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Can anyone help, please? Marie-Louise Langlais recorded Incatation pour un Jour Saint on an album for the Schwann label that featured Jean Langlais' Second Organ Concerto. I've not been able to find it for sale on-line and the original distributors doesn't know anything about it. I wondered if anyone here had it in their library and, if so, whether a brief loan for educational purposes and an appropriate consideration might be possible? PMs welcome. Thanks. J

The Organ of Wimborne Minster - Sean Tucker. Erudition and consummate dexterity, embraced in exquisite taste. And trumpets! J

Not YouTube, and apologies if this has been posted before but there are lots of interesting recordings here. http://www.kmfa.org/listen_archive.htm#PW (Well, I think they're interesting.) Best wishes J

I’m sure there will be others (so please add them) but Messiaen’s centenary offers at least three opportunities to experience complete performances of his Nativité:- Saturday 2nd February, 18:30 - King’s College, Cambridge – Stephen Cleobury (Free) Friday 22nd February, 19:30 – Westminster Abbey – Olivier Latry (£15) Sunday 7th December, 18:00 – St Paul’s Cathedral – Huw Williams (Free) Which takes your fancy (and, if you feel so inclined, why)? Best wishes J

Far be it from me to suggest that any candidate capture their best performance of set pieces in midi, encourage the examiner sit as far away as possible, and then press PLAY.

Michel Chapuis improvising on the organ of the Chapel Royal at Versailles http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=ArTJAlKPdpQ&...feature=related Best wishes J

Would you still have to throw 80% of them away because they weren't sticky? J

I'm just wondering ... How does it remember where the sticky yellow bits of post-it notes (with the registration changes for the helper) are supposed to go? J

I'm afraid it made me feel weak at the stomach. J

The choir of Coventry Cathedral, c.1988, deliver the Coventry Carol accompanied by the (I'm guessing) inclusive music group. There are other clips in the same account (notyobs) that you might find interesting. Best wishes barry

The RCO membership directory is downloadable (by members) from the website as a .pdf file and as such is searchable. As at June 2007 there were 25 HonFRCOs - most of them with names even I recognise (Ian Tracey, Gillian Weir, Marie-Claire Alain, Gerre Hancock, Simon Preston, Petr Eben and so on) and the ones I don't know of seem to have OBEs. It looks pretty much as one might expect. Perhaps there are many others who choose not to be included in the directory. Best wishes J

I came across the following page which claims to have MP3s of the complete organ works, recorded "for Bach’s tricentennial in 1985 at St. John’s Cathedral in Albuquerque by Dr. Dennis Schmidt, former Artistic and Executive Director of the Bach Festival of Philadelphia." http://www.bach-fest.org/podcast.aspx#Schmidt I apologise if this has been posted here before. Best wishes J

You might want to give the BBC another try. I listened to the King's College L&C and the St Thomas's Evensong via Listen Again and thought the audio quality greatly improved since the last time I tried it, the only minor niggle being the intermittent rumble at St Thomas's which I assume was generated by passing subway trains and, thus, couldn't be helped. Best wishes for a happy and healthy new year to you all J

http://www.musicroom.com/se/ID_No/028582/details.html They seem to think they have it.

I went to the local state primary school in the 60s. Every day we had Assembly in the hall that doubled as a gym. Assembly started with a record on the Dansette. By the time I left aged 11 I knew a whole load of Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Bach, Mozart and Grieg by heart. We sang hymns. We didn't have hymn books so the younger kids learned from the older kids. For years I heartily sang "To be a penguin." And at Christmas we sang (and learned) carols the same way. I got to know them all by heart. Still do. There was nothing 'political' about it. It was just an opportunity for mass singing. I have no objection to Polish and Punjabi songs being included in the process today but if the Polish and Punjabi numbers are too difficult for the local primary school teachers to master that's no excuse for abandoning Away in a Manger. Incidentally, if you haven't read Mark Thomas's reflections on Away in a Manger in the Culture supplement of the Sunday Times, Dec 01, 2007, I gladly recommend it. He may have lost his faith but his prose will, I suspect, enable many others to recover theirs. Best wishes J

Lawrence is playing piccolo in this with the Thames Youth Orchestra at the moment. No use, I know, but I thought I'd mention it Best wishes J

The Coram Collection Vol 1 - Romsey Abbey This leaves scope for a franchise. Vol 2 Canterbury Catherdral, Vol 3 RAH &c, and you never have to worry about what to call the next one!

Awww ... And I had this wonderful image of you struggling onto a ferry with a Makin lashed to your back!

You mean ... you've agreed to play something extremely long and extremely hard in a foreign country, and in a place that is extremely lacking an organ to play it on? Wow! Best wishes barry

At the risk of parading my ignorance, I've never quite got the point of Mahler. As for opera I think it should always be in a foreign and incomprehensible language. I don't know why so much liturgical music seems to match words and music together beautifully whilst opera is often so very banal. In fact, all new operas should be written in a made-up language that doesn't mean anything to anyone. Then the lyrics wouldn't be silly and the diction wouldn't matter. Best wishes barry (ps ... did anyone else wince at "Bring me my chariots of fur" in the Remembrance Day service on the BBC?)

Dear Flûte Wow! Thank you Best wishes J

Dear ACC Thank you so much for looking that up, and for taking the considerable trouble to type it all out. The following is taken from the museum pages of the INJA site (and loosely - and badly - translated by me). Un peu plus tard, en 1883, Lebel verra la construction d’un second instrument dans la salle des concerts (actuelle salle Marchal) par le même facteur. Relevé en 1910 par Puget, puis par Convers en 1926 et enfin par Danion-Gonzalez en 1961 il est composé actuellement de 64 jeux réels répartis sur 3 claviers de 61 notes et une pédalier de 32 notes. A little later, in 1883, Lebel ordered the building of a second instrument in the concert hall (the Marchal Room) by the same builder (Cavaillé-Coll). Developed in 1910 by Puget, then by Convers in 1926 and finally by Danion-Gonzalez in 1961 it comprises 64 speaking stops across three manuals of 61 note compass and a 32 note pedal organ. And that doesn't seem to agree with anything in Eschbach. If only the blessed Tony ran a French NPOR it would be easy to discern the state of the organ in 1953. Best wishes barry PS. Thanks again, JC. Yes, I found that addy myself and sent an e-mail at 13:32. I've also written to the INJA, and the Duruflé.org. No luck yet.

Further investigation reveals that C-C built it in 1883, Puget did something ('Relevé ... par Puget) in 1910, and Convers did some more in 1926. So it's the Convers 1926 spec I really want. M. Dargassies isn't on my Christmas Card list so I'll see if I can find an e-mail address. Thanks John. Best wishes J

Ooops! In looking into this myself I have found that the recording was actually made on 5th March, 1953 (so not in the 20s). But's it's still the C-C spec rather than Gonzalez that I'm after. Best wishes J

Hi Thanks. Yes, it's the one in the salle André Marchal, but I'm trying to find the specification as it would have been in 1920 (before Gonzalez got to it in 1960). Best wishes J