Christine Jose Rigby

Petroc Trelawny's writing in the London Evening Standard, about his meeting with CC, could possibly have influenced the 'paying public' to buy tickets for these Prom performances. What I find to be distasteful, are the lines 'Now 31, and living in Berlin, he (CC) is an outspoken critic of the organ establishment, which he says is obsessed with the past. And he has little time for "the pedants who dream of 32-foot long pipes". Strong words, to be sure, but is he in a position to make such profound comments about the organ establishment? There is just one Comment to yesterday's Daily Telegraph online review of Prom 2012 - Prom 66, by Ivan Hewett. This is well worth reading, if only to see the mention of the Willis/Mander Organ.

Greetings to Amsterdam, Michael. You are fortunate to have such beautiful organs in your City ! I am always moved when I listen to this one. http://youtu.be/IPqCh21GbNI

Hope you don't mind MM --- It is David Wells, Organ Builder, who has done sterling work on the St George's Hall organ. Ian Wells is Director of Music at Holy Trinity, Southport and Hon Deputy Organist at Liverpool Cathedral.

Edited

Thanks for mentioning this arrangement. I thought you would like to see this link The reply you have received has given me the information well worth passing on to other organist/friends I know, as it will be invaluable in finding 'out of print' organ music.

WONDERFUL ---- It made ME laugh !!! :lol: Jeremy has many talents ---- and not just for singing in a Cathedral Choir.

Thanks for that D O, I think that the important thing was to gain sponsorship for the cost of hiring the organs, which I believe was the case when CC performed on two seperate occasions at my local venue. Without this sponsorship, the cost would have been prohibitive. Maybe this is the way forward for us to give enthusiasts the opportunity to hear pipe organs in secular locations such as Town Halls and other Municipal buildings. I have spent a few minutes browsing 'Battle of the Organs/Carlo Curly/Allen Touring Organs' and was very interested to find the following: - I quote CC from the Lehigh Valley Newspaper, The Morning Call, May 3rd, 1996. "You worry about technique, you worry if the pistons are right, you worry about mixing all the colors. I'm simply the manipulator of a device that makes music." end of quote. And also, the end part of the article on Norwich Cathedral's web-site announcing CC's Organ Spectacular at East Harling, 21st July, 2012. I quote CC "I would never say that even the latest, state of the art, digital organs, such as the one I take to pipeless venues, can replicate the sound of a magnificent cathedral organ, but the classical organist who does not at least investigate the new technology will not have a job, because the cost of pipe organ restoration is becoming prohibitive. I greatly respect what has gone before, but as this is now the 21st century, anyone who declares that we classical organists must only play on organs with mechanical action, such as those built in the time of Bach, can't see the wood for the trees!" end of quote.

I understand that the Allen Touring Organ is now in private ownership in the South of England ----- http://cdmnet.org/Ju...es/elec/cjc.htm AND http://uk.prweb.com/...rweb9096167.htm Could it be possible that the presence of this organ was requested by the one who took it on tour for many recitals?

There is also more information about the Funeral on Stephen D Smith's web-site - www.organrecitals.com The link to this is http://www.organrecitals.com/carlo.php

:) AND his filing system is second to none, as I recall. His help in finding an article for me in The Organ Magazine was unbelievably quick.

No circus-act mentality here --- --- just a Masterclass by Daniel Roth, Organiste Titulaire, St Sulpice, Paris.What a Registrant to have !!!

Is it possible for a sound engineer to 'simulate' the sound of a pipe organ as superb as the Cavaille-Coll Organ presently in Warrington? Samples of the C-C Organ in the Parr Hall have been made. http://phoenixorgans...technology.html In this link, the sound engineer is pictured taking samples of this organ in Warrington. Granted, the acoustic of the Parr Hall is far from ideal for this C-C Organ, but the Parr Hall is its third home. It was originally built as a Salon Organ for a wealthy man and he later moved it to another location in different County.

Thanks MM, That is my aim, to publicise the instrument as much as I can, without upsetting those who have direct responsibily for it. With the help of the Mander Forum, I hope to achieve something. It is pleasing to see that there is still enough interest being shown in this C-C Organ. I have had a great deal of support from Roger Fisher, Benjamin Saunders, Professor Ian Tracey and David Wells, Organ Builder. These four have done so much, dare I say it, just for the love of the instrument. I can add to these, the names of Douglas R Carrington, a past Editor of The Organ magazine, and Gilbert Kennedy. Their interest in the organ more than 40 years ago was invaluable, and we must not forget this. It is my hope that one day, the C-C Organ will have a Curator and sufficient funding for its renovation and upkeep, wherever that may be. It was against all the odds that we were able to promote the Bi-Centenary Recital last year. This was very encouraging to me and for this reason alone, I think we should try to keep up the interest.

Thank you pcnd5584. I can understand your reasoning and am not in a position to agree OR disagree with you. I entered 'Charles Mutin' in the Mander Forums search engine and saw the topic 'Cavaille-Colls in Britain' from which I quote: - Pierre Lauwers 27 Jan 2005. 'Mutin began using ACC's stocks, so that the first organs had the same quality. Later, the quality suffered because Mutin was more of a Manager than an artist. Claude Noisette de Crauzat does not list it among ACC's organs. In 1984, he wrote 'the best conserved ACC organ in Britain was the one in Warrington, formerly built for a Mr Hopwood in Ketton Hall (correction, Bracewell Hall, Lancashire). A further quote from John Pike Mander 27 Jan 2005 - 'I believe this (Farnborough) to be an early Mutin which is why it is so often attributed to CC. Another quote from Guest_Roffensis 17 July 2005 - 'The organ is actually Mutin however'. A quote from P F Baron 17 July 2005 - 'That is certainly true, and this organ definitely looks like a Mutin from the very first years of the XXth century. For a short while, Mutin used the name-plate "A. Cavaille-Coll, a Paris", but with a wood substrate of lighter colour, as it is the case there (under Aristide, the substrate was dark, the name of the wood is "palissandre" (rosewood). The shape of the stop-knobs and the stop labels (with a coloured ring round them) are also typically Mutin.' I conclude with the National Pipe Organ Register (NPOR) [No 8452] 'Builders - 1905 Charles Mutin (Survey date 2004)

I agree, Denis. This would be the answer, but not doing anything at all about the problem achieves precisely nothing. We have a situation where no one wants the organ ----- the Warrington Borough Council want it out of the Parr Hall, but no one in the whole wide world seems to be interested in acquiring it. This has been going on for approx. 5 years now and there is still no solution in sight. In 2007 we were told by the WBC that there would be no more Recitals and that they weren't prepared to discuss it, end of story ! To give credit to the WBC, they do not want to let it moulder, far from it. They have sought the advice of Ian Bell and are keen to find another home for the organ, but if one cannot be found, what next ? The C-C Organ is not a museum piece, as some would like it to be. It is a fine instrument and is worthy of being maintained AND heard. Unfortunately for the organ, there has been a recent Heritage Lottery Fund Grant awarded to another worthy cause in the town. So I think it will be out of the question that there is any more money in the pot for the organ unless someone else takes it on. I sincerely hope that those Members of the Mander site who are interested in the C-C Organ's future will be able to suggest a solution.

Sadly, the situation has not improved in the last 11 months since this announcement was made by the Executive Member of WBC. There has not yet been a meeting of interested parties to discuss the future of the instrument, whether it be in Warrington or elsewhere. The USA promoter of the recent Twenty-fourth Annual Scotland and England Organ and Castle Tour wanted to include the Parr Hall in the itinerary, but there was a lack of response from WBC, so this was yet another missed opportunity to put this instrument on the map again. At the Parr Hall Bi-Centenary Recital last year, to Commemorate the Birth of the Organ Builder, there was considerable interest that it would not be too long before another Recital was announced. Unfortunately, as much as we wanted this to happen, we were told that we would have to book the Hall as a Community user, and this was out of the question, purely from a financial point of view. In spite of everything, the C-C Organ was still in Recital condition last year, but I am no expert on the subject and regard myself as a bystander, albeit, a very entusiastic bystander. I can only suggest that Peter van den Heuvel's offer of the Warrington C-C Organ on his Facebook web-site could have been to raise interest in the instrument, and nothing more. The van den Heuvel organ, built in the style of C-C was removed from the Duke's Hall of RAM last August and this is now for sale. It saddens me to see that Fugue State Films have chosen to include the C-C Organ of Farnborough Abbey in their film to mark the organs of Aristide Cavaille-Coll. This is a fine instrument, but it is a Mutin, built after the Death of A C-C. The 1870 C-C Organ which is presently in the Parr Hall would have been a fine example of the French Organ Builder to include in the film. We have come a long way since the late 1960's when local Town Councillor Harold Edwards found that the Parr Hall Organ was to be sold to a local scrap-merchant for £105. We can only hope that the present situation and uncertainty is resolved before too long.

The link to this programme is available until 6:04PM Sunday, 17 June 2012. I have just downloaded it, with the aid of Windows Media Player, a first for me. Hopefully, I will be able to listen to the anthem whenever I want to. I hope many of you enjoyed this beautiful singing by the Saint Michael's Singers. It is what we are all striving for in our Church Music.

For those of you who were unable to watch last Sunday's Songs of Praise from Coventry Cathedral --- this is the link to the programme http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b01jxrcn/ It is worth watching, if only to hear the Saint Michael's Singers, singing S S Wesley's 'Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace'. Truly, a taste of Heaven on Earth !

It appears that for some reason, the BBC have not yet loaded the St Paul's Service on their iPlayer. I was fortunate enough to be able to watch it again, by way of the Virgin Media Catch-up, but this wasn't possible until today. This covers the 3 hours 51 minutes of the whole of the BBC's coverage from 9.15am. It can then be editted in order to see the Service again. It would be impossible to tire of listening to the wonderful music.

I watched the repeat of the ITV coverage, purely to listen to the organ music before the ceremony and was pleased to hear the Con moto of the Saint-Saens Fantasie in E flat major. I noticed that when the BBC were in St Paul's, they sometimes excluded the sound from there in order to do their commentary. It would have been lovely to have heard much more of the organ than we actually did !

http://mypipeorganho...rgan-hobby.html This link is very moving in its content and will be of interest to those of you who have had as many years playing the organ as this man.

Thank you for the correction Vox Humana, I have edited my posting accordingly. My organist friend is delighted with the CD and it has further inspired her to buy Flourish for an Occasion and Pastoral by William Harris.

A lasting Memorial to John Porter can be found in the LP Archive Series of a well known producer of recordings of organs. There are pieces written by his contemporaries at St George's Chapel, Dr Sidney Campbell and Sir William Harris. Many years ago, the original LP was an inspiration to a young church organist who subsequently included some of the pieces in her repertoire. I'm pleased to say that this CD recording will be included in her Birthday gifts quite soon. Tempo Primo.

I am pleased to say that I now have the information I wanted. Tempo Primo.

I would like to contact Gillian Adams but have had no success so far. She studied organ playing with Professor Harold Dexter at the Guildhall School of Music. Gillian was one time Organist and Choirmaster at St Paul's, Wokingham and, later, the Organist and Choirmaster at the Priory and Parish Church of St Germans in Cornwall. If anyone can help, I would be very pleased to receive a PM. Tempo Primo.