked into the Basilica of S. Maria sopra Minerva. The camera shots didn't come out 100% perfect, especially the shot of the right-hand case when I tried to photo the organ. Anyway, here was the result:
Basilica di S. Maria sopra Minerva, Rome
Organ by Ennio Bonifazi, 1630, commissioned by Cardinal S. Borghese
Photo above: Left-hand case, in very good condition.
Photo below: Right-hand case, in bad good condition.
Whilst the left-hand case is in good condition, the right-hand case (bottom photo) is not:
- there are two pipes missing from the left-hand part of the case
- the large pipe in the centre of the middle part of the case is bent
- there are also two pipes missing from the right-hand part of the case
In fact, from what I could see, the right-hand case appeared to be devoid of any interior pipework at all but I might be wrong.
Anyway, I purchased a CD of the organ from this church (includes music by Widor, Liszt, Capocci, Bellini and Franck. Cost: 13.00 Euros) and the organ sounds fantastic. However, I have to say that it is a pity that the right-hand case in the bottom photo is in such bad condition and I hope they will restore it sometime in the future although I am not aware of any plans to do so.
I shouldn't think there are too many (if any) more organs in Rome - or in Italy - as a whole that are in a similar condition to that right-hand case at S. Maria. I could be wrong there, but I hope I am not. If you get the chance to visit the church - which is not far from the Pantheon, about 5 minutes walk I think - then do so. The church is splendid and the CD comes recommended.
But I would have thought that the right-hand case at S. Maria would have been slightly better maintained and in better condition.
Regards,
Dave
-
Listening on analogue FM stereo, I didn't notice any clattering by the organ
I was listening on my hi-fi's DAB radio at home (only due to a late lunch otherwise I would have been there without fail) and I didn't notice any either.
Thought the music was generally good and the anthem was interesting. I had never heard of Philip Wilby (the composer of the anthem "The Earth is the Lord's) but I think he is the husband of the precentor. Sounded good to me.
Does this mean that the Vierne "Scherzo" from the 6th Symphony would sound like "River Dance?"How very interesting!
RiverDance are comming to Bristol in June: my Mother and I already have our tickets (£33.50 each) so if I hear the Scherzo from Vierne's 6th before I go to the performance of RD then I will have a chance for comparison! LOL.
Dave
-
A nice picture of the transept case.
Anyone know if this case will survive the replacement of the older organ? I remember seeing this transept case when I went to Worcester some years ago and I thought it looked great in the cathedral. I think it should be kept as a monument.
Dave
-
The box was enormously strong and took a whole week to demolish. There was some suggestion that it had been made by the same team who built bunkers along the North French coast in the war...
Wow! Some Swell box!!
Dave
-
Hi all,
Anyone here ever come across a strange gadget on an organ? Perhaps a stop that does something unexpected?
I once did some practice on a Saturday afternoon on the organ of St. Paul, Newcastle-under-Lyme and pulled a stop called the "Tibia Liquida". It isn't a playable stop though: it opens a cocktail cabinet above the stop jamb. Would love to know whose idea that was.
Anyone came across something similar???!
Dave
-
The consultant at Brussels Cathedral maintains that the best place is half way down the nave on the north side, and that a west end position is traditional on the continent but a poor place to put it. If you go to Brussels you'll see his point, possible to hear the instrument wherever you are.
Presumably Cologne took that into account when they had their newer organ put up in the nave as well?
Mind you, perhaps they can't decide at Cologne: since that newer organ went up the 1949 organ on the nave crossing has been rebuilt and enlarged so who knows....
Dave
-
Before the Mander rebuild, I can recall Martin Schellenberg at Bristol Cathedral accompanying the "Special Choir" in a nave concert and having to play the pedals a beat ahead to compensate for action + acoustic delay!
Never knew it used to be as bad as that.
Was at bristol Cathedral on Sunday 4th Feb for the morning Eucharist and the organ - which is located above one side of the choir in a divided case - sounded as good as ever despite the fact that I wasn't sitting that far from the back.
Dave
-
I remember once visiting the church at Belstone, Devon and finding a cat inside the building. Lovely cat but a little shy.
Dave
-
The JSB Dorian Toccata is on the menu at the moment together with Walton's Crown Imperial.
Good choice about the Walton but I don't think I've ever heard that Dorian Toccata.
If he is playing Walton's Crown Imperial then ensure that the opening chords are two semiquavers, as in the orchestral version and not in an arrangement that makes those notes a quaver. The same edition (Murrill) continues the error throughout the piece.Well said, Barry. Also if he is playing the Grand Organ then dare I suggest using either the Dome Tubas or the West Trumpets? I guess I would prefer the Tubas though if the ones in Bristol Cathedral are anything to go by: really is a cracking sound.
Cheers,
Dave
-
Hi all,
According to the college website, an appeal for funds to replace the 1960 Rushworth & Dreaper organ in the Princess Hall at Cheltenham Ladies College raised £304,732.39 from 302 donors and a new organ by Kenneth Tickell (3 manuals, 33 stops, 2342 pipes and mechanical action) has now been installed.
The opening recital is Saturday 10th March by Dame Gillian Wier (according to an announcement in "The Times" on 15th January).
A variety of information on - and some good pictures of - what looks like a very nice instrument can be found on the college website at http://www.clcguild.org/neworgan.html
Dave
-
As a result of your query I've just been looking up the old (Fr Smith, Gray & Davison, Willis & H&H) and new (Reiger) specifications on NPOR, regular readers will not find it difficult to guess which I prefer.
As I recall this was a sorry tale. A contract for the restoration of the old organ was awarded, I believe, to an overseas firm who dismantled the organ, removed the pipework to their workshop, and then promptly went bust. The legal position was such that the pipework was effectively lost to the colledge/cathedral with the result that they had no option but to commission a new organ.
I must stress that this is my personal recollection of events as came to me through the grapevine. I'm sure someone with closer or more accurate information will correct any glaring errors.
What a shame. So who was the firm originally asked to do the 1979 work and how much (if any) of the pipework was by Smith, etc before 1979?
Dave
-
Hi all,
After hearing the archive edition of Radio 3's Choral Evensong which was a 1974 broadcast from Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford I must say that the organ sounded in fine voice as did the choir.
What, then, was the reason for the work undertaken by Reiger in 1979?
Also must say that organ & choir sounded in fine voice after the end of the 1974 broadcast when Radio 3 played Forbes' arrangement of the Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis - which was comissioned for Christ Church, Oxford - followed by "Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day" as arranged by John Gardner who did my favourite version of that song.
Dave
-
Strangely, this also happened during Mass at a RC church in Norwood, South London a few years back - the late 1990's I think. A number of people were gravely injured by a schizophrenic (who refused to take his medication) wielding a Japanese Katana (commonly known as a samurai sword), an utterly lethal implement. The assailant was disarmed by an off-duty police officer in the congregation, who removed a large organ pipe from the organ and hit him with it as hard as he could.
Found this on the web - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/541888.stm
Good move. Guess it must have been a wooden pipe then as if it was metal you would have had a nice dent in it.
I've been offered, ahem, "sexual favours" for money on several occasions when leaving the church. My usual response is that my organ is blown electrically.Heeheeheehee. Great reply. What was the answer to your comment?
Dave
-
Can anyone suggest where might be the best place to go for a decent 5.5" colour monitor and a couple of zoom colour cameras?
Thanks
Bristol Cathedral has a CCTV camera overlooking the choir from the organ cosole. The monitor is above the stops on the left-hand side of the console.
Dave
-
Seeing as the house where I live is not very big I would like a box organ with a stoplist somewhere along the lines of:
Manual I (Fixed):
Flute 8'
Chimney Flute 4'
Octave 2'
Tierce 1 3/5'
Quint 1 1/3
Manual II: (Detachable):
Regal 8'
Pedal:
Principal 8' (outside of main case)
Manual II -> Pedal (if Manual II is attached)
Stops divided bass / treble at Middle C
Transposible pitches (not sure what I would choose here)
Would like the Tierce in as I find that an 8' + 4' + 2' + 1 3/5' combination is good for playing Bach (well, it works on by local church organ so it might work here)
Dave
-
Here are two I can't quite decide between:
http://npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch...ec_index=D06450
http://npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch...ec_index=K00050
Sadly many of this gentleman's instruments are no longer present to be marvelled at....
Who? Robin Wynn?
He did the organ at Corston, near Bath, back in 1989. I took a look at it once and, upon finding the way up to the organ loft to be behind a curtain, went up. Didn't have a play but it looked a nice instrument.
If you aren't referring to Wynn then who were you referring to?
Dave
-
Actually, David, you're giving the whole thing away pretty proudly with your little blue by-line at the bottom of each one of your posts. We know you prefer The Cathedral! This leaves out, of course, Clifton Cathedral and a number of other instruments (all fine in their own ways) how about the Willis at St.Monica's? At least you didn't put forward Clifton College Chapel, which I always found a pretty blunt instrument....mind you, I bet it works well with a hearty congregation.
Yes, perhaps that by-line is a bit of a giveaway.
I had lessons both on Clifton College Chapel (where by permission I had a nice two mornings with the H&H crew who did it up in 1994) and on CLifton RC Cathedral's organ as well. The organs I have used for lessons in Bristol (plus the tutors as far as I can remember):
- Clifton College Pre. Hall (Robert Fielding, who branded this organ "a squeezebox")
- Clifton College Chapel (Robert Fielding again, much nicer instrument than the one in the Pre. Hall)
- St. Mary's, Stoke Bishop, Bristol (only twice, whilst Clifton College was in recess)
- Clifton Cathedral (first Richard Jeffery-Gray, then Ian Ball)
- Great Hall, University of Bristol (nice organ behind that grille. Three manuals.)
Sometime ago, someone within the University of Bristol expressed a desire to replace the pipe organ in that hall with an electronic instrument which, IMO, would have been a travesty. My Dad managed to persuade the university that an electronic organ would be a very bad idea.
I also remember that after the restoration of Clifton College Chapel's H&H organ, my number on the General piston system was number 13.
Dave
-
Having followed the http://www.tickell-organs.co.uk/specInfo/Worcesterspec.htm link I notice the idea of putting the organ in the triforium. That is an idea which reminds me of the fantastically loud organ in Cologne Cathedral, Germany (Klais 1998).
Accoustically the triforium could be a very good position for it: I remember seeing the 1998 Klais ini Cologne Cathedral for the first time but when I was standing right below it I had no idea that someone was about to strike up (ie. start playing). The first note I heard was so loud I almost jumped out of my skin although once I had calmed down a bit I was quite awe-struck by the volume.
As a side to this, I gather that Cologne Cathedral have taken a leaf from the book of St. Paul's Cathedral, London and have had two Tuba stops fitted above Cologne's west door. They are named as the "Tuba Episcopalis" (Bischöfliche Tuba / Bishop's Tuba) and "Tuba Capitularis" (Tuba des Domkapitels / Chapter Tuba). Can't wait until I hear those.
Anyway, sorry for going off-topic: normal service - ie. on-topic chatter - resumed henceforth, I hope.
Dave
-
Hi all,
Bristol Cathedral vs St. Mary Redcliffe? In your opinion, which sounds better when you hear it played?
Historywise, according to NPOR:
Cathdedral:
1515: Abbott Newland was "buried in the South side of our Lady Chapell (....) by the dore going into the loft going to the organs"
1629: Dallam
1685: Renatus Harris
1786: Brice and / or Richard Seede
1821: John Smith
1861: WG Vowles
1905: JW Walker
1970: JW Walker
1989/90: NP Mander
2005: Unknown (but I understand this to be NP Mander. Will double-check)
Redcliffe:
1726: Harris & Byfield
1867: WG Vowles
1912, 1932, 1947, 1974, 1990: all Harrison & Harrison
I know which one my favourite in Bristol is out of those two. But for those who have heard one or both of those instruments then which did you prefer?
Dave
-
Would be all right for the Buxteheude as well as the Karg Elert then by the sound of it.
Dave
-
Ah! You must await my Christmas gift to you all, when I retell the story of "The ox and ass."
Can't wait!
Dave
-
It might also be good to play something quintessentially English. Given that most British organ music is, let's face it, not that good, a transcription might be in order. Walton's 'Crown Imperial'.....
I would use the "Crown Imperial" as well as it is one of my favourite pieces. But I would also recommend Buxteheude's "Prelude & Fuge in A minor" which I have an MP3 of K.B Kropf playing on the Schnitger organ at Neuenfelde, Hamburg. Very nice piece and comes with my recommendation.
Also, how big is the organ? If we are talking a large (IV manual) one then you could try Karg Elert's prelude on "Nan Danket Alle Gott" as a finale.
Dave
-
Bristol Cathedral's service of Choral Evenson is alway 3:30pm on a Sunday.
Dave
Rome Organ
in The Organ
Posted
Hi Nige,
The information that I have on the organ in Santa Maria sopra Minerva is sourced from one of the information panels iin the church that was sited below the right-hand case: it merely mentioned Ennio Bonifazi's 1630 organ and nothing else so perhaps it was a rebuild but with some older work?
I will digitise that track later.
Dave