bwv572

I'm still inordinately fond of the A&M Revised. *sigh*

I've noticed that. I must confess that, if I were to buy a digital organ - either for home or church - I'd be inclined to buy from a firm based in this country. Not for any zenophobic reasons but purely so I could see the whites of their eyes when it comes to repairs or servicing.

This has been a very interesting thread, all in all. I've noted some very clear themes: We all appear to agree that the pipe organ is the ideal instrument; that a fine pipe installation is practically without compare and many (most) feel that, if a church has a good and/or historic instrument (alas, not in Upton!) it should do absolutely all it can to maintain (and restore) it: we have an obligation to the future. Some believe that any pipe organ is better than any digital organ. Others feel that there are times when a digital organ is the better and more pragmatic answer and that a well-executed digital installation can be a successful one. I'm more persuaded by this latter argument than I have been in the past. I've also picked up that: if you wouldn't install a 4-manual pipe organ of 60 stops in your church, you shouldn't install a digital organ of that size; a digital organ might be cheaper than a pipe organ but a good one is not cheap and you have to look at value over the years. You can't skimp!; almost as important as a digital organ itself, is the sound system that comes with it: although speakers are still likely to be the weakest link in comparing a digital organ to a pipe organ, a properly-designed and installed sound system will have a significant impact on the perception of a digital organ. Finally, the important reminder to myself: unless it's in my home, the organ is not there for my benefit: it's there for the church. And so am I.

I popped into the Cathedral yesterday morning and managed to hear it briefly. The foundations sound really fine and penetrate well into the Nave.

I can't think of any particular recordings that 'got up my nose' but I felt huge frustration at a wonderful Alan Wicks / St Paul's recording of La Nativite which was an appalling pressing and spoiled the whole thing. I was also generally disappointed by those old Vista recordings which always seemed to me to be recorded so closely that the ambience of the building was lost. Canterbury was a case in point, especially when compared with, say, Culverhouse's GCOS recording in the same place.

I'm guessing that one of the contributing factors is the set up. The temporary nature of the installation at Worcester probably compares badly with your system at Cheltenham. But you're right: there's quite a 'bloopy' character to the Rogers tutti. I'll have to try a Wyvern!

It's interesting how your perceptions are affected. I've never really played a 'state of the art' digital as in Cheltenham but I started to look enviously at the Rogers/Collins thingy in Worcester Cathedral, wondering how it would sound in Upton. Trouble is, this morning I popped into the cathedral again and heard, for the first time, the foundations on the new organ. I was overwhelmed by the difference.

Possibly. Perhaps I was thinking relatively against the rest of it. It's certainly an unrewarding thing to play and I can never get comfortable at the console.

The Upton organ, however good or bad it may be (and it's bad!), is in the worst place possible. The Swell strings are nice though.

First Post! GCOS did it for me as well: particularly Cooke at Hereford and Dearnley at St Paul's (though I have always disliked the Ives Variations). Top of them all for me was Allan Wicks at Canterbury. His performance of the Ridout Seven Last Words turned me on to modern organ music - so much so that I learned to play it myself. Many years ago (too many!) I went to the Organists' Congress in St Andrews and chatted to Dr Wicks about that recording. He joked that he had a 'Bach arr. Stravinski' thing in his head when he performed it. He also confessed that he'd never planned to take the final movement of the Mendelssohn F Minor Sonata at that breakneck pace that he did, but once started, he pressed on and, luckily, Brian Culverhouse caught it in one. I'm glad he did: I don't recall hearing a better performance. I, too, have the Wicks 'La Nativite' at St Paul's on the Saga record and it's a truly awful pressing, almost obscuring a monumental performance. Maybe if I beg Amphion enough they'll do a CD.... Oh, the nostalgia.