chrisberry

Yes - I went to the two Willis concerts by Gerard, the St David's Hall demonstration for kids (with my family - we enjoyed it) and the Briggs concert. I missed the Museum concert because I was depping for the artist! I aslo ran one of the open console sessions. It seemed to go well, but I can't give the perpective of a 'visitor'.

Clever - makes no sense until you see it from inside the choir!

I'm not sure 'dead' is the right word, but there is not a huge accoustic. There are lots of hard surfaces for sound to bounce off. For me, having been there, the great thing was that the organ was not overwhelming, because there were several hundred people there to soak up the excessive edge of the instrument. When the building is more or less empty it can be overwhelming. I once made the mistake of going to a recital with the beginnings of a headache...... There were comments on the night about how close the organ had been miked up. If I remember the microphones were under the Majestas. This may have contributed to what you heard on the radio.

This is fantastic. But it is wierd that it it is being done under the 'Snape Maltings' banner, given that their Hindmarsh organ of the same vintage was stuck in a cupboard for so many years. It is great that both the Snape and Turner Sims organs have found new homes where they will be well used.

A couple of years ago, I was chatting to Peter Hindmarsh over tea in the middle of a tuning job, and to cut a long story short I ended up buying his chamber organ from Snape Maltings and repatriating it to Wales. Peter has given the organ a thorough 45-year overhaul, and at my request added a proper transposing mechanism to replace the rather ad-hoc arrangements that had been added locally at some point. This allowed the rather damaged key-cheeks to be replaced. In the period that the organ was completed (1973-4), Britten and Pears were advised by Ralph Downes who suggested the eventual specification of the instrument, and it is beautifully built. It's very much of it's time, with metal pipework by Stinkens and open foot voicing. The best stop is the wooden gedackt 8, which Peter made. It's a real pleasure to play. Peter is clearly pleased to be reunited with it. Although there should be a proper inauguration this summer, Peter requested use of the organ to celebrate his 70th birthday, which he has now er... organised. This will happen at 3.30pm on Sunday 17th March at St Teilo's church, Cathays, Cardiff. John Cheer will be playing Handel concertos, and other pieces, with the fantastic early music ensemble Ystradivarius (geddit?). https://ystradivarius.com/ Do let me know if you are able to pop along to join the celebrations, or get in touch with Peter. All are welcome. Free! Chris

For one reason or another I stumbled across this post and read the thread from the beginning with an increased sense of excitement and intrigue as I went as I was unaware of the final result. It's a great thread with a great out come, and worth re-reading. 1) I knew this organ from a very long time ago, and I was very confused about where it was when I last went to Turner Sims (to see Harvey and the Wallbangers!) last year. 2) My goodfather and Uncle was a prison chaplain at Holsley and then priest of Shottisham, Bawdsey, Sutton and Alderton for many years and was a frequent visitor to Orford. I love the Suffolk coast for this reason. 3) Referring back to the discussion of Snape Maltings, there never was room for an organ there, which is why Peter Pears commissioned a chamber organ on wheels from Peter Hindmarsh back in 1974. I will look forward to seeing the organ in Orford next time I am over that way, which will be quite soon.

Hi Richard About St Giles Cripplegate........ I have asked Rick Wakeman several times about where he recorded the organ parts for 'Close to the Edge' and he always claims Rock and Roll amnesia. I always suspected it was St Giles Cripplegate because of his other work there, and also because it sounds like it (based on my organ lessons there 15 years ago.....) So can you quote a source for this information????? Many thanks...... Chris

I have to say that when I heard St Catherine's Cambrige, both fairly regularly as a student and at the ICO in the late '80's, that was a remarkable organ. Much overlooked. However the one in Sidney Sussex that I played almost every day for 3 years was not so good (and may be replaced shortly).

On 17th September I went to hear the first concert with the new V/88 Rieger in Shanghai. I've never been a fan of modern concert hall organs, but this didn't sound too interesting or characterful for its size, and actually managed to look like an electronic organ, even at a budget of around 2.5 M USD (see Rieger website). What made me laugh was the fact that the colourful and well produced brochure for the concert had a single photograph of the new organ, measuring 11 mm by 8 mm. That is to say, you could only just see it. However on pages 3, 5 and 7 there was a full page colour photograph of St Ignatius Loyola organ (slightly fuzzy and perhaps downloaded off the web?). There was some text on these pages explaining the music and the instrument. This seemed a very good advert for Manders (in the context of the opening of a Rieger organ), so 8 days and a little research later, in between watching my Aunt's flamenco troupe in New Jersey and an appointment with a very large fossil tree in the New York State Museum in Albany, I dropped in to hear Mr Tritle put the Mander through its paces. The St Ignatius organ was the best 20th Century instrument I have heard, and was well played in a well judged recital that showed off not only it's French 'flavour' but how good classical organ music sounds on it too. Remarkable to my ears. And a warm welcome and tour of the organ for anyone interested afterwards. So thanks Rieger, for indirectly sending me to hear this wonderful instrument. Well worth the journey to NY. Shame it is not in the UK!

Can anyone enlighten me on the pipe inscriptionsnumbers of the various ranks at Farnborough (ie what is engraved into the botom C of any/each rank)? I have tried at least one obvious source to no avail! Many thanks, Chris