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madorganist

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Posts posted by madorganist

  1. Regarding the coughing and clapping: the BBC did a first rate job in capturing the full majesty of my sneezing outburst during the first (UK?) performance of a work by Petr Eben at the RFH some years ago !

     

    I wonder how it would sound with the revised acoustics ?

  2. Many years ago a lecture recital took place at the RFH, at which Ralph Downes explained his reasoning behind the design and illustrated it with appropriate musical examples. Thomas Trotter was one of the organists delivering said examples.

     

    The Solo division was clearly intended to be a ”big” Great for use with/against an orchestra. Time has faded my memory regarding the intended use of the other divisions – it made sense at the time !

     

    And therein lays the key: the recitalist must have this inside knowledge in order to bring out the best from this organ. Like other commentators on this board, I attended many of the 5:55 recitals. It was clear that not all recitalists had “got it”.

  3. Firstly, Canterbury Cathedral: I had heard about the plans. Am I correct in thinking that the cathedral authorities wish to rebuild the 'Quire' organ as a four-clavier instrument and also provide a new, substantial (four-clavier?) instrument, to be sited somewhere in the Nave?

     

    The document I saw, some time ago, on the Cathedral website was suggesting that the main organ would return to 4 manuals and that the voicing was to return to a more "Willis" style. A 4 manual "French Style" organ was planned for the nave

  4. Cathedral organs have a heavy workload, being played for at least 2 hours on average

    JS

     

    You've answered the question I was going to ask.

     

    Given the amounts of money involved and the frequency of attention I find it rather shocking.

     

     

    Whilst even a modestly sized organ is physically many time larger and more complex than any other instrument, I do find myself wondering why organ “restoration” is such a regular and frighteningly expensive procedure.

     

    I'm not “having a go” at John, or the Ripon organ, but I do find myself wondering about the quality of work that gets carried out and the sometimes astronomic price tags that go along with it.

     

    I've never met an organ builder that drives a Bentley, but I do sometimes wonder whether they have one parked up at home!

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