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Barry Oakley

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Everything posted by Barry Oakley

  1. Apologies if the semantics are not to your liking.
  2. Congratulations to Nicholson's, Malvern, who have been awarded the contract to rebuild the Gloucester Cathedral "Grand Organ."
  3. I am almost ashamed to say that it's now June and it's the first time I've seen and heard this posting. Belatedly and with apologies, thank you Peter for your kind thoughts. I trust you had a happy Christmas.
  4. Such a sad piece of news and sad that such an outstanding musician should be smitten with dementia. I particularly remember his outstanding recital on the organ of Hull City Hall; it was so long ago I cannot remember the year. Shortly afterwards he made an LP recording of the organ. Indeed, RIP Simon.
  5. I cannot let this topic pass by without reference to the still silent, magnificent 104-stop, 4-manual Forster & Andrews/John Compton organ in Hull Minster. It's awaiting the generosity of funds from charitable trusts that are still to become evident! Hull is a city without a cathedral but the Minster fulfils that function with its grandeur. It's just as important to the city as the cathedrals in Liverpool, Norwich, Bristol, York, Canterbury, Gloucester etc., etc., Please don't forget the city of Kingston upon Hull, to give it its proper title.
  6. Well said Peter and Colin! I say so with a dilemma, knowing that the large but now silent and glorious organ where I was once a chorister is in need of at least a £million to get it operating again. In 1938 it was rebuilt and enlarged for a figure of around £6K.
  7. I seem to detect more organ music now being played on Radio 3's weekdays Essential Classics.
  8. It must have been in the late 1980’s, around the time Sheffield Cathedral’s Mander pipe organ was decommissioned, and when the Copeman Hart electronic (since replaced by a Phoenix digital organ), was being installed. I visited the cathedral at the time Ernie Hart was sitting on the organ bench with a laptop computer and appeared to doing some regulating. I stood not far from the console and listened for quite some time. Whereupon I was surprised and aghast when in so many words EH told me to Pee-off. I’m not sure if it was the result of a hangover or he had complete disregard for public relations.
  9. As I am, as well as a great many others, it's sad to learn of the death of Dr Francis Jackson at the age of 104. I shall never forget the privilege of turning the music for him when he gave a recital on what is now the Hull Minster organ during the 1950's. No doubt York Minster will honour him with an unforgettable occasion.
  10. To the extent of being labelled a bore, the Forster & Andrews/John Compton organ in Hull Minster, now unplayable, lasted in excess of 80 years since the Compton rebuild of 1938. Hull has similarities with Coventry, both holding the title of UK City of Culture. Yet both are cities not noted for affluence. I argue in the case of Hull that it has become a neglected, forgotten city. Like Coventry, Hull’s cathedral-proportioned Minster also desperately needs circa £1 million to restore its fine four-manual organ of 104 speaking stops and almost 5,000 pipes. To all those controlling the purse strings of grant-making bodies, DON’T FORGET HULL MINSTER!!!!
  11. When Compton rebuilt and enlarged the original Forster & Andrews organ in Hull City Hall (1951), the former tubular pneumatic console was scrapped and a new Compton detached console built. In turn, when the organ was in the care of Rushworth & Dreaper, the detached console was adapted and made a fixture that now sits almost directly under the organ case. The former Compton console could be sited near to the front of the stage for recitals and so give better contact between recitalist and audience.
  12. Compton certainly provided them on his larger instruments - Hull Minster.
  13. "Twang and Bang" is simply drum kit and over-amplified electric guitars. Good to hear, Stephen, that your Mass setting does not use the above.
  14. Over a decade ago I was in Prague during the Christmas period. There was an organ recital I attended in one of the city's churches and it was packed with people. Yet the place was icy cold, breath was visible and the recitalist played in his overcoat and bobble hat. He was warmly applauded after every piece. Is there much "twang and bang" used in French churches?
  15. My late friend and former City Organist at Hull, Peter Goodman, always said he would rather play a good digital organ than a poor pipe organ. And that was before the arrival of Hauptwerk and the Walker Technology digital organ that David Briggs and Ray Nagem have been playing at the Cathedral of St John the Divine, New York whilst the Aeolian Skinner pipe organ there is being restored.
  16. Of course, Ian Tracey has had a long relationship with Makin and could well be on some form of retainer with them. What better place than the cavernous environment of Liverpool Cathedral to hear an organ, pipeless or not. I wonder if the cathedral is deriving any income from the presence of so many toasters?
  17. I cannot resist also mentioning the 32ft Sub-Bass, a polyphone, in the presently sadly silent Forster & Andrews/John Compton organ of Hull Minster.
  18. For what it's worth, my view of Rudston is that too much has been crammed into the chamber (case). The result of whims?
  19. I’m not sure which of the BBC Compton organs it was, but my late friend Peter Goodman, former City Organist at Hull, was, as a boy, the youngest organist ever to have played one of them when he featured on Children’s’ Hour along with the legendary Uncle Mac.
  20. Time flies so fast these days and I think it’s been silent for around three years, perhaps more. Although some running repairs were done to keep it playable – slider solenoids fitted, some bellows repaired, the Solo box engine re-leathered, the transmission system became highly unreliable and the inevitable resulted. I was horrified to learn that both cases were not sheeted during the laying of a complete new floor, adding further to the 80-plus years of accumulated dirt. And during this process I understand a major transmission cable was damaged. Internally it’s not a pretty sight. Meanwhile, a 3-manual Viscount toaster, previously used during the rebuild of Selby Abbey’s organ is acting as a substitute.
  21. And I don’t want the organ world and trust fund managers to forget the magnificent Forster & Andrews/John Compton organ in cathedral-sized Hull Minster, reputed to be the UK’s largest parish church organ that has lain silent for far too long. It’s known what the cost will be from quotations received, but Hull, unlike many cathedral cities, is not a place where money is in abundance.
  22. Why am I unable to see this forum page in its normal format. Are others experiencing the same.
  23. To what destinations does this monstrosity fly?
  24. It's one of my favourite recordings, too. Andrew Lucas is a fine organist. Many decades ago I had an LP of this work played by a former organist at Beverley Minster, David Ingate. It sounded equally spectacular.
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