St Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna

[parsfan]

Can anyone update me about the organ at the West End? It seems to be out of action but the case looks quite modern.

[DHM]

Can anyone update me about the organ at the West End? It seems to be out of action but the case looks quite modern.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

While we're talking about the Stefansdom, does anyone know the current staffing situation?

 

I read on another forum a couple of months ago that both the DoM and the Organist had resigned - some sort of personality clash, I think, or one overstepping his authority.

 

Any ideas?

[Barry Jordan]

While we're talking about the Stefansdom, does anyone know the current staffing situation?

 

I read on another forum a couple of months ago that both the DoM and the Organist had resigned - some sort of personality clash, I think, or one overstepping his authority.

 

Any ideas?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

It's by Kauffmann, 1960, and it's dire. Nothing came out of it, and it never worked. But, in the usual continental way, the heritage people decided that it was a modern "Denkmal" and couldn't go. So the typical Viennese solution (they have a saying there, "Die Lage ist hoffnungslos, aber nicht ernst" - the situation is hopeless, but not serious ) was to build a "Chororgel" with 4 manuals and 50-odd stops, which is used for all purposes, leaving the old organ to go mouldy in its corner.

 

As regards staff, they currently have an "interim Kapellmeister" and the "Dommusikus" Thomas Dolezal, apparently the person who sparked the resignation of Peter Planyavsky, who however also fairly characteristically remrked that the good thing about not working for the catholic church anymore was that he could finally divorce his wife. He is getting on for retirement age anyway.

 

Cheers

Barry