One church only

[Dee Surtees]

Just as a bit of fun, I though I would suggest a game. You can only choose one church/concert hall, and you get to keep all the organists/choirmasters  who had a post there. Would it be the Thomaskirche? A bit obvious perhaps. Or perhaps St Suplice (I think we might have to allow acting organists to count for this game)? St Clothilde? La Sainte-Trinité? An English church? Or maybe Dutch? The Oude Kerk?

I look forward to hearing everyone’s suggestions, and shall come back with mine, once I’ve had a bit of time to consider the options. 

[John Robinson]

Good idea.

Perhaps an alternative game would be to ask for participants to choose one church or concert hall and get to keep the instrument (and the building it is housed in, of course)!

[Guest]

Westminster Abbey perhaps (Gibbons, Blow, Purcell, Croft etc) although of course we know these people through their compositions, not their playing or what their choirs sounded like. But WA certainly makes up for that with its recent office holders.

If we're talking instruments I think I'd need to know a lot more about the history of instruments in different places.

[Dee Surtees]

On 28/12/2020 at 22:26, John Robinson said:

Good idea.

Perhaps an alternative game would be to ask for participants to choose one church or concert hall and get to keep the instrument (and the building it is housed in, of course)!

In this alternative I think I would choose the Sint-Laurenskerk in Alkmaar without too much hesitation. Assuming both organs in the building count, that is. The van Covelens organ is one of the finest playable renaissance organs in the world, and while there are other organs that might compete for the title of best Bach organ, the van Hagerbeer/Schnitger main organ is certainly one of the contenders.