Goldsmith

How about the Abbey under Douglas Guest? Marvellous.

Actually, I think a fair few Nimbus Ch Ch recordings were made at Leominster Priory?

If memory serves, it's the 'Lourdes' Gloria by Jean-Paul Lecot. I'm pretty sure the music is in Hymns Old and New.

I'd say go for the cheap seats: front of the circle, but not to close...

Thank you for this. A real treasure!

Three Open Diapasons on the Great plus a Sifflote...? Someone hoping to 'add brightness' no doubt.

A three-rank mixture would have been more useful, ideally along the lines of the mixture which H&H added to the Willis organ of Lincoln Cathedral in 1960, commencing at 22-26-29. This might have introduced some real brightness to this instrument. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> God save us from the spirit of 'improvement'... 'Brightness' - the '60s, 70's, 80's etc. counterpart to Edwardian 'smoothness'...

I very much doubt it was Brompton Oratory. The Walker/Downes organ is in at the back of a gallery on the south side of the nave, which it shares with the console and the choir. It's probably RD's finest organ, three manuals and not enormous: http://npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch...ec_index=N18498 The Church, however, IS enormous. A picture of the choir: http://www.bromptonoratory.com/ord04/img18.jpg

And to be fair, Pav is not a young man, and certainly not as fit as once he was. His youthful accounts of bel canto roles on stage were tremendous. Have you heard his 'I Puritani' opposite Sutherland under Bonnynge? Incredible and unrivalled.

But we don't expect Dawn Upshaw to include 'My Old Dutch' in a recital of Schubert, Harbison and Barber, do we? Or Kissin, Brendel, Uchida or MacGregor to give us Scott Joplin? Not that I'd include Bossi in those categories, of course. I think I may be alone in not feeling the need for light relief in a concert programme. Contrast yes. No wonder the Westminster Cathedral summer series died the death; long programmes (with interval) of 'dull' music. Happy days! Todd Wilson ended his Abbey recital last year with the Reubke. Wow. The applause was rapturous... Anything further would have been superfluous.

A good many people do not want to be challlenged but entertained, reassured and comforted. Therein lies the problem. In a nutshell.

I didn't make my point clearly and simply enough: Lots of 'the-type-of-people-who-go-to-art-music-concerts-in-London' are not hostile to the sounds made by the organ. Many organ recitals feature third-rate music. Organ recitals often feature ill-prepared players (through no fault of their own, limited time on a strange instrument etc.) playing bad music badly. We (organists and organ-fanciers) tolerate a lower standard of public performance than is usual in other instruments/ensembles. I am a 'young-ish' person (under 35). Art-music is attracting new audiences via Tavener, Part etc. In an age of 'spiritual questing' audiences are seeking profundity, depth and meaning. Anecdotal evidence: I've taken Philistine friends to hear music by Olivier Messiaen since my teens. It bowls them over. OM's music, even his organ music, is highly regarded by non-organophiles. Yet on this board, for example, much of his more 'difficult' music is dismissed. Few people will any longer be attracted to the organ through youthful ecclesiastical experiences. They will not develop a love of music whose quality is limited by function (and yes, I love 'bad' hymns, anthems, chant too). They will not understand or be moved by 'liturgical' improvisation or last-verse harmonizations. They will need to be attracted to the organ by 'absolute' music, not ecclesiastical programme-music. As to transcriptions, why this obsession with the bygone era of Lemare, Best etc? We all know the social-historical function of the town hall tradition and these kind of pieces. They're great fun, often deeply affecting, and have their place. But my guess is that they appeal chiefly to the nostalgically-inclined. These are personal viewpoints, limited by my own experience. My days of preaching are in the past, and I was never very good at it. And I've bored myself rigid with all this... Oh, one more thing: I'm sure lots of the dead were indeed musically cultivated etc. But I'm not sure I've seen many attending concerts. Hold on tho'...

Don't be self-effacing, Maestro! I think you do know...

To follow the Carlo Curley cul-de-sac, he's clearly a fine player etc. However, my own feeling is that the organ's serious problem is NOT a lack of 'popular' appeal. Rather, it's a perceived lack of profound/high-quality/worthwhile (insert adjectives as appropriate) repertoire. Audiences turn out in large numbers to hear difficult and complex art-music: Mahler, Bruckner, Nielsen and the like attract large and varied audiences. Historically-informed performances/festivals of early music are also extremely well-attended. The organ's problem is in being taken seriously by intelligent, musically-cultivated people. And this, I fear, is due to experiences of noisy third-rate music poorly played. The effect of this is serious: musical decision-makers, in the media and in concert-planning continue to ignore the instrument. Having said all that, I love the 'town hall tradition', the Edwardian organ etc. But I think it has quite enough champions already.

A disc featuring Robert Quinney at Westminster Cathedral is due to be released on Signum later this year. Judging by their success in capturing the RAH sound for Simon Preston, this should be pretty fine. http://www.signumrecords.com/forthcoming_releases/index.htm

Has such a thing ever happened in the UK?

I've enjoyed recordings of the pre-rebuild Blackburn organ very much, but if my conscience allowed me to chose an instrument with digital enhancements (WHY at Blackburn? Or Southwell for that matter?), I'd go for the Skinner at Southern Methodist University's Perkins School of Theology, with its 64' Bombarde de Ravallement...

This, Blaze Away and Liberty Bell are all transcriptions, of course. Nothing at all wrong with that, but do you suspect audiences enjoy transcriptions more than 'real' organ music?

By asking for the 'finest', are you suggesting we attempt a bit of serious objectivity? I'm not sure the five 'finest' would necessarily include my five favourite instruments, which are probably characterized by features which might be considered peculiar, eccentric, or even downright vulgar... And should we limit ourselves to instruments we have heard in the flesh?

And in reply to my own post, I've remembered the one-hit Toccata chap: Albert Renaud.

Ditto to all of the above. Mary Preston's Dupre on this organ is superlative. There are lots of wonderful Fisks on disc; they're often to be heard on 'Pipedreams'.

Marcel Lanqueuit's Toccata has recently been rescued from justified obscurity by several notable players. I don't know of any other pieces. And in a different league, might the Thalben-Ball Elegy count? It's certainly more popular than Edwardia, Toccata Beorma etc. And there's another French-type Toccata, whose composer escapes me. I heard it a few years ago played after Easter evensong at Windsor Castle, and a few times since. Quite memorable, even if the name of the composer wasn't. Anyone any ideas?

Thank you Michael, for confirming what I had already read about the Hereford instrument. In my post, I expressed the view that the additions had not enhanced the organ, and I'll stick by that. As ever, this is a matter of personal taste. For me, there are a couple of phrases in the text you quote which give the game away: 'opportunity was taken to provide a few additions to amplify the original tonal concept' and 'This division was brightened by...'. It's all very well to suggest that additions need not be used by players wishing to convey the 'original' sound of the instrument, but in practice this is unlikely. It's not ususally intended that such additions are obvious to the visiting player! All that said, I don't think you're alone in rating this instrument very highly indeed, and I have never been fortunate enough to hear the organ in a liturgical context. So apologies for any offence caused.

Yep, it's mentioned in the recital series programme.

I think you'll find it very similar, with the advantage over Sheffield City Hall, for example, of not sounding forced thanks to the big acoustic.