John Sayer

Indeed, but I don't think one can bracket the two together in terms of sound. I confess I haven't heard Fulda live, but this is surely very much a Riegerised Sauer with two-thirds of the pipework new in 1994. The Rübsam CDs went a long way to winning me over to Rheinberger, though it's a pity the poor chap never quite managed to write a Sonata with all 3 (or 4) movements of the same level of inspiration. Of all composers, his music needs enlivening with a bit of fire and passion - Rheinberger with balls, if you'll pardon the expression - and Rübsam seems to achieve this most of the time. As for the rebuilt organ, it's about the only German instrument I've heard with a convincing full swell - almost 'auf englischer Art und Weise'. JS

This seems to me a fair comment. Take the 1905 IVP Sauer monster in the Berliner Dom, for example. Out of 113 stops, no less than 50 are at 8ft pitch, and, to my ears at least there isn't a great deal of difference between many of them, the flutes in particular, fancy stop names notwithstanding. Contemporary registrational practice required them to be used 'by the handful', though there are, of course, some very beautiful solo voices. The reeds are reticent, with none of the éclat of their French counterparts, despite Sauer's known admiration for Cavaillé-Coll. Apart from the 16-8-4 Trompeten on Manual I, they make little impact in the tutti. The ensemble is warm and all-embracing, but with only limited tonal contrast between the manuals, the difference being mainly in dynamic level - i.e. Manual III is a louder version of Manual IV, Manual II is a louder version of Manual II and so on. Operating the Walze gives a pretty clear indication of how the build-up from ppp to fff was meant to happen. Monochrome is perhaps a bit unfair. Eine Geschmacksache - a matter of taste, as the Germans would say. A 20 minute Reger blockbuster may be magnificent, but a Widor or Vierne symphony would soon pall. I'm not sure about a big Bach P&F either. I can't help feeling the late German Romantic organ was a dead-end in the same way as the early 20c. über-romantic English organ (take Arthur Harrison's Caird Hall, Tamworth PC, Crediton PC or St Wilfrid's, Harrogate, for example). Let's treasure the surviving examples, by all means, but I don't think anyone would particularly wish to see their likes again. JS

Best wishes for an enjoyable and enlightening Open Day on Saturday. I had the privilege and pleasure of an advance visit last week and was mightily impressed by an instrument of great character and integrity - and different in many ways from its confrères in othe college chapels. This is surely how it should be in a seat of learning, whose raison d'être is to stimulate and broaden the mind. For young organists (and other musicians, too) this means close encounters with as many different styles of instrument as possible. The smaller Oxbridge chapels are uniquely placed to promote this ideal, being largely freed from traditional liturgical constraints, as a glance at the chapel service list will show. So perhaps we need to leave behind pre-set Anglican notions of the organ's role and celebrate the new arrival for what it is, a superb musical instrument. JS

Maybe he had a little help from Richard Morrison... JS

It's good to see Times readers are able to see the lighter side of all this, witness two letters in last Saturday's edition. The first asks if disputes between organists and vicars are not a "classic example of the age-old struggle between manual workers and white-collar workers." The second tells of the organist who successfully appealed against arbitrary dismissal by his vicar and 'celebrated his victory by offering on the following Sunday a triumphant voluntary based upon Handel's Fixed in His Everlasting Seat'. The picture of the hapless cleric processing out to the accompaniment of such a resounding 'musical two-fingers' raises a welcome chuckle with many, I'm sure. JS

I've been trying for years to track down the Blue Danube arrangement. It doesn't seem to be listed in the Breitkopf catalogue. Do you have further details (ISBN etc) by any chance? Thanks in advance JS

I'm told that lady recitalists at the Nikolaikirche are requested not to use hand cream so as not to sully the beautiful brushed aluminium stop jambs! Seriously though, the Porsche/Eule 'no-expense-spared' collaboration has produced a truly magnificent instrument. I can't imagine many British firms funding an organ of 5 manuals and 100+ stops complete with new 32-foot tin front etc etc. Porsche established a factory near Leipzig shortly after reunification. I understand that one of its directors, a former West German Foreign Minister, was influential in bringing this project to fruition. However, political considerations shouldn't detract from the enlightened munificence of the Porsche firm. JS

I suspect practice varied from place to place, as each town or city would have had its own 'Kirchenordnung'. Present-day Lutheran hymnbooks, incidentally, have no section specifically for Lent, ie there is nothing between 'Epiphanias' and 'Passion'. And the chorales in the latter section are very much in Passiontide vein, beginning with 'O Mensch bewein' followed by 'O Lamm Gottes' etc. JS

For around £15 you can hear excatly what the Reubke Sonata sounds like at Armley. You need to get hold of 'Organ Story', a new DVD produced by Leeds University Media Services, in which Graham Barber talks about the history of the organ and its restoration - with contributions from Mark Venning, Nick Kynaston & Dame Gillian - before giving a marvellously controlled and musical performance of the Sonata. The camerawork is excellent and the sound quality first rate. GB follows Reger's registrations pretty well to the letter - so, when he asks for 'Harmonika allein', 'Trompete 8' or 'Salicional und Gedackt 16, 8' - that's what you get. You should be able to get a copy direct from the church [ www.armley-schulze.freeserve.co.uk] JS

Those whole follow the organ building scene outside these shores may have noticed the newly-discovered enthusiasm of Continental, in particular German builders, for high-romantic English tonalities, witness the profusion of orchestral and high-pressure reeds included in new instruments or added to existing ones, e.g. the Tuba episcopalis and Tuba capitularis by Klais at the west end of Cologne Cathedral. The same is true of concert hall organs. Our sister Orgelforum in Germany has news of a new instrument to be commissioned for the rebuilt Mercatorhalle in Duisburg at a cost of 1.5m Euro, the cost being met by the Alfred Krupp von Bohlen and Halbach Foundation. In giving approval for the project, the Duisburg Town Council outlined various requirements in a document* running to no less than 8 pages, much of which makes interesting reading. "The specification should be versatile, but with an emphasis on the 19/20 symphonic repertoire and with a leaning towards English organbuilding of the period. Generously wide scalings, a strongly developed fundamental tonal palette and colourful reeds are to be aimed for....... Typically English registers are to be incorporated in the specification". "Consideration should be given to an instrument of British character (britisher Prägung) with an intelligent, colourful basic specification and a high-pressure division as powerful counterpoise to its symphonic partner". It is also suggested Duisburg should pay a 'tonal greeting' to its sister town, Portsmouth, in the form of 'eine britische Tuba mirabilis'. It's good to see the gospel being spread in this way, I suppose, though it's difficult to imagine such culturally enlightened attitudes on the part of English town councils. JS *German speakers may like to refer to the full text at :- http://www.duisburg.de/ratsinformationssys...select=20042887 (Beschlussvorlage)

Or even have no organ music at all, apart from hymn accompaniments, if not throughout Lent, then certainly during Passiontide. English congregations (C of E at least) seem to have lost the habit of sitting in silence before divine service, witness the mindless social chit-chat that ruins most of our efforts to set a suitably devotional mood through careful choice of voluntaries each week. Perhaps Lent should be an opportunity for incumbents to introduce the notion of 'Speak to God before the service and to each other afterwards'. To file out in silence for 5 or 6 Sundays a year would be a salutory reminder of what this penetential season is all about. The triumph of Easter then becomes all the more powerful with the joyful return of music. JS (I think I'd better run for cover now ......)

I believe it was the organist, Trevor Doar himself, who donated the invisible and anonymous 32 reed. "I'll call it what I like", he once remarked, "even 'Double Doars', if I feel like it". It's a very fine instrument which sounds magnificent in the Abbey acoustic, quite belying its modest size. What a pity the money is not forthcoming to complete the casework. JS

[quote Something I have wondered, maybe it's the height of bad taste, but are there any organ transcriptions of piano concertos, with the piano part retained? Petit Mess Sodinghel excepted, there's not much music written for piano and organ, but I sometimes wonder how one of the great piano concertos would sound with a pianist playing the piano part and an organist filling in for the orchestra. Has this ever been done? I remember something of this ilk back in the Seventies at York Minster when Francis Jackson played the slow movement of the Ravel piano concerto before Evensong with Geoffrey Coffin providing the orchestral accompaniment on the organ. Members of the chapter took their places beforehand wearing cassocks and at the end processed out to return fully robed for Evensong proper. FJ has always been a Ravel specialist and it was a memorable occasion. JS

A bit vertiginous, I agree, but strangely disappointing despite its pedigree, probably as a result of much of the pipework being buried in the chamber. The sandstone must soak up much of the sound as well. The building itself (by Bodley) is quite stunning. JS

I believe Ron Perrin used it once, but the boys got the giggles. It would have been a different matter, however, in the 17th century, when the organist sat facing west in the little oriel gallery from which the hand projects. In those days it was operated by a foot pedal and the organist, of course, sitting with his back to the choir, had nothing better to do with his feet while playing. JS

Yes, thanks for the reminder in the picture! The walkway along the top of the arches between the pillars is bad enough, but I seem to remember the little wooden bridge that makes the final link to the loft was even worse. Once there, however, with the Positif behind you and a high, solid balustrade on either side, you feel a lot more secure - until, that is, you have to make your way back again. JS

I agree, it's a killer. I ended up with concussion and blood everywhere on a visit a decade or more ago. As I recall, the girder comes at the end of a short flight of steps, and somehow you just don't see it coming. This is one case where H&S considerations really do matter. Moving further afield, the Kern organ at Toulouse Cathedral is pretty terrifying, requiring a trek along an open triforium and then a narrow traverse over a flimsily railed wooden bridge to reach a very cramped loft about 60 feet above the floor. The Grenzing organ at Brussels Cathedral is suspended from the north triforium of the nave. After a tortuous route across the roof and through the triforium gallery you seem to launch out into the void as you step down into the swallow's nest about 6 feet lower down. Almost as disorienting is the sound of the Récit and Positif coming from beneath one's feet. The loft of the Klais at Trier is also pretty vertiginous, but at least you get there by lift! JS

A truly pathetic state of affairs. One is bound to ask what the cost of another 4 years' storage in Durham is likely to be - I bet £100k is not too wide of the mark. The South Bank authorities should be ashamed of themselves. They were quite happy to let their insurers pay for an expensive refurbishment of the console after recent water damage, but seem to have set their minds against reinstatement of the remainder of the organ. However, rumour has it that a forthcoming change of management at the RFH may bring about a more enlightened change of attitude. Nevertheless, one factor that does not help the case is the way visiting foreign orchestras routinely bring an electronium with them when programming works requiring an organ, in order to play at their customary higher pitch, typically around A443. Recent Prom appearances by the Vienna Philharmonic and Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestras are a case in point - with the mighty RAH Willis/Harrison giving way to a puny toaster in big works by Bartok, Richard Strauss and others. Maybe British orchestras should start tuning up another 3 Hz. JS

There is a CD of Stanford & Wood canticles & anthems by the Magdalen Choir under Bernard Rose, first issued on vinyl in 1964, which includes the Wood Coll Reg (OxRecs OXCD-5368). There is also a contemporary CD transfer of English Polyphonic Church Music (Byrd, Sheppard, Gibbons, Tomkins, Dering etc) which must be one of the finest recordings of its kind ever made, with some quite unbelievably beautiful singing. Bernard Rose was a Tomkins specialist - his Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom reduces me to tears - a perfect Desert Island Disc in every way. (OxRecs OXCD-5287). You should be able to get them from Blackwells, or else direct from OxRecs direct at Magdalen Farm Cottage, Witney OX6 7RN. JS

With such perfection in the finishing in the workshop, it's hardly surprising M Aubertin will be able to have the organ fully installed in a matter of days in January. JS

No 1 Prince Consort Road, now the Jamaican High Commission, was built in 1877 and was originally the home of Col. W T Makins MP, chairman of the Cadogan and Hans Place estate in Chelsea, which probably accounts for the 'Pont Street Dutch' style of the building. The little organ in the entrance hall is thought to have been originally by Cavaillé-Coll's foreman, August Gern, who set up business in London after erecting one of his master's instruments in the nearby Carmelite Church. The organ was badly neglected and vandalised over the years and all that remains of Gern's work is the case and tin front pipes. It was a condition of the High Commisison's lease that the organ should be made playable again and Peter Conacher & Co installed a small IIP/12 second-hand Willis organ of 3 straight ranks (Salicional 8, Gemshorn 4 and Principal 2) plus extended Gedackt, all on direct electric action. About 15 years ago I had the unusual experience of playing the organ for Jamaican Independence Day - a very jolly occasion, with steel bands and rum cocktails flowing freely - and a very soulful singing of the Jamaican national anthem which completely overwhelmed the organ accompaniment. JS

You may know that David Dunnett (Norwich Cathedral) gives regular duo recitals with an Australian trumpeter colleague - and very entertaining they are, too. JS

Toulouse must surely have the most comprehensive collection of instruments, old and new, of any city in Europe. As an example of the imaginative, innovative reinterpretation of the post-romantic aesthetic, the organ by Jean Daldosso in the Temple du Salin must surely repay close examination. Temple du Salin The design has many ingenious features - pedal organ almost entirely derived from downward extension of manuals to 73 notes, floating divisions on mechanical action and a remarkable mixture scheme. And much more besides. JS Just in case the link doesn't work! - http://dermogloste.viabloga.com/news/l-org...in-a-toulouse-4

I imagine it gives a pretty authentic account of Reger's music. It might be of interest to see a modern reinterpretation of this sort of instrument -a 'post-post-Romantic' organ, if you like - in the recent new organ for Max Reger's own church in Weiden. See Max-Reger-Orgel and click on 'Disposition' at the bottom There are two enclosed divisions, the Schwellwerk being placed right at the back to give the remote effect of the 19c 'Drittes Manual'. The shutters may alternatively be operated by hand levers, presumably by the registrant. There is, of course, a (programmable) Walze and the stoplist is intended to give an imperceptibly gradual crescendo at 8ft pitch (ein unvermerkliches graduelles Crescendo im 8'-Bereich). The suspended mechanical action is designed to simulate the touch of mechanical cone-chests. Other modern gadgetry includes adjustable wind throttles for controlling the wind supply to individual divisions for use 'in playing modern compositions' (this used to be a bit of a fad among present-day German builders, as I recall). Reger's tonal palette has been carefully supplemented to increase the versatility of the instrument. JS