sprondel

Dear list members, from the German Orgelforum I had to learn that Wim Verburg, after a short and severe illness, died today. Many of you might know him from his incredible website www.orgelsite.nl as an avid organ lover, player, photographer, and even composer. He had a gift for making contact easily and kindly, as well as for communicating his love for the organ and his insatiable, and at the same time wonderfully relaxed, curiosity for everything concerning the instrument. Wim had married recently. He was only 44. Best, Friedrich

I know the set, and found it quite good. Of course, everything new in this area has to stand up to comparison with Ben van Oosten's set, which, in my ears, is unsurpassed in every aspect (and it was recorded in 1984!). Jeremy Filsell's playing, of course, is very good, but somehow I think I would have enjoyed it more in recital than on disk, maybe because of the more interesting bits in the articulation. My new favourite, and in my ears the first Vierne set coming close to the BvO set, is this, played here. Of course, the organ is anything but romantic (as stated erroneously by the label), but it is an exceptionally fine new instrument and, in its short life, has served for many recordings already. (In case you think, having read the stoplist, that one-and-a-half real pedal stops might not be sufficient for symphonic repertoire, I recommend to give it a try -- I was surprised myself.) It is the playing, however, that really makes the music bloom. Best, Friedrich

Only that it hadn't. Whoever brought up that idea -- be it Forkel, Griepenkerl, or anyone else -- can't probably have heard it on a pedal harpsichord -- if he ever saw, let alone heard one in his life --, as the piece is such an excellent example for refined sound management on the organ by four-part writing. Almost all of which is lost on the harpsichord. Best, Friedrich

That's an easy one, isn't it? Put down mine for the assistant organist, and restore the organist's as promised. One might suggest, then, to leave negotiations with the organist to her. Or to quarrel over the question if and when to acquire a multi-level combination system. Best, Friedrich

Was the case design, by any chance, done by Simon Platt? Judging from his work for Gerhard Grenzing -- Niigata centre, Brussels and Madrid cathedrals etc --, I'd say he likes to show a lot of wooden surfaces in his cases, and the decorative elements at Llandaff seem to match his overall style as well. In fact, I find his case designs quite attractive, if a bit heavy sometimes. Nicholson's site doesn't tell anything about it, or I did not find out where. Best, Friedrich

No. It's fascinating. The history fascists tought me that it was a matter of conventions, which sometimes were confirmed by repetition in the score, but more often were not. Some schools had developed a set of shorthand instructions, most effectively the French. Other schools just did not bother. Worthy? Depends on what you would like to hear, or give the audience to listen. I don't believe in Wanda's view, but some ways of music making, in relation to the music played, sound more convincing to me than others, for several reasons. Personal predilection for certain sound qualities is just one of them, expectation from knowledge of historical instruments and other sources another. Fashion: As far as it is reflected in the market, of course it is. Personal taste: If you mean it in the way of saying "Well, it all comes down to personal taste in the end", then the question is useless. If, on the other hand, "taste" means something in the way of "bon gout" as the Couperins might have used the expression, then it is a definitive Yes. No! I love listening the players to cope with instruments, and love it even more if they manage well. Nicolas Kynaston playing Widor's Eighth on a German neo-baroque Ott form the 1950ies in Bonn? Fascinating! You might be on to something there. Best, Friedrich

Nicolas Kynaston played the piece, along with some Wiedermann and Germani, for his Hyperion CD from Chichester. Great playing throughout, so supple. Best, Friedrich

We have heard of hybrid instruments. is a hybrid performance, featuring one player and two instruments, one clearly digital, the other one very analogue. Reminds one of what is told about Bruhns, accompanying himself while playing the violin. Best, Friedrich P. S. Oh -- not at all hybrid, it turns out. Fully analogue. Sorry.

The second phrase of the fugue subject is an inversion of the "Dies irae" beginning. When the entire subject comes in inverted, at first the semitone is in the wrong place. When the chorale from the prelude is quoted, however, it clearly tells its point of departure. So, it is more than possible that you're on to the master here. Best, Friedrich

Which reminds me of a sentence by Fernando Germani as quoted by his student Nicolas Kynaston. Germani knew hardly any other than pneumatic and e-p organs, but became acquainted with tracker action at the end of his career. It must have made a lasting impression on the man. "You just think it and it happens", he put it. Best, Friedrich

There is a quote from Jeanne Demessieux about the type of action that would suit playing Dupré's music best, and she stated that tracker action needed to be "very, very light"; the best type would be electric (by which, I gather, she meant e-p). These "very, very light" and fast tracker actions, however, do exist; and maybe Mme Demessieux just couldn't know, because she tragically did not live to see the considerable progress in tracker action engineering since the 1960ies. I recently heard Dupré's Sketch op. 41, 1 (that staccato thing) on a 1989 tracker (this recording, nothing on youtube, alas) with the player going at breakneck speed -- faster indeed than John Scott on his, otherwise peerless, St Paul's recording. The only downside was that, on a tracker that basically was built in 1960 (1989 rebuild), the keyboard ended at g''', so that a few notes on the top end were missing. Bottom line: As long as we are talking contemporary organbuilding, no tracker actions needs to be as clumsy as to exclude exciting bits of repertoire. On the other hand, some other very exciting bits, by composers such as Ligeti, Cage, Kagel, Yun etc., cannot be performed aptly on electric action instruments. Best, Friedrich

That's a very good list. Mine would include additionally, and perhaps before your nos. 9 and 10 1. Norden, St. Ludgeri 2. Freiberg, Dom 3. Dresden, Hofkirche 4. Ottobeuren, Abbey church (Riepp twins) 5. Riga, Dom 6. Schwerin, Dom 7. Poitiers, cathedral 8. Sydney, Town Hall 9. Southwark Cathedral 10. Boston, Church of the Advent (11. ex Boston, ex Immaculate Conception -- in storage, alas) Best, Friedrich

I am not quite sure what you mean by "vertical", but felt remembered of a sentence Robert Ampt said about his splendid Sydney Hill on YouTube: "Well, the one thing the organ (120+ stops) lacks is mutations". Bound to make registering Messiaen, for one, a tricky experience, but it's the way they wanted it. I still don't quite get the rationale. May be, if the interest in the instrument persists, we get a déja-vu twelve years from now, and a "Positiv" division will be massaged into the music closet -- Cornet décomposé, Cymbale and a "Cremona". Best, Friedrich

I just found this – Sebastian KB has been mentioned here before, this is another display of what he does. Judgement about the organ in ongoing discussion, by the way, is between quirky and rightout hideous (sound as well as achitecture). But I think that's secondary to this stunning Dance of the Death. Best, Friedrich

That's still the best way to handle it. When I worked as an editor for an organ magazine, some person approached me, relating the "news" that, under the load of the then-new suspended Klais in Cologne cathedral, the vaults were crumbling, and that the organ had been silenced and was about to be taken down very soon. The person in question just came from a meeting of organ experts-to-be, so a lot of people had had their heads together over their beers, and the buzz made its way through the scene quite well. I called the cathedral's curator (Domabaumeisterin), and she said, well she'd love to confirm the rumour as she had never been especially fond of the location and case design of the organ, but alas, everything was fine. Best, Friedrich

The Lausanne Fisk has a all-but-true 32-foot chorus. The open 32' is taken down to CCCC (ten old wooden pipes, another two in the front) but, from TC up, is an extension of the 16'. The two 4' are Prestant and Octave, and with them the chorus spreads into a German and French branch, so to speak. The chorus consists of the following ranks: 32.16.8.4.4.2 2/3.2.1 3/5.VIIFour.VCy.VI-IXMx This adds up to 26 to 29 ranks of chorus -- in a Fisk, this is a sound to remember, for "our organs are never shy", as Greg Bover, vice president to the company, put it. The organ has what David Pike, tonal director, called "blind features" concerning the 32' chorus in the Great. The Fourniture VII starts on 2 2/3', and the 5 1/3' comes in fairly early. There is a 10 2/3' rank as well which is activated only if the open 32' is drawn. Likewise, the Mixtur VI-IX has a 5 1/3' rank that only comes in if the 16' Montre is drawn. Many Schulzes, even if only of moderate size, had a 32' Bourdon from TC up. These stops appear to have worked quite effectively in their tonal concept. Best, Friedrich

There is a recording by the late Käte van Tricht, organist at Bremen cathedral and virtuoso student of Karl Straube, Reger's friend and favourite performer. Straube edited several organ works by Bach, pre-Bach masters and Reger which, today, can be seen as protocols of his own way of playing this literature, before he made contact with, and became vivid supporter of, the Orgelbewegung. The disc (MD+G) was recorded at the Bremen Sauer (c. 1900, IV/100+) before the last restoration, which took the organ -- that in the meantime had grown quite some cymbals and lost lawns of strings instead -- back to a more romantic state. Nevertheless, underneath some shiny XXV-or-so-rank mixtures, you hear the unbreakable Sauer core of foundation and reed sound. The B-Minor prelude, played by van Tricht after the Straube edition, is foundations throughout, quite slow and melancholic, as if played by a large string orchestra. The first fugato entry in the prelude, in fact, sounds on the string céleste. The prelude starts pp, builds up to a climax of foundation sound just before the re-entry of the last ritornello, then shifts back to pp -- a most compelling effect, smoothening the formal break and keeping the flow beautifully. The fugue starts very soft and rhythmically free as well, then gains a more and more solid sound and pace, and ends, with a monumental ritardando, on full organ. It is an interpretation that always harkens back to a big Wagner orchestra behind the organ sound. It is one-of-a-kind playing. I like it much better than TK's, who, no matter what he plays, tends to raise my heart rate and blood pressure most uncomfortably. Best, Friedrich

Thanks Vox! That's the sort of information I was looking for. Gratefully Friedrich

I'm quite sure I read it in some authoritative source, perhaps an OR article or even Stephen Bicknell's book ... Temple Church is a good hint, though. Must dig out the book. Thank you anyway, Friedrich

Dear members, I am looking for a source and some facts concerning the famous anecdote about someone announcing "And now, the organ will play!", and the organist who is supposed to play sitting in the audience, waiting what might happen without him. I have a vague memory that WT Best was the organist in question, but can't find anything to support that. Who was involved, and when and where did this happen as reported? Thanks for any help! Best, Friedrich

There are historical organs, especially manufactured for processions, which, concerning space economy, even surpass today's tightest-packed examples. An example is the Gottlieb Näser positive (1734) at the Germanic National Museum, Nürnberg, which is really tiny (and for that sake leaves out the note D, starting C E F F# ...). There are, as well, many baroque positives of three to five stops which, while not meant to travel in an estate car, were not that much different from their mobile great-great-grandchildren. They were placed in chancels, on choir lofts etc. Thorough bass created a market for this kind of instrument. Best, Friedrich

I opened a new thread on "The Organ and its Music". It's thriving. Please come and join. Best, Friedrich

Dear all, I have started a new topic on this fascinating subject, and invite you to abandon the GDB thread for a while and join me there. Thanks for coming Friedrich

The question was raised in the GDB topic, but gained quite some momentum of its own, so let me start a spin-off topic here. Malcolm Kemp asked: "... but I still find that Walcha and Heiller inspire me in a way that van Oortmerrson and Koopman do not. Perhaps I am just getting old. What do others think?" As for Koopman, he just raises my blood pressure to dangerous levels, even in his recordings – something quite remarkable in its own right –, so that I have to stop listening after a short while. I decided not to listen to him any more. Jacques van Ootmerssen's recent Bach recordings I found very good – well-chosen tempi, nicely breathing phrasing, noble articulation, and a true sense for the respective organs and their sounds. About Walcha, I find it remarkable how every voice sings, and how he never disturbs the grand pace of the music. I needed some time, however, to discover these qualities in the recordings, because they are the opposite of spectacular – you need to open your ears wide and to join into the singing. As regards registration and articulation, the recordings avoid extremes of any kind – as long as you regard a playing based on seamless legato not an extreme, that is. Another player I found quite compelling is Leonid Roizman, teacher of most Russian organists touring the globe today. His 1960 Bach recordings are currently reissued on CD (Melodia), one by one. They were taken on the Cavaillé-Coll-Mutin organ of Moscow conservatory (the one you see on all the Horovitz Covers). The playing is flawless, majestic and overwhelmingly disciplined. By going at very steady paces and using incredibly long-reaching phrasing, he manages to build up even the longest pieces – the F Major toccata, the Passacaglia – as large units. These recordings are definitely worth listening to. I had to review them together with Jacques van Ootmerssen's, and found them not as distant from each other as one might expect. Best, Friedrich

I like the playing, and the tempo is not so very much off the usual (which of course doesn't say much about the quality of the interpretation). (Yes, there are one or two notes in the pedal during the ritornello that could have lasted longer, but it doesn't disturb the overall momentum.) When players go for a really heavy "French" beginning, the staccato echoes get quite stiff, even comically so, and the fugue sections loose all sense of virtuosity. Played at this pace, the music actually tells that it was created by the same mind as the fugues in G Minor (542/2) or C Minor (582/2). First-hand witnesses report that Bach tended to play at a vivid pace, comparatively. I think Peter Williams is right in writing that there is more to this piece than the much-quoted French overture style, and Spang-Hansen apparently is aware of that. Best, Friedrich