gazman

I seem to recall that a few years ago Wayne Marshall did a mini-series on the radio. I think that these programmes were put on instead of "The Organist Entertains" for two or three weeks or so. I recall WM saying something about the composer of the next piece he was playing being known as a very virtuosic organist, and then saying "But I bet he couldn't play it as fast as me!". I thought that said it all....

Thank you for all that information, Paul. Fascinating!

You're not the only one. I think a number of us would, me included.

Mr Mander, Sir?

Yes, of course! But I think some of us wanted to have a bit more fun with it......

Have an easy life, and forget the fugue!! What about Lindberg's Gammal fabodpsalm fran Danlarna - one of the loveliest "folksy" tunes ever written?

No! Well, perhaps....

I got my comeuppance, I suppose, only last Saturday at a very noisy wedding. At the end of a voluntary before the bride arrived I decided to do my normal thing which I do at the noisiest weddings which is to build up to full organ, play a big sustained dominant seventh chord - by which time the congregation are shouting their heads off to be heard above the organ - and then suddenly drop down to Swell strings with the box shut. This generally makes its point. Well, it made its point on Saturday, and they fell instantly silent. I was so pleased with myself that it had worked that, when I was playing on the Swell strings, I gave a little smile in the direction of the now silent congregation and then played a note on the pedal, not realizing that I had stupidly forgotten to reduce neither the Great nor the Pedal. So we had Swell strings (box shut) suddenly accompanied by the full Pedal organ (including 32' reed!) coupled to full Great. Try making that sound as if you had intended it!

Thanks for that, Prepared for, and welcome to the forum.

Thanks for that. I checked NPOR, and found that what details they have are what I gave them, but it was nothing like a full survey alas. When I visited, we got the blower going for about a minute before it started smoking, so didn't have much of an idea of the organ's tonal qualities. But it all looked good inside the loft - quite a reasonable quality job and a three decker with a comprehensive spec, I seem to recall. I visited as I was asked if I could do anything to save the instrument, as I had been told it was rather fine and worth saving. Alas, I couldn't. Apparently the church had gone happy-clappy and, despite the fact that the space in the organ loft wasn't going to be used for anything else, they wanted rid of the "relic from the past". I understand that the console was saved and temporarily stored in a garage, but don't know where it's gone since. Unfortunately, the metal work was sold for scrap. Apparently the parishioners enjoyed a party in the church grounds one evening during which all the wood from the organ was used to make a bonfire.

Thanks for that, Vox. St. Michael, Stoke. Is that St. Michael and all Angels, Devonport? Wasn't there a large Rothwell/Hele there which was broken up a few years back?

But it makes one question why it should have been imported!

I'm told that the Cavaillé-Coll pipework was all removed and destroyed, and some deliberately trampled underfoot by the "organ builder", when the organ was rebuilt and scaled down to a three decker (sorry, bodged) c. 1980s.

And as for many of those from the 20th century......

Does this now mean we'll all soon be posting on the Personder Organs Discussion Board?

Thanks for that explanation, Adrian.

It just doesn't look the sort of console in which one would delight to wallow!

I almost dare not say this.....but.....the console looks rather "clinical" to me. I shall now duck for cover!

But, of course, our modern language has no masculine, feminine or neuter word for "the" - thank goodness!

Yes, indeed.

No, I don't think it is, actually. It's just a bit of - naughty! - fun.

As some of you will know, I give monthly organ concerts at one of my churches. It used to be weekly before a back injury (from which I've now fortunately recovered) made this difficult. I try to make these "tuneful", and try to balance the programme so that there's as much for the average listener to Radio Three as there is to the average listener of Classic FM (or even "The Organist Entertains"!), with the odd lollipop thrown in too! We tend to get an audience of regulars, plus the occasional holiday-maker, and the church makes a bob or three. This evening, for a change, we had an unashamedly popular programme which I called "Perkins Plays Pops". It was the sort of programme which most organists and "cultured" music lovers - I would have thought - would have winced at! BWV 565, Handel's "Largo", "Air on a G string", some Lefebure-Wely, etc. We publicized it as a popular programme, and received a very large audience indeed. The applause between items and at the end of the concert showed just how much it was enjoyed. I had expected that the more "discerning" among the audience would have not enjoyed it so much as they might the regular recitals. But, apart from one who firstly said "What a load of old rubbish!" before saying "Actually, that was an incredibly enjoyable evening. Thank you.", I was inundated with compliments about the programme from the general concert-goer and from the local organists and from those whose tastes - I had previously assumed - were rather "high brow" who all described the programme in glowing terms. It was pretty obvious that an evening of ear-ticklers had delighted a whole audience, and I lost count of all the compliments. It's got me thinking. I had numerous people say something along the lines that they enjoyed it so much (including those who had never previously attended an organ recital) that they're going to attend next month's recital. But they're going to expect the same sort of thing again! (incidentally, one of my regulars suggested playing the same programme each month to attract people back!). And I'm wondering whether I should go on playing my normal type of programme, or to play to the gallery and include the odd bit of "proper" organ music in order to "educate" people. I think I have a choice of giving what we would perceive as a standard organ recital each month and getting a small audience, or entertaining them with the average Classic FM fayre (and, hopefully, interesting them in some of the organ's repertoire along the way) and getting a sizeable audience attending each month. What would you do?

As another former pupil of Paul, all I can say without bias is "Hear, hear".

I rather liked it! He's just basically saying "horses for courses".