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Michael Sullivan

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Everything posted by Michael Sullivan

  1. Hello Paul, I quite agree ' the programme'. A wonderful organist, but look what he's playing ! oh dear ! Anyway many of the musical cognoscenti will be at the Opening sevice of The Three Choirs Festival at that time. 4pm ! What a silly time. Why only one organ recital ? or have I overlooked another. The RAH organ cost mega money and it seems to be rarely used. Wake up RAH authorities. M.S.
  2. p.s. I find this quite mind boggling. Darlaston comes under Walsall and they can't even maintain their 'magnum opus' there so I don't know about restoring a 2nd organ. M.S.
  3. What year was this ? It was in a poor condition 15/20 years ago but worked tolerably well. We must prosecute enquiries. Certainly the latest the NPOR have is dated 1903 !! surprise surprise ! M.S.
  4. Good morning Parsfan, I was going to mention that; a good idea and in many other churches in Provence (les amis des orgues). Quite often just a small framed account of the spec. so you have to look carefully on all the near pillars by the door. There are rarely organ recitals in the big church on the Avenue Jean Medecin, or is it the Rue de France ? never mind I forget. Yes there is still massive disruption in the city centre, but now most of the tram lines are in position. ( France is SO much more go ahead than ourselves in this respect). Some readers might be interested in Ste Reparte. She was a 15 yr old virgin martyred in Caesarea in the 4th century, arrived in Nice in a boat of flowers towed by a pair of angels (hence Baie des Anges). Actually this same Reparte was the 1st patron saint of Florence before that city adopted intermediaries with greater heavenly clout !. The new organ whose name I couldn't recall in an earlier post is St Pierre d'arene. A 3 man instrument in a street behind the Promenade des Anglais. I will also mention the little organ in the village church at PEILLE, a small village to the NE. They have been given the organ from the Royal chapel in Monaco Palace, just 2/17 - built by Merklin of Lyon around 1950, and installed in the little church in 1989. Now they are apealing to people for funds to install a trumpet rank. I only mention this as it is unusual to find much interest in the organ in a village church. M.S.
  5. Hello Andrew, I have only recently joined and can only contribute slightly to this. Pierre has provided excellent information. I have an apartment at Eze Village and have been going regularly there for about 35 years, and I thought there were hardly any organs in the area. Now there is a new organ in one of the city centre churches and I attended part of an evening concert, June 2005, played by all the local organists, incl the Monaco cathedral organist, Rene Saorgin. This started at 2100 and finished at 2400, I stayed for about an hour and stewards brought round frequent glasses of juice etc. The year before I read all about this organ in the local paper the Nice Matin, but I have temp. forgotten the name. The English church in Nice has an old original Walker recently refurbished, and only small, perhaps 15 stops, but sounds very well because of the spacious accoustic. The French organist improvises marvellously upon it. The Cathedral organ Ste Reparte, was done up in the 1970's under the direction of Pierre Cochereau who lived in the area, but I have never heard it. Sometimes I have attended recitals in Monaco cathedral a 4 man Tamburini about 60 stops, but despite that, it sounds very well, Quite full in the middle registers, I recall, always a weak point with many continental builders. The main organ, as far as I know, is at St Maximin some way west, and north of Toulon., sited in its magnificent Basilica. I understand it to be the most important organ on the Cote d'Azur. You get a magnificent view of this from the motorway. The place itself is dreadful, Prosper Merimee got it right back in 1834 when he said 'St Maximim is a miserable hole between Aix and Draguignan'. It hasn't changed. A large organ by Isnard (1773) 3,000 pipes, and now fully restored. The organ was saved from destruction during the Revolution, because Lucien Bonaparte, the town Governor, played the Marseillaise on the organ, all stops out, when the revolutionaries arrived at the town gates. Michael Sullivan.
  6. This is interesting; these 3 organs are well known. Are there any other public hall organs in Scotland, apart from Ayr which we have just been told about ? I didn't know about Aberdeen Music Hall, did anyone else outside Scotland I wonder ? Nobody has mentioned the organs in the Southampton and POrtsmouth Guildhalls, both of which are in poor condition, although the Soton one is used occasionally. On the IAO Congress in 2004 we attended both places. At Soton Ian Bell gave us a most informative talk on the Compton tradition, and it is hoped that funds might be found to restore this organ to its former glory. Harold Britton then played very appropriate music on both consoles. On the concert console he played Wolstenholme's - Finale, (a fine piece, why does no one play this ?) and Smart's Postlude in D, and on the Theatre console selections from Quentin Maclean etc. MS
  7. These little comments are all very interesting, but we are becoming far removed from the original subject - Lesser Town Hall organs. Have we exhausted this topic ? Maybe so. No one has mentioned Town Hall organs in Scotland, of which there are several. The organ in the Library and art gallery in Glasgow could come under this heading. This building has only recently been re-opened and its organ can now be heard again. M.S.
  8. Good afternoon Scrolling through the various 'posts' I thought it might be of interest to say that our Three Choirs organ at Hereford - the west end organ on stilts - possesses a Great organ in sub octaves coupler. Draw all 9 manual stops and this coupler and blaze away and you would think it is the Father Willis at the other end playing. A wonderfully bold organ. Great: 16,8,8,8,4,2. Swell: 8,4,2. Pedal: 16,16. Regards Michael Sullivan. p.s. This organ was restored by Nicolsons in 1983, but now it needs attention again.
  9. Hello musing muso This is VERY exciting, and you write so wonderfully. I assume it is true, although it does sound slightly incredible. I would love to know who you are, would it be possible to email me with your name ? I fail to understand this obsession with writing under pseudonymns, providing one doesn't comment too outrageously I see nothing wrong with writing under ones proper name. I have had a reply back from Roy Massey who said it wasn't him but he wishes he had been one of the perpetrators, ' but I don't think it was me, more's the pity'. He continued: ' I was threatened with contempt of court once whilst practising in the Victoria Hall - Hanley when the court was in session. The steward to the Court told me to shut up and I told him to get stuffed and carried on. Some minutes later he came back with a message from the judge about contempt of Court. I stopped !!! ' Every good wish Michael Sullivan
  10. Good morning Nigel, This IS exciting. What fun you had in those days. I've just sent an email to Sir Royston himself to ask what ELSE did he get up to in those days ? I'm agog to know more. Organists certainly enjoyed themselves then, whereas today they seem to be like sausages churned out of a machine, all play the same music, all say the same things, and all, mostly, are so dreadfully boring. Your account is a breath of fresh air. Regards Michael Sullivan.
  11. Hello again Mr Step, Will you repeat again the web site for Portland city hall organ. Inserting the one you gave - www.foco.org only gives me the Home of the Fraternal Order of Court Officers !! Regards M.S.
  12. p.s. One town council, WALSALL, to name and shame, having spent something like £250,000 on its instrument in 1988, has now allowed it to fall into poor condition through indifference, and, to be fair, perhaps they now have more pressing priorities. Councils are notoriously very fickle, what is in favour one year is totally out of favour the next year. Iam sure it is the same everywhere. Another council that I know treats the organ like a piece of machinery, which I suppose it is, but at least they maintain it; they say we'll do the swimming pool this month, and the organ next month. etc ! Regards M.S.
  13. Good morning Mr Step, How very interesting and fascinating I find your information; it's good to know that people from as far away as USA and Australia are reading this. I am particularly interested to read that you have worked on the Kotzchmar organ in your City Hall. I have a c.d. of this by the virtuosic Thomas Murray - An Evening with Edwin Lemare - but produced in 1991, and the organ sounded very fine then before its more recent restoration. You may be interested to know that the greatest concert organist, hopefully not arguably, of the 20th century - Lemare - has been re-incarnated this century in the form of Thomas Heywood (Melbourne Town Hall) who has been recitaling over here (UK) to ecstatic audiences. He is like a breath of fresh air to the organ world. Yes - SOME of our local councils do keep their civic organs in good condition, others who possess organs hardly know what they are and care even less, and one or two would like to restore their instruments but haven't the wherewithall at the moment. Regards M.S.
  14. Good afternoon Mr Newnham I stand by what I said perhaps I shall omit the word "notoriously" when I described NPOR as unreliable, perhaps I should add on occasions. Possibly you can now insert against Colchester Town Hall organ - unplayable 2006; also I note that when looking up Darlaston Town Hall the survey date was 1903 with NO updates. Does that mean that in the intervening 103 years no one with NPOR connections has visited it ? I went about 15 years ago and it was playable then. Regards M.S.
  15. COLCHESTER TOWN HALL. Tell us more mr DeVile. I never knew there was an organ there. I looked this up on the NPOR, but they are notoriously unreliable in their information at times and it said that it was tuned in 2005. Now you say it is in a state of total collapse. There are plans to rebuild it with electric action and add pedal reeds I understand. Can you add anything more up to date ? Maybe you could correct the NPOR entry.
  16. MIDDLESBOROUGH TOWN HALL ORGAN> Now that we know more about Dover Town Hall organ, what about the fine Hill in Middlesborough Town Hall. ? Come along you northern organists tell us something about that ? My own experience, as I mentioned earlier, dates from the mid 1970's when I was friendly with the Borough organist - Eddie Dalby. At that time the organ was in reasonable condition and recitals were given. I do recall one unfortunate occasion when the Tuba cyphered at the beginning of a Dupre piece I think causing the unfortunate organist to have a fit of the vapours. Who was this ? a very nice lady I recall - Jane Parker Smith ? Jane Watts ? (young and dark haired I recall). I forget. As this organ is never mentioned I assume it has fallen into disuse, although I don't doubt that it is still physically in situ.
  17. DOVER TOWN HALL ORGAN Sorry I was wrong. I telephoned the Town Hall this morning and spoke to a Ron Densham who is the Assistant Manager there. It seems that when I looked in about 6 years ago I looked in the Stone Hall whereas the organ is in the Connaught Hall on the left. (after a gap of 30 years it is impossible to remember in which room an organ was situated). He has given me the following information: The organ ceased to be used about 25 years ago, and the console is now stored downstairs. The pipes are still there. About 1 year to 18 months ago a local lady died and left a substantial sum of money for ' music for SE Kent'. It was felt that possibly the Town Hall organ could be restored. Therefore the trustees brought over a GERMAN ! organ firm who declared the organ to be in not a bad condition, and quoted about £200,000 for its restoration. They would have to take it back to their workshops in Germany and the whole project would take perhaps 1 year. Anyway that idea unfortunately came to nothing. Now what ? It doesn't look promising.
  18. Hello Andrew Butler. Sorry to hear about Reg Adams, yes, although it was 30 years since I heard him he was indeed a brilliant musician. Tell me can you find out what happened to the organ in Dover Town Hall. I thought it was scrapped many years ago. I rang the Town Hall this afternoon and they are endeavouring to find out. Certainly Reg would know, and I would have thought organists in the area would also know. I am in Hereford with our fine Father Willis. Thank you Michael Sullivan.
  19. I looked in Dover Town Hall about 5 years ago and the organ has totally disappeared. I was informed it had been thrown away. Michael Sullivan.
  20. I forgot to mention DOVER TOWN HALL whilst I was working on the Railway ships at Dover in the mid 1970's I frequently attended recitals at the Town Hall given by the Borough organist - Reg Adams.(I think). A 4 man Norman and Beard occupying 3 sides of the Hall. Quite often some of the great piano concertos were played with himself playing the orcehstral part on the organ. The organ has long since been thrown away for scrap.
  21. I'm not an organist myself but have some experience of Town Hall organs. MIDDLESBOROUGH; In the 1970's I became very friendly with the Borough organist here - Eddie Dalby and his wife. A fine 4 man Hill organ, but I assume that these days the organ may well be in a state of collapse as I hear nothing about it. DARLASTON: Comes under the umbrella of Walsall; and 15 years ago it was extremely neglected. A 3 man Binns still with its original Binns patent piston system. Hidden away behind the curtains at the rear of the stage. WALSALL: Paul Derrett has just written very comprehensively about this organ. I used to attend Harold Britton's monthly concerts regularly; he was responsible for having it rebuilt in 1988 by Manders. He was Borough Organist here for 42 years and as he himself says " the first 40 years were wonderful years" That says it all about the Council etc. 'nuff said. Another organ that has fallen into a 'slough of despond'. WEST BROMWICH: regular lunchtime recitals are held here. 3 man Forster and Andrews I think; restored Nicholsons.
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