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oscar_rook

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Posts posted by oscar_rook

    Oldest Living Organist? End of an Era

    in General discussion

    Posted

    Thank you for posting this pointer to E H Warrell's Autobiography and Marc Rochester's review of it.  His appointment as Organist at Southwark Cathedral in 1968 was slightly less out of the blue than it would at first appear; he is listed in Wikipedia as the assistant between 1937-1954 although he would have been away on war duty for some of that period.

    Choral evensong

    in General discussion

    Posted

    Seconded.  The entire service was marvellous, the acoustic is now so much better for music since the removal of the original ceiling tiles.  The Howells St Paul's service was very fine, as Darius has said.  Do listen to it on BBC Sounds in the next month if you have an opportunity.

    Alternative forum

    in General discussion

    Posted

    For many years I have lurked on this forum, visiting every day but rarely posting.  There are many wiser and better informed members, and I feel poorly qualified to contribute.

    I am greatly saddened by sudden collapse of Manders, and the dispersal of their wonderful team of craftsmen.  As others have said, their instruments will be a long-lived reminder of their work. 

    I hope many forumites will join the new forum and have every expectation it will continue where this one leaves off.  Many thanks to Steve for getting this set up in good time.

    Organs on Google Street-view

    in The Organ

    Posted

    There are several other recordings made at Weingarten which haven't yet been mentioned:

    1.  André Isoir recorded three volumes of JSB works there in Oct 1988 and 1990 on Calliope (CAL9710, CAL9715, and CAL9717).

    2. Franz Raml recorded music by Justin Heinrich Knecht in Oct 1996 on MDG (MDG 614 0764-2)

    3. Franz Raml recorded music by Johann Ludwig Krebs in 1999, again on MDG (MDG 614 0971-2)

    4. Heinrich Hamm recorded a mixed recital in June 1986 on Audite (Audite 95.408)

    5. Ludger Lohmann recorded music by Johann Heinrich Christian Rinck in Sept1996 on Naxos (Naxos 8.553925)

    I don't know whether any of them is currently available.

    Kind regards

    Oscar

     

     

    RIP John Scott

    in General discussion

    Posted

    John Scott had a soft spot for the music of Percy Whitlock and was President of the Percy Whitlock Trust. I believe the last solo CD he recorded before leaving St Paul's Cathedral was of Whitlock's music, including the marvellous Organ Sonata. Any Whitlock work would be very appropriate.

    Console Light

    in Nuts and bolts

    Posted

    The secret for blind organists is to set the registration for an entire programme on pistons. I know that David Aprahamian Liddle makes full notes about the layout and tonal quality of every instrument he plays before registering any piece so that setting pistons is a fairly straightforward matter; every combination can be checked by listening and adjusted if necessary. Obviously a sequencer or stepper is ideal, but a good supply of adjustable pistons is all that's required. The story told in Alfred Hollins' autobiography about sensing the temperature of a lighted stop knob simply doesn't work at speed because it takes too long for the brain to process small variations in temperature.

     

    David uses registrants to assist with stop changing when playing on large instruments without modern playing aids. Additional rehearsal time is necessary and the whole business is obviously more challenging. It can be done very successfully, as his complete performances of Widor 7 and Widor 8 on the Father Willis organ at St Dominic's Priory show.

    Elgar Organ Sonata

    in The Organ

    Posted

    The 1947 orchestration of the Elgar Organ Sonata was by Gordon, not Arthur, Jacob. The timings indicate the YouTube performance is that by the RLPO conducted by Vernon Handley in Aug/Sept 1988 which I find to be of good sound and brisk in the manner of Elgar's own performances. There is an alternative commercial recording by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Richard Hickox, recorded in May 2006 and at a rather more leisurely speed.

    Appointments

    in General discussion

    Posted

    Jonathan...............

     

    Who?

     

    DW

     

    The cathedral website seems to have omitted the first paragraph in their press release. It should read:

     

    "Gloucester Cathedral today announced that Jonathan Hope is to be the new Assistant Director of Music. Jonathan comes to us from Winchester Cathedral, where he has been Organ Scholar since 2012."

     

    Regards

    Flor Peeters - Chorale Preludes

    in The Organ

    Posted

    Many thanks for this info, David. Bryan Hesford was the dedicatee of several Peeters works. I wasn't aware of these articles which appeared monthly in the Musical Opinion between Feb 1977 and May 1978. Now off in search of these back issues....

    Flor Peeters - Chorale Preludes

    in The Organ

    Posted

    Does anyone know if a detailed list of Chorale Preludes by Flor Peeters exists? He wrote more than 300 preludes, collected into sets, but these volumes do not always have a list of individual pieces or a table of contents.

     

    Any help would be appreciated.

     

    Oscar

     

     

    St John's College, Cambridge

    in The Organ

    Posted

    I am not aware of an entire CD devoted to music for solo organ recorded at St John's Cambridge but there are several discs which include one or more organ tracks. These include:

     

    • Naxos 8.554659 : Herbert Howells - Paean (from Six Pieces for Organ) and Rhapsody in c sharp Op17/3 performed by Iain Farrington
    • Naxos 8.555255 : Edmund Rubbra - Prelude and Fugue on a theme of Cyril Scott Op69 and Meditation for organ Op79 performed by Robert Houssart
    • Naxos 8.555793 : William Walton - Passacaglia and Touch her soft lips and part performed by Christopher Whitton
    • Naxos 8.557277 : Lennox Berkeley - Toccata (from Three Pieces) Op72/1 performed by Jonathan Vaughn
    • Naxos 8.555795 : Kenneth Leighton - Veni creator spiritus and Rockingham performed by Christopher Whitton
    • Naxos 8.570561 : Edward Bairstow - Toccata-Prelude on Pange Lingua performed by Jonathan Vaughn
    • Naxos 8.554791 : Benjamin Britten - Prelude and Fugue on a theme of Vittoria performed by Iain Farrington
    • Oxrecs OXCD-060 : 6 pieces by Bourgeois, Bach, Messiaen, Whitlock, Dupré and Howells performed by James Martin

    HMV (EMI) Great Cathedral Organ Series

    in General discussion

    Posted

    I have no idea who JNM is or was, and frankly, I don't care if he was the personal organist to the Pope, but the man is/was a twit.

     

    JNM: Jerrold Northrop Moore whose magnum opus is Elgar: A Creative Life, reckoned by many to be the definitive scholarly book on that composer. I seem to recall he and Felix Aprahamian were about the only people who regularly reviewed organ music on Radio3's Record Review in the 70s and 80s.

     

    Oscar

    HMV (EMI) Great Cathedral Organ Series

    in General discussion

    Posted

    Here's a full track listing. I don't yet have the new CD set but, if my memory serves me correctly, the organs are:

     

    CD1/Tracks1-9 Liverpool Cathedral

    CD1/Tracks10-16 and CD2/Tracks1-3 York Minster

    CD2/Tracks4-16 Westminster Abbey

    CD3/Tracks1-10 Gloucester Cathedral

    CD3/Tracks11-15 and CD4/Tracks1-5 Coventry Cathedral

    CD4/Tracks6-13 Exeter Cathedral

    CD4/Tracks14-15 and CD5/Tracks1-10 St Giles Edinburgh

    CD5/Tracks11-24 Llandaff Cathedral

    CD6/Tracks1-6 Durham Cathedral

    CD6/Tracks7-13 and CD7/Tracks1-2 Hereford Cathedral

    CD7/Tracks3-9 Salisbury Cathedral

    CD7/Tracks10-12 and CD8/Tracks1-5 Norwich Cathedral

    CD8/Tracks6-23 Ely Cathedral

    CD8/Tracks24-25 and CD9/Tracks1-8 Worcester

    CD9/Tracks9-12 Westminster Cathedral

    CD10/Tracks1-15 Canterbury Cathedral

    CD10/Tracks16-22 and CD11/Tracks1-5 St Paul's Cathedral

    CD11/Tracks6-16 Lincoln Minster

    CD12/Tracks1-11 Chester Cathedral

    CD12/Tracks12-13 Selby Abbey

    CD13/Tracks1-5 Norwich Cathedral

     

    Regards

     

    Oscar

    Interesting thread closed

    in General discussion

    Posted

    MusingMuso wrote

     

    [..snip..] The church is not by Pugin, but in fact by Giles Gilbert-Scott, [..snip..]

     

    MM

     

     

    The church was consecrated in 1859 and Giles Gilbert Scott was not born until 1880. The architect was his grandfather Sir George Gilbert Scott who thought of it as "on the whole, my best church."

     

    Oscar

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