Ian Ball

Of course. A guy's gotta earn a living. Cathedral's only a weekday commitment. Only Advent carols so far at Stoke Bishop; Christmas on 23rd.

How dare you sir. A pernicious slur. Er, yes actually... five octave gap between diapason chorus and the mixture. Great Trumpet like Russell Watson blowing a kazoo.

Hi Dave Sorry to dampen your fireworks, but he's had this post in the bag for a good while now - it was an important consideration in being able to afford his university studies. It's been fun working with him there for the Advent and Christmas Carol Services. However, what on EARTH is that Great Mixture? Classic 1970s "continental" broken glass. Great shame. Good organ otherwise...well, apart from the lack of Swell 8' Oboe...the usual gripe.

One of the most thrilling sounds I ever heard was the Anniversary Recital the year the Tuba Magna was moved to the gallery below the South Transept facade. The Dean (I think) welcomed the capacity crowd by reading Psalm 150, after which Ian Tracey immediately launched into Grand Choeur Dialogué using the Tuba. The effect on the audience, heads still bowed, was like a Mexican wave. Although loud, it was a glorious sound - the same attack as York, but brighter. The pipes were clearly visible on that occasion, but I don't recall seeing them since, or hearing the TM with quite so much presence. I've always wanted to know why/when the Pedal mutations were suppressed. Anyone know?

Try holding your hands in a sink full of hot water for a good 5 minutes before the recital. Let the heat soak thru to the bone. (Obviously, if it's in Yorkshire, you'll have the cost of heating the water docked from your fee.) Cold hands can also be a sign of nerves. Were you more anxious about the first gig than the second?

Thank you - I miss playing the Messiaen every year. It really marked the start of my Christmas!

Absolutely. I was simply trying to express my opinion that DJB did not set out to make the organ sound "like Notre-Dame" or overtly more French in general, but simply that the organ lacked gravity, particularly in the nave and when used under an orchestra, and that pedal mutations were a cost-effective, space-saving solution. The notion expressed by some that he ruined the organ in some way is simply ludicrous, because nothing was removed from the HNB incarnation (except the roof, for well-rehearsed reasons which don't need repeating here). Had DJB wanted to 'Frenchify' the organ, there's plenty he could have done, not least accede to one influential local organist's suggestion to replace the West Positive with a Bombarde division, or Ian Fox's suggestion of chamades on a turntable, so that they could be fired towards Quire or Nave as required! (Funnily enough, this latter idea, lubricated by London Pride, soon blossomed into the image of a kind of giant Leslie speaker of chamades, revolving at high speed ). Philippe Lefebvre painstakingly reviewed the instrument, inside and out, and also made some detailed suggestions for improvement, resulting in a 5-manual design. All these were resisted. As in the late 1960s, money was one deciding factor, but DJB was acutely conscious of not wishing to upset the Downes concept - yes a thing of its time just as BBC costume dramas of that period always have the protagonists in 60s hair and makeup, despite the Empire-line frocks and hunting pink - but of historical and musical value nonetheless. I love your revised Willis/Harrision scheme by the way. But I do wonder where it could all have gone Re: organist's perception from the console (from another post) - yes the uneven-sounding Swell is a pain in the backside to be honest, and you just have to trust that your fingers are playing evenly. However, it's not a major issue and you do get used to it. Far more disconcerting and difficult to live with is, for example, the totally distorted impression of division balance you get from the console at Wells or Redcliffe.

Back to Gloucester... “More suited” - what does this mean? Why do some people assume that a style of accompanying Anglican cathedral liturgies that became the norm by the middle of the last century is the only valid aesthetic? The traditional Walmisley-to-Howells chunk of repertoire represents only a [small] proportion of many cathedral choirs’ libraries these days. The Gloucester organ is arguably better “suited” for everything other than Victorian/Edwardian music than a typical Willis/Harrison. As for the intended style of the organ, surely the priority for Ralph Downes and John Sanders, once the options had been narrowed down, was to rediscover the Dallam/Harris organ and to design an organ which was ‘true’ to the stunning but tiny Carolingian case (hence a certain Franco-Flemish flavour perhaps). At least certain compromises were made; we could have ended up with this: Jesus, Oxford - an instrument of integrity and unity, but arguably even less "suited" to a cathedral role.

Yes, it's a shame the original exciting case design had to be changed

I too have been sitting on my hands... but wish to add two points: those who have lived with the Gloucester organ on a daily basis love the strings. I have always found them ravishing and, box open, certainly not 'insipid' as I understand that word. They have a real presence in the building and blend far better with boys' voices than keen gambas; all the more so when used with the useful new sub octave coupler. Secondly, there's nothing about the pedal mutations to suggest that they were a specifically pro-French addition. The Notre-Dame examples obviously have a high profile, but they are also prolific in Germany and elsewhere. The priority was to find a cost-effective way to add more gravitas, colour and definition to the pedal chorus, rather than to ape any particular style of organ building.

You might be right there, and the organ score does contain plenty of cues, including many of the brass fanfares and some orchestral bass. Incidentally, I notice Fox does join in with the orchestra , playing rather more that the solo organ part! There is another excellent performance on YouTube which is home-grown, but for me the performance (and organ) lacks the transparency and glitter of Fox's Riverside solo.

Hehe I'm no blind fan of The Dish, but his technique and rhythmic drive are just phenomenal here, playing runs designed for two hands with one (1'57" onwards particularly neat), and apparently when suffering from cancer. Just love those bright tubas too...

Anybody know where I can get a copy of this, the last mvt of the Sinfonia Concertante, arranged for solo organ? Heard a couple or arrangements recently, including Virgil Fox's legendary Riverside performance, and can't rest til I've learned it. The chances of being offered a concerto at my time of life are rare and this is one piece which deserves to be heard more frequently! PS - see

Well at least we wouldn't put mayonnaise on them!

Freudian slip. 'Twang' was intended.... post has been suitable edited!

Oberlinger have patented a similar device at 16' pitch - the 'Cubus' - I think it's been discussed here before.

Alas I don't. There are a fair few examples on Pipedreams you might try, but none prepare you for the sheer warmth of tone in the building, and a richness that hugs you like a velvet blanket. But even with every stop drawn and 32's rumbling away below, the sounds is never opaque. (Oh and the variety and quality of the flutes...my goodness...I'm still quivering with pleasure )

I agree. With the exception of the Sea Interludes and bits of War Requiem, I find Britten irritatingly weak and often pretentious. Give me Walton any day. However, Britten's excellent taste in poetry is worth noting - Boris Ford's Benjamin Britten's Poets is an excellent anthology of everything BB set; Ford makes the point that Britten chose poetry of the highest quality and range to set to music, unlike, say, even Monteverdi, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms or Wolf. Still, that doesn't count for much if the music doesn't match it...

I gently have to take issue, Sean. A paper specification tells one nothing about the sound, and, in any case, the Hauptwerk cited above clearly does have a complete principal chorus, albeit one containing tierce and septieme. If Leipzig's Thomaskirche Sauer and Nikolaikirche Ladegast/Eule (which I heard in the flesh last weekend) are anything to go by, I can assure you that there is certainly plenty of clarity (surely the object of a good chorus), yet also a gloriously warm, transparent richness and gravitas, in a sound not dominated by manual reeds. They weren't even particularly 'loud' in the way we in the UK expect a 'romantic' organ to be overpowering. But 'brilliance' as we undertand it in England is not a typical characteristic of these organs (nor even of the middle German baroque organ, but that's another topic...!), with the possible exception of the tiercy twang.

The bottom octave of the 8' stopped flute on the tiny enclosed Brustwert at Clifton Cathedral is handled in the same way (not that this is any way my dream organ!) Ian

Here here! (And I too had similar reservations about the Hradetsky, despite its thrills.) Interestingly, your views accord with those expressed in two of the more interesting articles in this month's OR (the review of Ken Jones and David Ponsford's item). In short: eclectic organs don't do anything particularly convincingly, and organs built with real character tend to provoke polarised opinions. I was interested by an earlier post in this thread which described organs voiced (I paraphrase) with bland colours, in order to maximise their blending potential. It's interesting that both Fisk and Guillou believe the exact opposite: the more characterful and soloistic an individual stop, the better the blend.

'Fraid I can't be more precise than "a lot of Vowles". It is 12 years since I was there...and at the time people seemed more interested in the amount of surviving Harris and Seede pipework, and whether conserving the pneumatics (some notes having 12 possible points of adjustment) was wise. Perhaps Manders can shed some light on the pipework question?

Indeed. Why oh why did it take so long for some builders to acknowledge that the Sw Oboe is an essential part of the foundations?? Talk about spoiling the ship for an ha'peth o'tar!

Hmm. I know the Huddersfield organ is well-respected, and has been valued by generations of gifted students, but the spec looks like any medium-sized, pan-European eclectic tracker organ, of which the North of England has a fair few, including the RNCM's Hradetsky and Bolton Town Hall's Walker. They are all excellent, versatile instruments, which were ground-breaking in their day. However, surely none of these organs possess sufficient quantity and variety of foundation colours, or low-pitched mixtures, to do justice to the Reger school like the instruments cited above? (Oh dear...light the blue touch paper...I'm going to regret this post in the morning!)

Well, there was enough thru my speakers to make out some real quality - etheral Aeoline; sonorous, stringy, Hill-like Principal; and a versatile mixture that's very easy on the ear. I admire little organs and bold organists who make big music work successfully. I'd rather hear this than a 50-stop digital or knit-your-own-yoghurt chamber organ (well, who wouldn't?).