pwhodges

I note he has it in for Elgar, too. Paul

Good grief! So the War Requiem is evil for having a boys choir, and Auden addressing him in a letter as "Dearest Ben" is the very depth of depravity? I even wondered if those documents were a spoof, but looking at the man's site, I suppose not. Paul

No. Looking for the boxed set (HMA 290060) brings up remarkably few references on Google. You'll do better looking for the individual CDs; the numbers are: HMA 1901225 Chapelet in Palma HMA 1901226 Chapelet in Spain HMA 1901227 Saorgin in France HMA 1901228 Chapuis in France HMA 1901229 Saorgin in Italy HMA 1901230 Winter in Germany My test search for the first of these found two copies each of the first two here. In fact that site has all six listed - but whether they are truly available, I couldn't say, and they're €25 or €29 each. Paul

I have a boxed set of CDs ("Historic Organs of Europe") containing: Saorgin @ Malaucene, Bastia & Brescia Chapuis @ Marmoutier & St Maximin Winter @ Altenbruch & Trebel Chapelet @ Covarrubias, Palma (St Agusti & St Geroni) & Trujillo Paul

Each piece taken from a different LP, all of which I have (well, not the whole Rogg), and more (or the CD reissue in some cases); great stuff! Paul

And very good it was, as always! Paul

I'm not quite sure what your point is; I simply reused the phrase I was responding to. Maybe some irony, too. Mind you, I thoroughly dislike the terms "classical music" and "popular music", and I agree that perhaps it's a tad lazy just to go along with what's in general use. Paul

Is broadening the taste of classical music lovers not also a good thing? Paul

The pronunciation of this word (and various others) with the "eye" sound rather than the "ee" sound is a specifically North American variation. (Consider also the common - wrong - American pronunciation of Iraq with the "eye" sound.) Paul

I see SW, which I presume to indicate Stanley Webb. From the linked introduction: "He has indeed been obsessed with the organ from the age of six." Paul

I also recommend it highly. All three pieces come over very well, and the organ arrangements are well thought-out and impeccably presented; my favourite on first hearing was the Saint-Saens, as I enjoyed the extra variety of texture that the duet provides (superb ensemble, as well, even without taking the different nature of the instruments into account - very well done indeed). I think I will be getting a copy for my young grandchildren. Paul

At those pitches, the problem is not so much the speakers as the fact that domestic rooms are simply too small for the sound waves (hint - how big is even a closed 32' pipe, which is only a quarter of a wavelength). Headphones can do it, but you don't get the feeling and the trouser flapping. Paul

I recall Sydney Watson inviting a chorister to play a phrase on the Tuba during a voluntary at Ch Ch; can't remember what it was though. Paul

Note that there are two editions of Buxtehude by Beckmann. Breitkopf published his new edition in 1997; but some people prefer his older 1971 edition. Paul

Not entirely new, though. In 1968 I recorded a fellow student playing a range of hymn accompaniments on the organ of Christ Church, Oxford, to be sent to a missionary in West Africa who had a hi-fi system in his tent church and wanted to bring the cathedral experience to his flock. This recording is now in the British Library's National Sound Archive. Paul

It's the "catalogue" aria, in which his servant Leporello lists how many women Don Giovanni has had in each of a number of countries, ending up with 1003 in Spain ("Ma in Ispagna son già mille e tre"). Paul

The official list is shown here. Note that publishers are only required to send automatically to the British Library; the others have right to request free copies of any publication, but must do it within a year. Paul

I too like Christ Church. And I actually like the acoustics in Ch Ch, dead though they are. That may partly be familiarity, as I sang there as a boy; and as a student I made almost the only existing recordings of the previous Willis/Harrison organ, played by Paul Morgan (now in the National Sound Archive at the British Library). (I've also recorded chamber music recitals there, including one by Andrew Manze, Richard Egarr and Susan Gritton when they were all students ) Paul

Mozart, perhaps (see the end of Don Giovanni). Paul

No pipes, no electronics - harmonium??

But I would.

They're Austrian, not German, surely? I don't know Clifton; is the building as unpromising as Christ Church? Paul

My memory may not be entirely accurate, but I have a dreadful recollection of seeing in a book of that sort of thing a "hymn", song or chorus which consisted of about a dozen repetitions of the name "Jesus", and no other words at all, laid out over four or five lines - followed by about ten lines of copyright information. Paul

This page mentions that one of the stops on the Guildford Positive organ is the "broken glass" stop. Paul

Copper pipes at Guildford