OmegaConsort
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Posts posted by OmegaConsort
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On 24/03/2022 at 10:53, Martin Cooke said:
It looks great! Who has done the woodwork?
P&S apparently
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Just seen 30+ photos on Facebook of the Wimborne rebuild.......mainly of the new casework going in, but also a couple featuring the new 32' sub bourdon.
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Not Guildford, but speaking of acclaimed R&D instruments, the 4 manual in St Andrews Plymouth looks very fine on paper - I have never heard it in the flesh, but have been in the building. Two sections, North and South in a very wide building with a handsome detatched console
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We start back this weekend having had November off. Rehearsals with the full choir take place in the nave. The services are sung by 10 trebles and 6 men on a rota basis - 1 week on, 2 weeks off. 9 Lessons this year is ticket only and we sing it twice (5pm and 7pm) with two smaller choirs. It takes a lot of organising but is worth it. We sing from up behind the high altar (which has been moved a little further west so we sing into an empty space standing in a wide horseshoe shape) rather than in the choir stalls.
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Hi Paul.
I dont know whether you partake of Facebook, but some chap has been posting videos over the last few months of loads of Thiman's organ music (well played too). It has been quite fascinating. Whilst a lot of his output doesn't set the world alight, everything I have heard has been tuneful and well crafted. One or two of the pieces sound very fine indeed. Perhaps someone else has been watching these on Facebook and could provide a link?
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I too have joined. Many thanks for making it available under these sad circumstances.
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2 hours ago, SomeChap said:
As far as I know, nothing ever came of this scheme? I know little of the Cathedral but remember dire headlines about its finances a few years ago. A pity if the idea has been shelved - it seemed like a sensible plan to me.
Also I wonder if anyone knows, has the removal of the asbestos ceiling a couple of years ago changed the acoustics? For the better?
I've not been in since the restoration, but apparently the acoustic is so much better now!
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4 hours ago, D Quentin Bellamy said:
Just looking at the Sheffield organ, I see that it is a Phoenix rebuild of a Copemann Hart, but I'm not sure what has become of the Mander pipe organ, whether it is still there or gone.
The pipe organ is long gone - to where, I know not! We sang an evensong in the cathedral a few years ago with some pretty meaty stuff (Bairstow Blessed City and Stanford in C if I remember correctly)...like a lot of toasters, when played quietly, it sounded ok - but anything big, it just didn't sound right! It would be lovely if they could get a real pipe organ in the Cathedral again - it seems criminal that a place like Sheffield with the potential for superb music has to put up with a second-rate substitute instrument. Having said all that, the console is quite nicely constructed!
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Carlisle has no 32" reed nor does Truro (mind you, the 16' reed is more than enough!).
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59 minutes ago, Colin Pykett said:
I was speaking to Alan Thurlow after a recital by Roger Fisher at Chichester in the early 2000's when he said that the Allen was still in situ and at the west end. Sorry to be taking the thread further away from Rouen though.
It was still there in 2016 when I took my choir to sing for week. At the West end up in the triforium to the right (South side). You can see the console and a large pile of speakers.
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Apparently one of the strikers at Manchester United earns £650,000 per week? He could pay for it outright if he donated his wages for just a month!
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We are very happy for people to come and play, or watch. We are after all, curators of these instruments, not owners!
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I also read somewhere that they were thinking of changing the name of the hall as it is connected with the slave trade?
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1 hour ago, David Drinkell said:
If we're talking about "modern" organs, this one has aroused more controversy than most, but I think it's superb, both tonally and visually. No need, probably to say where it is....
http://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=V00430
In my humble opinion David, it is quite hideous from the other side of the screen - but I do agree with you on all other observations!
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Yes...…...I noticed that David. When we were in the chapel, I had a go on it (the little that worked!) and there is a Willis name plate above the swell clavier, so there is a mystery! It was lovely to sing in there - the chapel is small, but it is three storeys high. The choir (plus Lord Salisbury and his family) took up all the pews, and the congregation (mainly choir parents) gazed down on us from the galleries!
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3 hours ago, SomeChap said:
Thanks as always to David Drinkell and others for showcasing the best of rural Anglophone organ heritage. Three more I remembered:
Hatfield house contains two stunning organ cases, one in the chapel:
... and (to my eye) an even finer one in (I believe) the summer drawing room
In a similar vein there is also the early Harrison at Castle Howard
(apologies for low resolution photo of the latter)
I took my choir to sing an evensong in Hatfield House Chapel a couple of years ago. The (Willis) organ in the chapel still works but is in very poor condition. The organ in the long hall was restored a few years ago; I think by Mander. We had string accompaniment in the chapel that evening and sang music by Gibbons, Byrd, Tallis and Purcell. A most enjoyable occasion!
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On 02/08/2018 at 14:41, Aeron Glyn Preston said:
Could anyone verify the claim made at the bottom of this survey about this organ's previous location? http://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=N00990
It says it came from Sheffield Cathedral, but the spec is a bit smaller than that listed under that location. http://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=N02848
I would be curious to know how much of the Brindley sound can still be heard in it.
I used to play the organ in St Francis Church Salisbury back in the 80's when I was in the 6th form. The organist of the Church told me it originally came from Sheffield Cathedral. The instrument is divided on the west gallery with a detached stop tab console. It was not in a healthy condition then, and I remember the instrument being very loud and lacking subtilty throughout. There was a huge tromba on the choir which was extended down to 16' on the pedals - this stop was eye-wateringly strident!
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I think Downside Abbey and Derby Cathedral still both have "Press button, light up consoles"
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Thank you!
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I read somewhere recently that the Grove organ in Tewkesbury Abbey was going to be restored. I cannot remember where I saw this, but I think the builders for the job are to be Nicholsons? Was this my imagination, or can anyone shed light? A quick glance at the websites for the Abbey and for Nicholson doesn't reveal anything, so perhaps I was just dreaming!
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I think the church has now got it (in storage somewhere) awaiting funds to restore. I'm certain you are bang on with your guess Paul - despite saying in my first post that I have no connection with the church, I do have friends who have close connections!
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Sounds likely doesn't it - and probably the right size for the building too. Depending on where they position it, it should sound stunning (hopefully not where the old organ was).
Richard Harrison
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I notice from the Church website that a 2nd hand Harrison organ has been purchased for the Church from a redundant building "up North". This could be good news. It's a lovely church which once housed a 4-manual Willis (1960's) which was scrapped in or around 2008. Since then, a toaster has been in use. I don't know any more than this, and have no direct connections with the church, but thought people might like to know about it, given an appeal for money has been launched!
New Years Honours 2024
in General discussion
Posted
And what about John Rutter - he should surely be Sir John now given what he has given!