Choir Man Posted February 8, 2021 Share Posted February 8, 2021 A quick search on YouTube for 'Organ Recital' with results limited to last week throws up 20 results from UK pipe organs. I have excluded many fine performances from overseas organs and from notable organists playing toasters. The search hasn't included music played in services or anything not labelled as a recital. The list includes cathedrals, larger and smaller parish churches, other churches and colleges. Of course performances my exist on other platforms as well. My point is, that as a result of lockdown, many UK organists are now bringing cameras into their organ lofts and sharing the experience of playing. In my opinion this makes the world a better place and I hope that this trend will continue as churches reopen and choirs are allowed to sing again. I have commented before that I think many organists are often too shy and that many people are unaware of the skills required to make great music on the king of instruments. I have always maintained that if organs and organists are to thrive in the future, we need to ensure that we are as accessible as possible whilst also being inspiring. Technology forced upon us in lockdown helps reach the internet generation of young people and I hope that what has been started will continue to be built upon, and not put back in the cupboard when we get the hymn books out for the choir again. Just for the record, here is the list of organ recitals that my basic search returned: Bradford Cathedral Norwich Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral Winchester Cathedral St Chad's Cathedral Birmingham Bridlington Priory Leeds Minster The Temple Church, London St Andrew, Holt St Mary, Warwick St Mary, Petworth St Mary, Portsea St Mary, Welwyn St Mary, Kidlington St Bees Priory Fernhill Heath Baptist Church Old St Paul's, Edinburgh Jesmond United Reformed Church New College, Oxford Merton College Oxford Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbarber49 Posted February 8, 2021 Share Posted February 8, 2021 There are four coming up from Peterborough Cathedral: One for each of Ash Wednesday, Lent, Passiontide and Easter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Contrabombarde Posted February 10, 2021 Share Posted February 10, 2021 Thank you for sharing that list. A wonderful idea for broadening our experience and enjoyment of organs during such a difficult time for so many. But it begs a wider question of how could such events be put on a sustainable footing? The organist deserves his or her wages though there always have been those (myself included) who are willing to play for free. Can the widening up to new audiences offset the loss in income and cover the expenses that are needed to keep an organ in top condition? In some sectors the answer is evidently yes - open source software nonetheless manages to pay its way for some people as an example. The challenge for organists and indeed organ builders will be how to exploit the new opportunities we have without losing all we have worked so hard to get. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveHarries Posted February 12, 2021 Share Posted February 12, 2021 Ashley Grote did his excellent New Years Day recital from Norwich Cathedral with a camera in the organ loft. It is always good to see a view that, if you were in the Cathedral sitting in the Nave, you probably wouldn't get to see otherwise. I hope organists will continue with this once we are back to normal. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dee Surtees Posted February 12, 2021 Share Posted February 12, 2021 1 hour ago, DaveHarries said: Ashley Grote did his excellent New Years Day recital from Norwich Cathedral with a camera in the organ loft. It is always good to see a view that, if you were in the Cathedral sitting in the Nave, you probably wouldn't get to see otherwise. I hope organists will continue with this once we are back to normal. Dave I really enjoyed that recital. Since I watched it, YouTube keeps reminding me of other recitals at Norwich, but I haven’t found the time to watch any of them yet. I know even before lockdown some churches had cameras set up so the audience could get a closer view of the player. They were probably the exception. Hopefully it becomes the norm from now on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rwolff Posted March 14, 2021 Share Posted March 14, 2021 Organist Frantisek Beer ( in Slovakia) has hundreds of videos up, all are very good quality taken from the choir loft of each church he plays at, he mainly records the hymns from the JKS hymnal, he has 638 videos in this playlist. There is a wikipedia page about him, he's not just some guy who plays the organ in these little churches! Many of the towns he plays in have small populations, 900 in one of them, but they have some very nice well kept up tracker organs in them! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCHrxi2J1yG7JLc-KxyQSdAuqleSFvyCN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rwolff Posted March 14, 2021 Share Posted March 14, 2021 Here's a couple of samples, you really need good sound reproduction, headphones or as I have- a home stereo with wall speakers connected to the computer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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