handsoff
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Posts posted by handsoff
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Good Lord!
I wonder if they'd pay me £2000 NOT to play it for 30 minutes? Money well spent in the public's (ears) interest.
Incidentally...has anyone else yet bought tickets for Olivier Latry's concert in October, or will I and Mrs T be alone?!
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As predicted above, I did indeed buy that CD.
The Vierne is excellent with the best singing of any commercial recording I have so far heard and the organ is, well ND de P., maybe not quite as vigorous as the wonderful Pierre Cochereau recording but still spine-tingling.
To the second piece then; the Leguay Messe Deo Gratias. To my obviously uneducated ears much of it is little more than a cacophony. Some of the organ part seems largely to consist of a lot of random notes, one of the percussion instruments sounds spookily like the noise one makes by popping an index finger out of the corner of the mouth and the brass, well, a bit like part of the organ score, a lot of seemingly random notes flying about. With the Kyrie taking 12'10", Deo Gratias there isn't a Gloria. At one point I became aware of a gently rising glissando (of the sort made by a wooden "bird whistle" - you know, the one with a plunger) - sounding like a quiet flute stop. "How the hell did Lefebvre do that?" I thought, then remembered that our appropriately French Le Creuset kettle was on the range and just coming to the boil with a gentle whistle! (Proper kettles make much better tea than portable immersion heaters...). That'll teach me to listen on the West Gallery system in the afternoon when Mrs T has just come in from the office in need of refreshment.
To be fair I have heard the piece just the once and must say that there some quite exciting moments and one extraordinarily beautiful soprano solo. Some of the lovely quieter voices of the organ are also used to good effect. I shall certainly play it again and am sure I shall get much more from it in the future but do hope it's not on the menu when next I visit Paris.
P
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Festivo CDs should be readily obtainable in the UK. Priory are the distributors, have a word with them first. The disc is still listed on Festivo's website.
Duly ordered by phone this lunchtime from the extremely nice people at Priory for £13.50 inc P&P.
Thanks again for the pointer.
P
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Ooops - missed that somehow.
Thanks Jim, I check it out tomorrow..
P
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Sophie-Véronique Cauchefer-Choplin plays it at 6.20 from S. Sulpice on a recording I have (Priory?) - that sounds a good pace for that machine.
AJJ
Thanks Alastair,
I've just done a search and the only one of S-V C-C's discs I could find with this on is FESTIVO 6961 912 and no-one in Europe seems to stock it
This is the menu...
Gabriel Pierné: Trois Pièces pour Grand Orgue op.29 n°1, Prélude
Léon Boëllmann: Deuxième Suite op.27 n°2 et 3, Allegretto con moto, Andantino
Henry Mulet: Dix Esquisses Byzantines n°10, Toccata "Tu es Petra"
Johannes Brahms: Onze Chorals op. posth. 122 n°4 "Herzlich tut mich erfreuen"
Camille Saint-Saëns: Deux Improvisations, n°6 Pro defunctis, n°7 Allegro giocoso
Félix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Sonate en Ré majeur op.65 n°5, Andante (Choral), Andante con moto, Allegro maestoso
Jean-Jacques Grunenwald: Cinq Pièces pour l'Office Divin, Entrée, Offertoire, Elévation, Communion, Sortie
Louis Vierne: Première Symphonie op. 14 n°1 & 5, Prélude, Final
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Thank you for the replies.
The notes to the Jeremy Finsell recording shows a time of 6'32" and the Pierre Cochereau 5'27". As Vox Humana says, the former is fast enough and remains hummable (or "pommable"!) but the latter, whilst showing incredibly fiery fingers, strikes me as a bit garbled, with a loss of detail, especially in the vast spaces of Notre Dame de Paris. Strangely, the rest of the recordings in the set don't strike me as being out of step with what one might regard as normal. Maybe PC found it just too easy! I should love to hear it on the St. Sulpice organ, the action of which must force a slightly more measured pace.
As a 16 year old village organist I was once asked to play it at a wedding and managed to convince the groom, from the village, whom I knew quite well that the IIP...
http://npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch...ec_index=N05908
... wasn't really the right instrument for the job. That saved me a few weeks stress! He settled for some John Stanley and gave me a bottle of champagne a couple of weeks later with a note saying that he had much preferred my choice to his. Strangely, the same piece of JS was played at my wedding without any prompting from me.
P
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Dame Gillian is the subject of 3 "Artist Focus" programmes on R3 this week. See...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/artistfocus/
... for outline details. There's also Reubke 's Sonata on the 94th Psalm (again DGW) on Wednesday at 10.58am
Rob Cowan has just played Michael Murray's recording of JSB's Toccata in F from the Methuen Hall in the USA. I find that piece one of the most satisfying of Bach's Toccatas - lovely flowing lines, nice modulations and, of course, a good tune! Rob is decidely organ friendly; all we need to do is wean him away from Bach and on to something more adventurous. I've suggested that the Final from Vierne's 1st Symphony should have a wide appeal - preferably Jeremy Filsell's recording from St. Ouen.
Speaking of that Final, I played the Cochereau disc of it yesterday and found it a tad fast. I'm sure I'm on thin ice here but it was so fast that something seemed to be lost.
P
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The instrument in Holy Trinity, Stratford-upon-Avon is worthy of a session but I don't know the organist; it would have to be an overnight recording given the visitor numbers and I suspect the church might want loads of money for the privilege. Maybe another Warwickshire member knows more than I about it.
I used to practice on it when it was HN&B and loved the Great Diapason chorus but hacked off the vergers by forgetting that the tourists wanted to visit Shakespeare's tomb without the full Swell coming through the Great in their right ear.
I seem to remember the organ was rebuilt by Nicholson a few years ago (edit, 1991) and I think Andrew Fletcher was one of the consultants. It does sound good, plenty of power with some lovely flutes and mutations, and the Swell reeds are great (if you see what I mean!). It could do with both a 32' flue and reed but I suspect the case wouldn't allow it. Nice Tuba on the Choir :angry:
http://npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch...ec_index=D05055
I'd be happy to assist with local publicity.
P
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Some 3 years ago, I was asked by a member of a local church, whom I had known since I was a boy chorister there, if I would consider becoming the deputy organist. OK, I can cope with hymns, psalm pointing, the odd anthem on Feast Days and a reasonable variety of voluntaries suitable for a 2 manual tracker with 8/9 stops and a hitch up swell pedal so I asked how often and how much. The second was easy - nothing, and the first was whenever the "music group", guitar, flute and saxophone, was on duty because the incumbent organist didn't feel comfortable with their level of competence.....
My Sundays are still free.
P
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I agree absolutely with MM's views on exercise being the means to a clear mind and healthy body.
I retired 2 years ago at 51. These days, I swim non-stop front crawl for 45 minutes each morning and walk briskly for between 1 and 2 hours each day and feel in the peak of mental and physical health. I also suffer far fewer aches and pains than when I was bound to a desk.
Of more concern, I am also considering taking up the organ bench again...maybe I wasn't as bad as I thought. OK, I probably was, but as long as there's no-one there to hear, and if I get something from it...
PS Re daylight bulbs...my wife bought one from a craft shop, intended for use by knitters or those who practice embroidery.
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Soooorrrryyyy
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This...
...is a relative newcomer to Youtube. Incredible - that thunderous reverb!
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Many years ago, I was just stunned with the way Jean Langlais not only got to grips with the very large specification and console at Leeds PC, but also played a superb recitical.
MM
I saw and heard M. Langlais at Worcester Cathedral in about 1980. I was deeply moved to see a tiny frail-looking figure with long white hair being led to the console and then produce such incredible sounds. I forget the subject of his improvisation but I do remember it left the audience stunned - there was a very long pause before the standing ovation started.
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Apologies if this has been mentioned elsewhere but this link may be of interest.
http://amphion-recordings.com/cdlist.html
P
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Yeah Yeah Yeah, technically very impressive no doubt, but at what cost to the composer's intentions? I bet the audience didn't hear half the actual notes.
Has anyone tried it in a church with an induction loop for the hard-of-hearing?
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Coincidentally, Rob Cowan has just played Francis Jackson's 1964 York Minster recording of the Norman Cocker on R3. I love it! It was on the 2nd organ LP I ever bought (and wore out with my Dansette stereo) - The "King of Instruments" compilation back in about 1967/8.
P
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I note that there is another recording of the Vierne Messe Solenelle from NDP now available and wonder if anyone here has heard it? I know that I shall buy it...
Mrs T. has now come round to the Cochereau recording having heard it on the East Gallery system, and even asked to hear it once again at the weekend. Success! It bodes well for our Paris fortnight next year.
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I have the Vinyl disc of the Langlais Messe Solenelle recorded by St John's College and have just played it for the first time in many years. As soon as I heard it I remembered always being slightly underwhelmed by the organ part, until the final two chords of the Agnus Dei on the Trompeta Real which come as a real flash of light.
I have a couple of cassettes recorded from the vinyl, made in the days before CD stackers in cars. If anyone would like to have/borrow one, please feel free to PM me.
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Weird. I wonder if the Pedal Bombarde is really en chamade?
The photographs on the CD liner would indicate to me that the Bombarde 16', or at least the longer pipes thereof, is not en chamade. If one takes the longest open metal pipes in the case to be 16' then the visible chamades appear to be much shorter, although the angles from which the photographs were taken make it difficult to be certain.
The stop in question is certainly fiery, although perfectly in balance with the tutti.
Maybe someone on this board knows Rupert Gough to find out for certain...
P
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Today's lunchtime concert in BTH was cancelled due to "problems with the organ" according to the note on the main door.
Does anyone know what was the problem?
Thanks
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Vox,
Have you heard the Tallis Scolars' "Miserere" with Deborah Roberts singing the high bits? The disc (Ginnell CDGIM 041) starts with a straight performance, which is super, but ends with another performance with embellishments to the solo part improvised and sung by the same artist. I heard it in the car on R3's CD Review one Saturday morning and had to pull into a layby, much to Mrs T's bemusement.
It is spine-tinglingly beautiful....(IMO of course).
P
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When I was learning the organ I was taught, including during a couple of courses at Addington Palace, that the service should not be considered over until the voluntary was finished. For that reason, it was impressed on me that the playing should always be of the highest standard possible.
P
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As said acting-DoM - if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!! And I don't think the organist minded at all - in fact, I enjoyed a lovely conversation with him during the voluntary itself.
Happy Easter Folks.
Fair enough, but I minded. I didn't really want to leave my seat and walk away from the chatter so that I could hear the organ without extraneous noise in my right ear. I may not be a regular churchgoer these days but I did spend some 9 years in the choir at St. Mary's after I ceased abusing the keyboards and pedals, and try to stick to the standards that were expected then. As mgp said though - there is plenty of room in St. M's for both factions!
It was good to catch up with 4 of my friends who still are in the choir and am looking forward to the next Old Boys' meet....
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One for the electronic timers....
R3 on Thursday am (although in Wednesday's listings) at 01.00 is playing an hour of Buxtehude to mark the 300th anniversary of his death. The player is Hans Davidsson, but no mention of the organ's location.
Rob Cowan has just played a recording of part of Widor's 6th from Hexham Abbey - very nice too...
I went to my old Alma Mater at Warwick yesterday to hear excerpts (sadly all too few) from the Vierne Messe Solennelle during the morning mass. The organ sounded good with a nice fanfare on the chamades to welcome Easter and quite a few bits on full belt. Annoyingly, to bring up another thread, a large percentage of the congregation chattered during the final voluntary. Their numbers, sadly, included the acting DoM who came into the nave and started greeting people. Now THAT is being rude to the organist.
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Recitals
in General discussion
Posted
There's a recital of Bach in St Mary's Warwick tomorrow at 1pm.