Colin Richell
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Posts posted by Colin Richell
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It's hideously late, (or early), but the kitten decided to wake me up for a play fight and some food. It is now fed and going back to sleep.
However,getting back to the topic heading, I wonder how many people listened to Nigel Ogden last night?
What a treat!
Not only did we hear the astonishing Hectror Olivera playing a very large theatre-organ (42 ranks), we also heard Roger Fisher playing film music from Hull City Hall,and making full use of the big trumpet. All very dramatic.
John Giacci was good with music from a Fred Astaire film, but for me, (and presumably most others who listened), it was American virtuoso Jelani Eddington who once again stole the show, with an absolutely scintillating dual transcription of one of the Rachmaninov Piano Concertos,in which he played the orchestral part on the organ and also the solo piano part; presumably added later.
Richard Hills, as ever, contributed a very sensitive and musical transcription, playing another big American instrument rather well.
Until now, I have always regarded the skill of Quentin Maclean, back in the 1930's, as being the ultimate in big orchestral/piano transcription with his Grieg A-minor Piano Concerto, but I think he has now been surpassed by Jelani Eddington. Some of the orchestral transcribing sounded very complex and really rather faithful to the original score.....no mean feat.
For anyone who enjoys transcription playing on the proper instrument designed to do it, this is a programme to hear again and again for as long as it is available on Radio 2's listen again facility.
Well done Nigel Ogden and the Beeb.
MM
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As I have said before I have never seen the programme, but my Sunday papers were full of it ! very annoying when you are not interested.
I won't mention the name, but I understand that the said lady did not do very well. I still question that if she has been a professional musician for over 20 years, why she would suddenly need to air her talents on a talent show presumably intended for recently discovered people who wish to become involved in show business ?
Apparently the programme attracted 18 million viewers, no wonder no-one goes out anymore on a Saturday night, couch potatoes comes to mind is that right ? The reason that the music halls and many cinemas and theatres went out of business.?
Promise not to mention the subject again.
Colin Richell.
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also lots of love !
Colin Richell
sorry just realised this has already been posted asume can be deleted.
Colin Richell
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LOL stands for Laughing Out Loud, and its extended form ROTFLMAO stands for Rolling On The Floor Laughing My A** Off. But many "newbies" think LOL stands for Lots Of Love as in "Your grandma's just died LOL".
also lots of love !
Colin Richell
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Thank you MM for your sensible and reasoned response .
Eventually I want to install an organ in the Alexandra Palace Theatre when restoration is complete.
It would be prohibitive to even consider a pipe organ, so the only alternative is an electronic model suitable for a very large theatre, with a very high ceiling and great acoustics.
At venues without an organ one has to be hired in costing something like £600.
Presumably some of the new models are so small and light they can be easily transported to venues, unlike for example the Allen Organ which Carlo uses.
The Allen organ is very close to a pipe organ, but you can tell the difference, and in my opinion will never be as good.
Its a bit like cheating, recording a pipe organ and then relaying the sound through speakers, but it certainly seems to have caught on, especially for homes where there is not space for even a small pipe organ.
Colin Richell.
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I am a Reginald Dixon fan, as also of Carlo Curley, and I recall that Carrick agrees with me, and MM disagrees, and I feel that is fine. People may not like each other, but we should respect that having differing views makes the world go round. I did query earlier on in the thread, why the title of "The Organist Entertains" had suddenly become heated discussion on the merits of RD and CC.
I find it interesting to learn peoples views and opinions especially if I respect them, but there is no need to be unpleasant to each other surely ?
Colin Richell
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Hear hear! Having been an active member of this forum for quite a few years now I have rarely seen anything approaching the implied condemnation of the vast majority of its participants by applying the word "disgrace". Had I been a moderator the remarks from Carrick would have attracted my censure long before now. I feel that it may be time for the moderating team to take some action.
Peter
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Perhaps it is becoming EXCEEDINGLY boring but this kind of response is hardly helpful so why say it at all ?
It is also time to cease the continuing criticism of Reginald Dixon. He has his fans and why not , so let him rest in peace?
Colin Richell.
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I know not whether I speak for others too, but this is now exceeding boring.
As for the assertion that this forum is a disgrace: it was fine, before: draw whatever conclusion you may from that.
On another personal note - I think that it is unfair to expect anyone who is seriously interested in the future of the pipe organ to have any views whatever on the playing of stuff on an electronic keyboard on a populist 'talent show' being able to bring a wider public interest to pipe organs and the music written for them. If these are the ways in which you believe a wider audience for the pipe organ can, will or may be brought about, consider this: the dilution of a medium rarely strengthens it.
DW
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Jean Martyn is playing organ (and she is most certainly entertaining on tv) .She is playing a yamaha EL900 organ. If it was hammond, or classical she was playing she wouldnt have got through, people wouldnt have stood for it . Jean has been touring the UK, Europe and the US for 30 years playing piano, and organ,. She plays in classical, light, theatre, boogie woogie, rock n roll, jazz and pop styles. She has played for celebrities several times, including royalty, and has appeared on the bbc several times too.
"Personally I would have thought we had more than enough organists in this country already !" whats that suppose to mean?
As I said previously I know nothing about the programme, but isn't the idea of the programme to give amateurs the opportunity to show off their talents ?
It is quite obvious that Jean Martin is, and has been, a professional musician for many years so why is she taking part in a talent show ?
Is her appearance going to make her a better musician ?
I just don't understand.
When the BBC ran talent shows professionals were strictly excluded, and rightly so.
Colin Richell
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I am not sure how a thread titled "The Organist Entertains" is discussing some programme called "Britains Got Talent" which I have never seen but mention is made of a Jean Martin who presumably plays an organ (not Hammond I hope) but does she play classical or light classical ?
Personally I would have thought we had more than enough organists in this country already !
The mention of a female organist brought back memories of a lady called Cherry Rayner who played reguarly on TV. Am I correct ?
Colin Richell.
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It's quite fun if you throw vegetables and eggs at the screen, but the last time I did that it cost a fortune in new carpets and a TV.....there was a whole family meal on the deck.
I watched it while writing on the discussion board, which might explain something.......
However, in a rare moment of concorde, I have to agree with our friend Carrick, because Jean Martyn is the most bubbly, smiley and energetic person I think I've ever met.....just delightful....and no mean performer in her chosen genre.
I doubt that her appearance on BGT will lead to a stampede of young people wanting to learn the organ, but at least it got an airing on national TV. She probably hasn't got much a hope of appearing at the Royal Variety Performance, but I'm fairly sure that the 12 year-old boy who sang, will. Not many kids have such stage presence at that age, but he just wowed the audience.
Of course, it's interesting to speculate the reasons why almost no classical musicians appear on the show. I think it would be very different in China....you know....that communist state where all men are equal.....not!
MM
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Exactly, expecting us poor mortals to believe that an entire audience left at the interval. Probably a fire alert or a power failure, best to get the facts right before informing the world that you are not a Carlo Curley fan.
I booked Carlo for an AP theatre concert and he was great, the audience of over 100 people wanted more, but he was not well at the time, but he did not let me down.
I arranged for him to be interviewed on BBC RADIO ESSEX, and he gave the theatre some good publicity.
My only confession is that Carlo played the Allen Organ, because unfortunately the Father Willis Organ was removed from the theatre in 1890, its present whereabouts unknown.
So, carry on Carlo.
Colin Richell.
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Partial fact to be correct, because you deliberately made an attention seeking statement, but then failed to qualify it with the evidence as to when and where, and whether it was an isolated incident.
Was the organ in tune?
Was it a pipe-organ?
Was it a bad night outside?
Were the buses on strike?
Had anyone thrown stink-bombs into the building?
Partial evidence is no evidence at all in my book.
I could equally state that 1,500 people will normally sit enthralled by Carlo Curley's virtuosic mastery of the instrument, and having been to quite a few, I could mention the venues and possibly the dates also.
MM
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Carlo Curley...theres a great organist...................................so great that people just get up and walk out!
Well that is your opinion and you are entitled to it.
Colin Richell
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I just cannot believe that Reginald Dixon would have suvived so long had he been guilty of the things suggested by MM.
However I do agree with the comment regarding the increasing age of audiences, and I recall that in my AP days many years ago, many of the concert goers were in wheel chairs, or walked with sticks or zimmer frames. There were so many infirm people you did worry how long they would be attending, especially as AP was not easily accessible.
I admired their loyalty for travelling long distances in all kinds of weather, and if we did happen to see a young person we would grab him and attempt to persuade him to take a permanent interest in the Willis organ.
Perhaps Reginald Dixon attracted the younger element at his popular concerts.
Colin Richell.
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How insulting and snobbish to suggest that Reginald Dixon was sloppy, largely devoid of artistic ability and arranging skills, well, sorry I enjoyed his playing and style and so did the majority of the population, sttending his concerts in their thousands. I have most of his recordings and he made the Wurlitzer sound different.
He is not even here to defend himself against such outrageous accusations.
Even now when you mention Blackpool Tower the name of Reginald Dixon will come up after all these years after his death.
He knew what people wanted and that is why he will still be remembered in a hundred years from now.
If you wish to attend a concert where the artist is all the things that Reginald was not, you will be lucky to attract 100 people rather than thousands.
As they say one man's meat is another man's poison.
Colin Richell.
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I bow to your superior knowledge and I am delighted that Manders have been able to supply the USA !
Colin Richell.
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Absolutely right, and to that I would add Flentrop and Rieger-Kloss among others.
What strikes me about American organists and academia especially, is a willingness to embrace ALL the historic styles, tuning tempraments and national styles; even if that means imprting them from the best builders in Europe.
That was happening, of course, in the 1950's,and gathered pace as time went on.
Then the best American builders learned from these instruments and started to adopt the techniques,using the still fine materials available in America. The end result has been a spectacular increase in quality, backed by absolutely fantastic, down to the last detail craftsmanship; some builders not just incorporating historical precedents, but actually creating near perfect copies of great European organ-building styles.
This is why America now leads the world, because even in hard times, academia and churchgoing still mean something, and there is money available.
As a musical country, the Americans have absorbed all that is best in scholarship, and far from being insular or nationilistic, the academically-minded have truly mastered both the art and the craft.
MM
PS: Knowing how greatly the Americans appreciate the English choral tradition, (sometimes with a hint of snobbery involved), I'm genuinely surprised and perhaps a little disappointed that no Willis organs have been built there to date. Come on David, get the export market moving! They need the Willis sound.
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although you mention the Mander Organ in New York, to be honest how many churches, universities, schools etc in the USA would approach the UK for a new organ to be built, because they probably have a sense of loyalty to their own organ builders, which we don't have.
Colin Richell.
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Gross profit or net profit?
If it's net, then that's a fairly respectable return.
However, alll that apart, I am personally delighted to see a few American imports, because certain American builders now set the standard across the world, whereas it used to be Marcussen, Flentrop and Frobenius, among others.
Dobson have built some splendid instruments, and I did get information straight from the horse's mouth, that they tend to follow the example of T C Lewis in appropriate circumstances, which must only be a good thing. Indeed, the modern American instrument, when not neo-baroque, has a natural affinity with that Anglo-German style, which was taken to America by G Donald-Harrison.
With at least one modern instrument of outstanding quality in New York, built by our kind hosts, (St Ignatious Loyola), I think it is rather good that some of America's best are being employed over here.
This should be a fine organ.
MM
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@Colin Richell:
I'm not sure where you read that.
As I explained in my previous posting, profit margins are normally extremely slender in professional organ building, normally about 10%.
This is based on conversations with directors of organ building firms and consultants who have held senior positions of organ building firms.
There is little money to be made in tuning and restoration either - an organ builder will normally cover costs, with a very small proportion of profit - certainly not enough to subsidise building new organs.
I hope this clarifies and corrects your understanding.
Colin Harvey
Colin all I would say in reply is that you suggested that there was no money in organ building and perhaps a slender 10% but only if things went well, but thank you for responding.
Many years ago I spoke to an employee of an organ building firm who suggested that they made their profits from tuning and not much else !
Colin Richell.
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I was rather surprised to read that there was no money in organ building so presumably there IS money to be made in tuning and restoration.
Does this relate to ALL organ builders in the UK, and must we assume that, to remain in business UK organ building will cease.?
Surely the cost of the new instrument should reflect a reasonable amount of profit to at least cover the guarantee period for defects etc.
Does John Mander have any comments on this ?
Colin Richell.
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I very much agree with the points and sentiments of Hecklephone's excellent post above. Incidentally, it is worth noting that Paul Fritt's ex-partner, Ralph Richards, is building a new organ for St Georges, Hannover Square. This firm has many of the same standards and qualities of Paul Fritt's work.
To pick up on a point made by Colin Richell (and in passing by Hecklephone):
The days of organ builders doing loss leader projects to get business in new markets have long gone and will probably remain a myth of the Victorian glory days. There simply isn't the potential market these days to make such ventures viable business propositions. There's virtually no money to be made in organ building and none of the firms can afford to make a loss on work they do as business concerns. The profit margins are very slender - generally 10% if things go well. It's a competitive market, especially in the UK.
Merton College, as a major landowner in Oxford, is one of most established and richest colleges in the university. They are more likely to prioritise quality, musical effect and appropriateness of the scheme to their chapel above cost. They are really far too discerning a client to feel the need to make a statement with a controversial organ in their chapel either - they really have no need to do such a thing.
Dobsons have done a lot of well-regarded work in the States but they are not a particularly large firm, even by UK standards - I think they're about the size or a bit smaller than Manders. Their smaller, well disciplined organs (such has the scheme proposed for Merton) have been very favourably received in the States and they have now completed a number of very high profile projects that must have broadened their experience and developed their confidence even further. I think this proposed new organ will broaden the outlook and landscape of the UK organ market and I hope it will have a very positive impact.
The Organist Entertains
in The Organ
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I missed the programme last night but I am listening to BBC radio I player whilst reading this message and I agree that it was a very entertaining programme. The Hull City organ sounded absoulutely great.
This thread has gone very quiet recently !!
Colin Richell.