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John Sayer

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Everything posted by John Sayer

  1. I seem to recall there were plans back in the seventies to move the organ to the west end, with a new case designed by the architect, Lawrence King. The late Michael Gillingham advised on the project. I believe there were objections, presumably from the CFC (or whatever it was called in those days) and the case went as far as Consistory Court, but, alas, no further. Maybe someone else has a more precise recollection. JS
  2. I heard it twice last year and was impressed. A generous, effortless sound, with the new Récit successfully integrated into the whole. The other addition to Silbermann's specification, of course, is a 32ft reed, which the great man himself never built. There are a couple of CDs available of the instrument. The restored Frauenkirche itself is absolutely amazing - a vast, light, airy and very theatrical space, not at all what one would expect of a Lutheran church. Equally impressive were the large crowds queueing for an hour or more to attend the Orgelandacht (prayers and short address with organ interludes) at noon each day. The church must have been 3/4 full - something one can't imagine happening in this country. JS
  3. I believe this organ survived a pretty severe earthquake not long after its installation - not the best way to treat an organ with mechanical action. JS
  4. It might be worth having a look at "This Heaving Ocean of Tones - Nineteenth-Century Organ Registration Practice at St Marien, Lübeck" by Joachim Walter (published 2000 by Göteborg University, Dept of Musicology) 251pp ISBN 91 85974 54-4. It is a account of two men - Hermann Jimmerthal (1809-1886) and Karl Lichtwark (1859-1931) - who held the post of Organist at the Marienkirche, Lübeck during the period 1844-1929., where they presided at the vast IVP/78 organ built by Edmund and Johann Schulze in 1854. This organ perished in the bombing on the night of Palm Sunday 1942, but some impression of what it sounded like may be gained from the organ of similar size and specification installed by the Schulze firm, albeit in a much smaller and less resonant building, at Doncaster Parish Church in 1862. Both men meticulously annotated copies of the music they played with registrational details. As was the fashion of the time, their repertoires included numerous transcriptions (symphonies and string quartets by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven etc) plus JS Bach and Mendelssohn. The book gives about 20 examples, including several of the Mendelssohn sonatas, giving a fascinating insight into what the author calls the 'aesthetics of registration'. The book contains much more in the way of biographies of both men, constructional details of the organ itself together with commentaries on musical life in 19-century Germany. It is an invaluable piece of original research. I was fortunate enough to hear an illustrated lecture by Herr Walter a few years ago on the Schulze organ at Armley - some of the examples he played were a revelation, being unusually subtle and effective in their musical effect. He has also attempted to re-create Jimmerthal's registrations on CD on the huge untouched Ladegast organ at Schwerin Cathedral. Much depends, of course, on what is meant by the 'German Romantic organ'. As Pierre says, there were several distinct so-called 'romantic' schools of composition and no one type of organ can easily to justice to everything from Mendelssohn to Reger. Schulze & Ladegast are early exponents of the style and therefore perhaps not typical. One would be hard pressed to play Reger or Karg-Elert on them, for example. The organs they knew where quite a different beast. But that's another story........ JS
  5. I'm not sure these are ballet shoes, strictly speaking - you couldn't do 'points' on them, for example. I once turned pages for German virtuoso Matthias Eisenberg who wore true ballet shoes, the elasticated variety, though without the cork inserts in the toes. It always amazes me how many organists manage a perfectly clean pedal techinque - or at least good enough for routine service playing - whilst wearing near-clodhoppers - that is heavy outdoor shoes with thick rubber soles. JS
  6. For me 8+4 and 8+2 (with 8,4,2 transmitted into the Pedal) works well enough. I elected to have shove couplers working both ways, i.e. I-II and II-I. The extra flexibility is useful in works like the 'Dorian' Toccata, where you can have 8+8+4+2 for the main chorus against either 8+2 or 8+4 for the episodes. The same goes for works like the Walther Concerti. A 2ft Fifteenth in a small, non-resonant room needs careful treatment, of course. Mine is right at the back of the case which reduces the sound output somewhat but makes tuning access a bit of a pig without pulling the whole instrument away from the wall. I was in two minds about having a stopped 4ft - something colourful like a Quintadena - in place of the 2ft, but, in the end, the couplers won the day. The slight heterodyning effect of the two 8s together is quite satisfying in romantic music and the increased resistance of coupled manuals is useful preparation for playing on larger tracker instruments, especially those with heavy touch. One thing I would not be without on any house organ, however, is a Tremulant. JS
  7. I believe I'm right in saying that some of the pipework from the gigantic Sauer organ in the Jahrhunderthalle in Breslau (as it was then called) found its way into the Cathedral after the war. I have the the commemorative brochure from 1913 (Die Riesenorgel von Breslau) - 5 manuals, 200 speaking stops and 15,000 pipes. It was for the opening of this instrument that Max Reger composed his Introduction, Passacglia & Fugue in E minor Op 127. The Jahrhunderthalle, re-named Hala Stulecia, survived the war but is today presumably organ-less. The 65m wide concrete span of the dome must have been a remarkable feat of engineering for its time. It must be one of the few buildings in which both Adolf Hitler and Pope John-Paul II addressed the faithful. According to Wikipedia (German edition) the Cathedral organ has 150 speaking stops and 13,000 pipes. JS
  8. Also interesting is the plethora of couplers, not just the normal, inter-manual variety at unison pitch, but also the so-called "Effektkoppeln" at sub- and super- pitches, as well as the various "Melodiekoppeln" for solo-ing out the top line using stops from a coupled manual. Some aspects of the design seem to be going back 2 or 3 generations, for example the high-pressure Seraphon stops. Only last week I heard a huge organ 1920s organ in Switzerland with a Hauptwerk blessed with no less than 3 such stops - Seraphonrpinzipal, Seraphongamba and Seraphongedeckt, the last of which emitted an amazing 'hoot' like the calliope in a Mississippi steamboat and even louder than the HP Tuba on the same manual. The 3-manual console resembled the cockpit of a Heinkel bomber - and the overall aural impression - to my ears at least - wasn't much different. Other contributors have commented on the new-found 'Tubamania' amongst German organists, and there's no great harm in that, I'm sure. However, as far as some of their other tonal re-discoveries are concerned, I can't help feeling they are re-tracing their grandfathers' steps up the same blind alley. JS
  9. Fair enough - it's only a minor quibble, but not everyone has this facility or wants the distraction of using it. My point was that, for the 'casual' viewer, coming to M's organ music for the first time, the texts might have been helpful in understanding this marvellous music, especially in view of Hazelwood's truncated préambule. If they can manage sub-titles for Richard Strauss, then perhaps they should do the same for Messiaen - and both pieces at that. I also thought the final diminuendo was incredibly effective and wonderfully atmospheric. Am I right in thnking, however, it's not written into the score? A case, maybe, where a little artistic licence in interpretation turns out to be inspired. JS
  10. Hear, hear! Latry's L'Ascension was quite inspired. Intelligent, musical, beautifully paced and conjuring up some quite gorgeous sonorities. The final Prière du Christ had me holding on to my seat. And the Saint-Saëns, too - heard, for once, without the organ blasting the orchestra off the platform in the final movement (the big entry is marked only f, I believe, as M Latry would have seen from the pocket score he was playing from) - an object lesson to all organists. It's interesting that Mr Behalovek said he had to ask Wayne Marshall to restrain himself at rehearsal, just to give the BBCSO a chance. I can't imagine Mr Chung had to do the same with Olivier Latry. Shame, though, on the Beeb, for failing to show the texts for either of the Messiaen pieces - perhaps they were afraid their religious content might offend some listeners. JS
  11. I think I'm right in saying that, if you go back to the very dawn of Old English, 'man' was in fact a feminine noun. JS
  12. There is a 20-page article on Nowowiejski by Nicholas Fogg in the current issue of The Organ Club Journal (2008/1). JS
  13. My understanding is that the Council are aware of the significance of the instrument, but a greater worry for them at present is the structural state of both the Concert Hall and the adjoining Swimming Baths. Until that is resolved, the future of the organ is likely to remain uncertain. JS
  14. I have a Peter Collins EOS organ - Man I: Chimney Flute 8, Gemshorn 4 Manual II: Stopped Diapason 8, Fifteenth 2 Pedal: 8-4-2 by transmission Shove couplers II-I and I-II Tremulant The cost in 1999 was about the same as a top-level VW Golf and I am very satisfied with it. I think the problem for many builders is that practice organs are not an economic proposition, especially if one-offs, as the cost of the basic infrastructure (keys, action, winding etc) is much the same as for a small church instrument, yet the customer expects to pay less. One way round the problem is to have a standard easily-repeated design, with limited optional extras and with a fair proportion of bought-in components. This formula seems to have worked for Peter Collins who has now built nearly 30 such instruments. JS
  15. The fire earlier this week in the main auditorium of the Philharmonie in Berlin fortunately seems to have caused much less damage than feared, despite the dramatic pictures in the press. ZDF television yesterday showed pictures of the interior with polythene sheeting covering the seats. Water penetration seems to have been minimal with what appeared to be only a few drips at the back of the stalls, ie. well away from the stage. The large IVP/84 Karl Schuke organ was to have been inspected yesterday but it was hoped there had been no water damage. An interesting comment on the German Orgelforum site suggests that this instrument leads a 'twilight existence', being seldom heard in a solo role. It would seem that German experience of large instruments in concert halls is not that much different form our own. JS
  16. Has anyone heard when work is likely to start in Leeds? The building has a superb acoustic which makes the big interim Phoenix instrument sound pretty impressive. JS
  17. I think David has a valid point here. It's difficult to form a proper impression of an historic organ from the sort of brief and superficial encounter he describes - and, let's face it, this is all most of us ever get. I've been extraordinarily fortunate in having a slightly longer acquaintance - say 3 or 4 hours - with historical instruments such as Naumburg, Jakobi Hamburg and Freiberg. I've come away humbled by the experience but I'm sure I hardly scratched the surface on any of these occasions. What knowledge or insight I may have gained is surely inadequate. It takes years to appreciate the genius of such works of art. Modern German builders have produced some creditable copies of (smaller) Silbermann instruments. I'd like to see one of our seats of musical learning have the courage to commission one for themselves instead of another boring modern compromise organ. JS JS
  18. It's a disgrace, I agree. It's a sorry state of affairs when contributors to this forum - most of them mere amateurs like me - seem to me more knowleadgeable about the current state of European organ building than many of the so-called professional advisers and consultants who just can't be bothered to look further afield than an uninspairing shortlist of "middle-of-the-road" German factory organbuilders. JS
  19. I had the good fortune to visit the Reil workshops in Heerde last month. We were shown a fascinating and beautifully produced 45-minute DVD on the restoration of the Ansbach organ, in which no effort (and no expense!) was spared in achieving a painstaking historical reinstatement of the Wiegleb original, even down to recreating the massive bellows stack situated in the roof space above the organ. So impressed were we by the video that we urged Hans Reil to make it commercially available. We then went on to visit an outstanding modern example of the firm's work in the Bovenkerk in Kampen, a most exciting musical instrument. The workmanship is superb and the organ is beautiful both to look at and to play. It would be nice to think this firm could secure a contract in this country one day. Kampen JS
  20. No logical reason I can think of. It could conceivably be something to do with higher incidence of sharps (i.e. black notes) in F# minor and where the increased leverage needed to depress the shorter keys becomes more noticeable with a deep touch. JS
  21. May I put in an enthusiastic endorsement for the DVD 'symposium' on the Elgar Sonata recently issued by St Chad's College and the Elgar Foundation - quite the best educational DVD I've come across to date. James Lancelot's performance on the Durham Cathedral organ is magnificent with masterful management of the instrument (without a sequencer), and even turning his own pages. He also gives a short masterclass on some of the more difficult passages, with advice on registration, ingenious thumbings down and even reversing L & R hands at one point. He also makes a most articulate and intelligent contribution to an extended disourse with Relf Clarke and Prof Jeremy Dibble on the origins of the Sonata, its structure and place in the repertoire etc. They also explore wider topics such as 'Elgar's Englishness' - all fascinating stuff. Also included is a visit to the H&H workshops with commentary by Mark Venning, a voicing demo by Peter Hopps and a short presentation of the resources of the Cathedral organ, again by James Lancelot. Finally, members of staff at the Elgar Birthplace give a talk, illustrated with museum artifacts, on the composer's upbringing and musical development, providing remarkable insights into Elgar's complex personality. Available from the Elgar Foundation Ltd and very worthwhile at £19.99. JS
  22. A 'little clicking' shows Air Berlin (Stansted-Tegel) at £77 and EasyJet (Luton-Schönefeld) also at £77 - or maybe cheaper, depending on the time of day. Bus from Tegel airport to Berlin Hauptbahnhof costs 2 euros, ditto from Schönefeld (though some trains may possibly stop there en route to Magdeburg). www.bahn.de doesn't show the fare for Berlin Hbf-Magdeburg Hbf (at least 2 trains an hour), but I can't imagine the return would be more than 50-60 euros for a 90-minute trip, as German trains are cheaper than ours (and they run on time!). Add to that the accommodation costs indicated by Barry, and you have your answer. JS
  23. Top marks to EMI for including Sumsion's 1965 performance of the Elgar Sonata on their re-issue of Elgar's Sacred Music - surely one of the finest interpretations on disc. A big rolling sound, beautifully judged tempi and phrasing combined with masterly control of the instrument, despite the lack (by present-day standards) of sophisticated playing aids. And that wonderfully unregulated honking GG on the Pedal Ophicleide standing out from the ensemble..... The whole CD is a memorable record of a bygone era (and of two instruments gone for ever). The amazingly pure, homogeneous sound of the treble line is a particular joy, as are Harry Bramma's bright, muscular organ accompaniments in the bigger pieces such as the Te Deum. JS
  24. I'd be very happy to take up such a splendid offer - maybe others, too. (For me it would be an intriguing and worthwhile stop en route to the GdO Conference in Konstanz from 27 July to 2 August). JS
  25. Rationalised, scaled-down, call it what you will, one imagines a new, somehat smaller instrument will have more room to speak out into the building, especially if some of the pipework can be cantilevered out of the chamber and clothed at long last in some decent casework. (However, the use of the word 'eventually' is this context is not entirely encouraging). Interesting, too, that almost all the reeds will be new. Maybe we can expect a very different sort of sound. JS
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