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gerco1956

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Everything posted by gerco1956

  1. Dear all, In 2003 I photographed an organ on my way somewhere between Edinburgh and Carlisle. Unfortunately I did not write down where this was. It looks like an interesting organ. Please help! Kind regards, Gerco Schaap (The Netherlands)
  2. Dear all, The British composer William Ralph Driffill (1875*-1922) is in The Netherlands mainly known for his Toccata, the final movement of his Suite for organ. For an article in the Dutch organ magazine De Orgelvriend we are searching for a photograph of Ralph Driffill. There is only a very tiny picture on www.composers-classical-music/d/DriffillWilliamRalph.htm but it is too small to be used in a printed magazine. Could anyone help us with a high resolution picture of WRD, please? Thanks very much! Gerco Schaap Editor Dutch organ magazine De Orgelvriend, e-mail orgelvriend@ziggo.nl * There seems to be some discussion about WRD's correct year of birth. Organ-biography and Bardon Music give 1870 as year of birth. In a letter from his granddaughter Janet, somewhere on the internet, the year 1875 is mentioned.
  3. Dear friends, Last May, when I mailed with David Aprahamian Liddle, he wrote that he would like to open his own Youtube account, as he believed there was nothing at all from him on Youtube. "This is beginning to make me feel like a 'non-person'". So I took my little Nikon P310 photo camera with me when we visited David at the former home of Felix Aprahamian in North London, now the home of The Arabesque Trust for Blind Organists. With the little Nikon we made seven videos of David, playing compositions by Bach, Hollins and himself at the former organ of André Marchal and the Courcelle chamber organ in the same house. He played, among other things, two parts of his new "Mnemonic Suite" Opus 21, which will be premiered by himself at St Michael's, Cornhill, London on Monday 22 September 2013. The sound quality is not superb and the automatic volume control plays some tricks with the dynamics in all the pieces, but these videos are all taken "in one shot". David is announcing the pieces himself. On the last video he is playing the grand piano in his own arrangement of "Dzidzernag", a melody of the Armenian composer Komitas (1869-1935), dedicated to the memory of an Armenian friend. Gerco Schaap (NL)
  4. The first videos of Dr. Francis Jackson CBE (94) playing live are now on YouTube. They were made at the end of Dr. Jackson's recital on 4 August at York Minster, after he went down from the regular console to the nave console and played there Chimes by Bernard Rose (from The Hovingham Sketches): Published with kind permission of Banks Music Publications, Hovingham, copyright owner and publisher of the music. The other one is Dr. Jackson's encore, Bach's Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier, after he had played Norman Cocker's Tuba Tune, in his own words, "to keep us from insanity": . Some very special moments after a memorable recital! Gerco Schaap
  5. Dear all, Sometimes one has to clear his bookshelves ... Who is interested in Souvenir Handbooks from the IAO: - Glasgow 1985 - Cambridge 1987 - York 1988 - Chester 1989 - Bristol 1992 - Huddersfield 1995 Please mail me private on gercoschaap[at]ziggo.com.
  6. Thanks to members of this Board I am enjoying an MP3 recording of the Briggs recital. The sound quality of Pipe Dreams is a bit poor. Many thanks, Gerco Schaap
  7. Can anyone help me with a recording of this recital, please ?? I was waiting in my car during my trip to Yorkshire when I heard the last piece ("Orchestral" Suite Nr. 3). Exciting, but came home just too late to hear the recital on the BBC iPlayer! Please mail me on gercoschaap[at]ziggo[dot]nl. Thanx very much for replying! Gerco Schaap, The Netherlands
  8. It wasn't the recording of Mendelssohn's Sonatas (which sounded quite dull to me) but the Vista recording of Franck's Grande Pièce Symphonique at Ampleforth Abbey which fascinated me. The Final is on the second record of a Reader's Digest series called Great Organ Classics (1977). It's typical you still can find the Mendelssohn LPs on many car boot sale and charity shop, whereas the Franck recording is quite rare. [Gerco Schaap]
  9. The Willis organ sounds impeccable on a Naxos CD (8.570410), recorded on 12th October, 2006, with music by S S Wesley, played by James McVinnie. The playing is a bit 'formal' but gives a good impression of the organ. [Gerco Schaap]
  10. About Doctor "FJ": he is scheduled for at least seven organ recitals, according to www.organrecitals.com: - 8 May: St George's, Gateshead - 30 May: St Giles, Lincoln - 6 June: Rochdale Parish Church - 12 June: St Helen's, Stonegate, York - 12 July: Alexandra Palace London - 30 July: York Central Methodist Church - 15 August: York Minster Summer Recital Isn't he amazing! Gerco Schaap (NL)
  11. Or listen/watch to this choral prelude by Dick Sanderman.
  12. Dear Bazuin, Almost nobody. Except in the "Grote Kerk" in Weesp, where you can enjoy a good glass of wine and some fine snacks after the recital. Try it, when you can! And, of course, in the Amsterdam Orgelpark. They have excellent wines, by the way! Normally spoken, the best you can have in Holland is a (weak) cup of coffee after the recital. But there are also lot of places where you don't get anything before or after the concert. Even no spoken welcome! One enters the church, pays for his ticket, looks for a place to sit, waits for the "advance tone" of the organ(ist) and then gets about 70 minutes of music. And then, the organising committees are surprised "why there were so little people tonight". "Presentation" and "hospitality" are no household words in most of the Dutch organ world, unfortunately! G.S.
  13. Why should we write only about recordings of organists who are no longer with us? They can't defend themselves! I'll take the risk and mention one record that disappointed me so badly: Elgar's organ music from Worcester Cathedral, played by Donald Hunt. I bought the Alpha record in the 80s in Worcester Cathedral, hoping to take home a nice sample of the organ. How disappointed I was after playing it! Registrations which can be described as colourless and dull, hardly a third of the organ seems to be used, a very "neo-baroque" approach, no musical tension at all. And quite a distant, monophonic recording. Unbelievable, compared with the later Hyperion recordings of Elgar's choral music under the direction of D. Hunt. The other record That Really Got Up My Nose was Vista VPS 1004, The Organ of St. Martin-in-the-fields. It was on the 1912 Hill organ with additions by Spurden Rutt. Interesting programme (Saint-Saëns Trois Rhapsodies, pieces by Langlais, Howells and baroque composers) but very dull recording, not to mention the playing. And last but not least: because I liked the programma by Geoffrey Tristam (Stanford, Whitlock, Bridge, Parry, Vierne III) I once bought an LP of The organ in Christchurch Priory. After playing one side it was obvious I heard an electronic! (which was not mentioned in the sleeve notes by Felix Apprahamian). The playing however was nice. I'm afraid Philip Dore didn't do himself and the organ world a favour with his Mendelssohn recordings on RCA. I know several Dutch organ lovers who were quite disappointed by those records and even got a bad picture of "the British organ" in general because of the RCA LP's! G.S.
  14. There are four LP records which had quite an effect on my appreciation of the British romantic organ. 1. Organ in Contrast on the Apollo Sound label: Stanley Curtis playing the Westminster Chapel organ, London (© 1968) I found this LP in the seventies in a Dutch record shop in Hilversum. Despite the dull sleeve design (we used to call that a "graphic solution" it was a very interesting programme: 2 pieces by Frank Bridge, 2 symphony movements by Widor, the Summer Sketches by Lemare, 2 movements of Borowsky's Suite No. 1 and pieces by Searle Wright and William Felton. This "forgotten" organ at Buckingham Gate, London, built by Willis in 1879 and entirely re-built and enlarged by Rushworth & Freaper Ltd. looks like a small copy of the Royal Albert Hall organ. The playing was impeccabe and the acoustics were a bit theatre-like. On the back of the sleeve there is plenty of interesting information about the compositions. The organist had been a pupil of G.D. Cunningham and was Assistant Secretary of the London Organ Music Society. In 1986 or '87 I visited the church (it wasn't easy to find) by joining a service. We were welcomed then by the son of the late Stanley Curtis who told us afterwards that this was the only LP his father ever made, and he had always been proud on it. I'm afraid the organ is hardly used anymore, since it is quite an "evangelical" church, using keyboards and drums. 2. Caleb Jarvis at the organ of St. George's Hall, Liverpool (RCA English Organ Collection, © 1972), mentioned by Roffensis already. Especially the pieces by Alain (Le Jardin Suspendu) and Flor Peeters (Lied to the Flowers) were sheer magic! (I own three copies because the pressings were not ideal and every pressing is different.) 3. Organ music from St. Paul's Cathedral by Christopher Herrick (Vista VPS 1001, © 1969) Recorded before the re-build by Mander and impressive because of the "unsophisticated" sound of the organ. Herrick does some strange performances (Reger Te Deum, Alain Litanies!) but I seldom heard more romantic approaches of Frank Bridge's Adagio, Liszt's Adagio in D flat ("Consolation in Des"), Alain's Choral Dorien and Messiaen's Prière du Christ, from L'Ascension. 4. The organ at York Minster, played by Francis Jackson (side 1) and John Scott Whiteley (Brendan Hearne recording, © 1979). Bairstow's Scherzo in A flat is played wonderfully light (like "dancing on clouds") and in Hollins' Concert Overture in C minor the Tuba Mirabilis makes quite an impression at the end, first coupled to the pedals, later in the right hand. Brendan Hearne also produced a cassette in the same range (Music from York) with - to my taste - the best recording of Francis Jackson, playing Bairstow's Sonata and Flor Peeters' Suite Modale. In sincerely wish that the old Hearne recordings will appear on CD some time! I also have fine memories of Michael Woodward's LP records of Liverpool (St. George's Hall & Anglican Cathedral) and Reading Town Hall, but - thanks to Priory - they nearly all appeared on CD. [Gerco Schaap, The Netherlands]
  15. "FRANCIS IS TRULY THE DOM OF CHURCH MUSIC." Hear Hear! His next recital in the York Minster summer series will take place on August 16. Don't miss it! Gerco Schaap (NL)
  16. It is an arrangement based on the second movement of Handel's Organ Concerto in G minor Op. 7 No. 5. I don't know the arranger (Best?). It was often played in the Netherlands in the 50s and 60s of the 20th century by organists of the romantic school like Feike Asma and Willem Hendrik Zwart. Everhard is a son of Willem Hendrik Zwart.
  17. Priory released (I think) the last (in fact the first) of the famous Michael Woodward LP recordings: Twelve East Anglian Organs / Played by Geoffrey Hannant. Does anyone know where mr. Hannant lives today? By coincidence, I spoke with him briefly when he and his wife attended one of the summer recitals in York Minster last August, I only discovered later that he was the organist on both Woodward LPs. I would be grateful when someone can send me an E-mail. Gerco Schaap (NL)
  18. My favourite is a performance of Franck's Premier Choral by the (Russian?) accordeonist Aleksander Skljarov: Part I and Part II. Unbelievable what he does on his instrument, and very well played. The sound is familiar with a French harmonium! Gerco Schaap (NL)
  19. Dear all, May I put in the suggestion - and I hope mr. Mander does agree - to leave out quotes in your replies? The original text is always on top, and the structure of the replies can be seen very clear. The good thing about this is, that one can read the first line of the reply posts, instead of "quote: ....". Kind regards, Gerco Schaap (NL)
  20. I would strongly recommend Louis Robilliard, played on the Cavaillé-Coll at St. François-de-Sales, Lyon, on Festivo 6921 702. Gerco Schaap (NL)
  21. Yes, Franz Liszt's B-A-C-H Prelude & Fugue. He made another LP for Polydor on the same organ with repertoire by Sigfrid Karg-Elert (Kaleidoscope Op. 144, Legend Op. 141/1, Sonatina No. 1 in A minor Op. 74 and No. 4 of the Seven Pastels from Lake Constance. There must have been a third LP with "Organ classics" The organ was then still in its 1933 state after the rebuild by Henry Willis III. One can hear that many stops were out of tune. Chandos released the organ classics and most of the first LP on CHAN 6518 and CHAN 6602 (together with old recordings of Francis Jackson). Still to be found on the Chandos website. Gerco Schaap (NL)
  22. Francis Jackson once told me, when the choir of York Minster used to sing "Ouseley in E", they called it "Easily in Oooh".
  23. I would recommend: "Chorales & Caprioles at Romsey Abbey". Gerco Schaap (NL)
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