I'm sure Jonathan is right, in that the new publication probably does appeal to (and inspires) those in the university/music college/professional musician orbit. But what about the many other organists (the majority perhaps?), who earn their living principally outside the world of music, who have little interest in academic research, and who play simply for the enjoyment it brings them? Surely the new OR should cater for them too? How about a "quarterly organ lesson" in the magazine, rather like those by Anne Marsden Thomas in Church Music Quarterly. Matters of fingering and registration pitched at a level designed to encourage them to play and dig deeper is surely better than simply adopting an editorial stance which may well have the (unintentional) effect of putting them off reading OR altogether. Where are they catered for in the new publication?
On digging my November edition out of the recycling bin, I note that it contains an article on baroque articulation, another on articulation and fingering in early music, another on the organ music of Byrd, Gibbons and Tomkins, with yet more advice on fingering, articulation and interpretation. Then I note an interview with Anne Page, followed - immediately - by an interview with David Goode. Interesting enough in their own right, but surely not all in the same edition? Whatever happened to variety? A stodgier diet I cannot imagine.
Perhaps those of us disenchanted with the new style could start our own publication? "Not the OR" perhaps...............
Graham