New Oxford Aubertin

[DouglasCorr]

Too true - and as one who was lucky enough to be able to spend a fabulous hour at S.Louis in the Autumn with the opportunity to play and watch/listen to an organist familiar with this instrument fom recital work and recording I can testify that for me it was like playing no other organ I have ever experienced. In a sense it was like playing Baroque music on any other instrument designed for the purpose - even with my decidedly dubious technique it all started to sound really quite promising. As far as I was concerned the console felt like a natural extension of the whole playing experience.

 

AJJ

I've just got Margaret Phillips’ next installment of the organ works of J S Bach recorded on the Aubertin organ in Saint-Louis-en-l’Île, Paris. - Regent records. And what an interesting recording it is - there are endless varieties of tone colour - this is an organ that you don't hear all in one go! Fine playing too.

[AJJ]

:angry:

I've just got Margaret Phillips’ next installment of the organ works of J S Bach recorded on the Aubertin organ in Saint-Louis-en-l’Île, Paris. - Regent records. And what an interesting recording it is - there are endless varieties of tone colour - this is an organ that you don't hear all in one go! Fine playing too.

 

These are really good too:

 

The Art of Fugue - Regis Allard (Hortus 039)

 

Daybreak - Music by Buxtehude - David Kinsela (Organ O - ORO106)

 

http://www.organo.com.au/frame_cds.html

 

(The rest of Kinsela's site is quite interesting too)

 

AJJ

[Guest Nigel ALLCOAT]

These are really good too:

 

The Art of Fugue - Regis Allard (Hortus 039)

 

Daybreak (music by Buxtuhude) - David Kinsela (Organ O - oro 106)

 

AJJ

 

Updates:

Concerning Saint-Louis, I heard from M. Aubertin last night that he had just received the 4 disc set of the complete Mendelssohn (including the 4 hand version of the Wedding March that he did). Olivier Vernet is the organist. But how excellent that we have Margaret Phillips' awaited recording on the shelves. Capital.

 

Oxford - St John Baptist College progresses extremely well. Actions are going in and most of the pipework is made. The templates for the pipeshades are done and woodwork and carving is full steam ahead. I shall update the photos with some fine ones kindly taken by Robert Sharpe - organist of Truro Cathedral - when he visited the workshops last week.

 

Best wishes,

Nigel

[AJJ]

I could do with a complete Mendelssohn - any details please Nigel?

 

AJJ

[Pierre Lauwers]

I could do with a complete Mendelssohn -

 

 

....Me too. but rather:

 

-Part one: St James, Bermondsey, South East London (Bishop 1829)

 

-Part two: St Bartholomew, Armley (need details?)

 

Why go search in Paris for something that you have authentically at home?

Maybe the folies bergères and the Fouquet's as an after muzicieren ? :angry:

 

Pierre

[AJJ]

....Me too. but rather:

 

-Part one: St James, Bermondsey, South East London (Bishop 1829)

 

-Part two: St Bartholomew, Armley (need details?)

 

Why go search in Paris for something that you have authentically at home?

Maybe the folies bergères and the Fouquet's as an after muzicieren ? :angry:

 

Pierre

 

I agree - but Interestingly - Margaret Philips recently recorded Mendelssohn (Regent label I think) and went to Germany to find the right sounds - maybe Fatcat can help here. (I also have a very fine set of the Sonatas recorded by Thomas Murray on organs by various incarnations of the Hook family in the USA).

 

AJJ

[Guest Nigel ALLCOAT]

Interestingly though - Margaret Philips recently recorded Mendelssohn (Regent label I think) and went to Germany to find the right sounds - maybe Fatcat can help here.

 

AJJ

 

I am no fat cat - ask my accountant, but I can suggest The Spang-Hanssen set using the Joh. Michael Stumm organ at the Hof und Stadtkirche of St Paulus in Kirchheimbolanden. CLASSCD 193-95 Olufsen Records

 

To counteract the somewhat inept remarks from Pierre, I will hear any music so long as I am persuaded by the performance. I am not particularly interested in the instrument - why should I? Each has its own personality and I am only too willing to be wooed. If Vernet wishes to inspire (or otherwise) by choosing St Louis in Paris - so be it. His choice. Those comments about the proper organs is a little like my mother taking little notice of a fabulous artist that is on the television. But when she is told the famous name, she sits up, takes note and swoons! I will not say another word until I have heard the said Paris recording - but I imagine the sound..............

 

By the way, Mendelssohn was absorbed by organ matters all his life. Time and again M mentioned in his letters which organs he had tried and what he thought of them. For this reason we know that he continued to prefer baroque instruments (such as those that influenced Aubertin in Paris). He loved reeds which had gone out of fashion because of their snarling tone and that he preferred the Stumm organ built in 1779 in the Katharinenkirche, Frankfurt, for the first performance of the sonatas when he could easily have gained access to, for example, the supermodern Walcker organ in Paulskirche in the same city.

 

Spang-Hanssen's recording uses the best preserved Stumm left to us that was built in 1745.

 

All the best,

Nigel

[Pierre Lauwers]

There is an interesting Mendelssohn sound file here, on a somewhat later bishop:

 

http://npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch...ec_index=C00877

 

.....Which says a lot for those "post-classical" british organs, and their amazing voicing.

 

The Paulskirche Frankfurt organ was not at all suited for Mendelssohn, it belonged

to a completely different style.

Among the german organs, Furtwängler (Buxtehude for instance) are better suited.

 

Apologies for my inept remarks, but I shall never understand why top players pretend

to realize reference recordings on modern "à la manière de" organs while period ones

still exist.

(Is it the reason top players hate historic organs? Ah, this "neo" craze.....We should

watch Armley, another disturbing thing!)

 

Best wishes,

Pierre

[Tony Newnham]

-Part two: St Bartholomew, Armley (need details?)

 

Pierre

 

Hi

 

The information on the Shultz is on NPOR - see http://npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch...ec_index=N02809

 

Every Blessing

 

Tony

[Pierre Lauwers]

Hi

 

The information on the Shultz is on NPOR - see http://npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch...ec_index=N02809

 

Every Blessing

 

Tony

 

Thanks, Dear Mr Newnham,

 

May I take this opportunity to suggest something ?

 

This exceedingly good Website, in which you are involved, has been widely

useful on the french forum; il allows me to link on organs with soundfiles.

And here is the point: Armley has still none.

A Mendelssohn or Rheinberger sample would be very, very helpfull indeed,

since this organ is the best I ever heard in Situ for both composers.

I would like very much the french-speaking organ people to hear that!

 

Pierre

[Guest Nigel ALLCOAT]

I could do with a complete Mendelssohn - any details please Nigel?

 

AJJ

 

Further to an earlier post, I now am told that everything except the Sonatas has been done at Saint-Louis in Paris. The Sonatas were recorded elsewhere 12 years ago. Now all has been put together to make a complete Mendelssohn for the organ. A copy is snailing its way towards me.

 

Update on Oxford - Récit Espressive was added to the whole instrument yesterday which Aubertin says makes the organ look like a wedding cake in the workshop. The two overblowing flutes and Cornet are now going into the department after the box has been taken down. (It makes life easier for the time being). However, the box is hidden by the beams and carvings of the college chapel so will not destroy the visual proportions when erected in situ.

 

Best wishes,

Nigel

[Pierre Lauwers]

Mr Vernet just explained on the french forum the Mendelssohn's Sonatas were recorded

in Masevaux in 1992, and as he found these recordings very good he decided to use

them.

Here is a link to a description of Masevaux (Kern 1975):

 

http://perso.orange.fr/eisenberg/orgues/masevaux.htm

 

Pierre

[Tony Newnham]

Thanks, Dear Mr Newnham,

 

May I take this opportunity to suggest something ?

 

This exceedingly good Website, in which you are involved, has been widely

useful on the french forum; il allows me to link on organs with soundfiles.

And here is the point: Armley has still none.

A Mendelssohn or Rheinberger sample would be very, very helpfull indeed,

since this organ is the best I ever heard in Situ for both composers.

I would like very much the french-speaking organ people to hear that!

 

Pierre

 

Hi

 

The HOSA project (Historic organ Sound Archive) was a specifically funded piece of work that was limited to organs in East Anglia - and probably instruments that were unlikely to have been recorded commercially. We do hope to extend the scope of the project if funding becomes available.

 

Every Blessing

 

Tony

[Guest Nigel ALLCOAT]

I have today received a few new pictures of the organ which some might find of interest. I have had to start a new Group on Facebook (so sorry!) and I shall be able to include pictures as and when they come to me. I have added a few descriptions too.

 

All best wishes,

Nigel

[Guest Nigel ALLCOAT]

I have today received a few new pictures of the organ which some might find of interest. I have had to start a new Group on Facebook (so sorry!) and I shall be able to include pictures as and when they come to me. I have added a few descriptions too.

 

All best wishes,

Nigel

 

Some earlier photographs and a couple of drawings have been put on the site (see above). Other photographs charting work and progress will go on later today and in the next few days. If any interested musicians want copies of anything (such as larger pictures or bigger copies of the drawings etc), just leave a message and an email address. A number of folk have already. No problem. I will do what I can.

 

All the best,

Nigel

[Philip J Wells]

Thank you for the pictures. Very interesting.

Given all the flack that Peter Collins recently received on this site for the tuning stability of vertically constructed divisions in the Southampton Turner Sims concert hall (rather unfairly I thought), the Recit division here seems to be really packed closely in the top of the roof space. And within the division the pipes are not on one level. I do not know the building (but would like to visit when the exciting project is finished) but surely temperature gradient issues are likely to surface here as well. Does the building have a good air conditioning control system?

I would also be interested to see the final stop specification. Has this been published anywhere please.

[pcnd5584]

Why go search in Paris for something that you have authentically at home?

Maybe the folies bergères and the Fouquet's as an after muzicieren ?

 

Pierre

 

Now, now, Pierre!

 

Let us have no immodest references to red windmills here....!

 

[pcnd5584]

I agree - but Interestingly - Margaret Philips recently recorded Mendelssohn (Regent label I think) and went to Germany to find the right sounds ...

AJJ

 

How strange.

 

Jennifer Bate has recorded them a year or two back - and stayed in England. Mostly in Dorset, in fact!

[pcnd5584]

I have today received a few new pictures of the organ which some might find of interest. I have had to start a new Group on Facebook (so sorry!) and I shall be able to include pictures as and when they come to me. I have added a few descriptions too.

 

All best wishes,

Nigel

 

Nigel - thank you for sharing these excellent photographs. The quality certainly looks to be superb.

[Guest Nigel ALLCOAT]

Thank you for the pictures. Very interesting.

Given all the flack that Peter Collins recently received on this site for the tuning stability of vertically constructed divisions in the Southampton Turner Sims concert hall (rather unfairly I thought), the Recit division here seems to be really packed closely in the top of the roof space. And within the division the pipes are not on one level. I do not know the building (but would like to visit when the exciting project is finished) but surely temperature gradient issues are likely to surface here as well. Does the building have a good air conditioning control system?

I would also be interested to see the final stop specification. Has this been published anywhere please.

 

Of course, a most interesting topic and observation. It has been a problem encountered by most builders through the centuries, especially in more warmer climes. M. Aubertin realizes that there could be a problem, but the Récit is a solo division and not for general coupling to any other department - thus the plenum of Go and Positive are quite close together and both elevated off the floor. In summer there could be a problem with sun on the roof for the Récit - but in a summer (sic) such as this, it is the risk of flooding that some floor-positioned organs must be prone!

It also must be remembered that St John's chapel is on the college heating system (which is thankfully in a good English tradition I am told, of "just enough" with some hot water and electric for seating) and constantly on. A church is a different matter with weekend heating. This does not apply in Oxford and thus a very stable atmosphere is encountered. But of course, 'tickling' will be necessary for important functions, but not constantly envisaged. There is even greater height in St Louis, and even BA has been more than pleased with how the instrument has coped with parochial heating. One reason, he states, for positioning an Unterwerk and not an Oberwerk in that organ. So, we shall wait and see and perhaps talk about it all again in a year's time.

 

But let me add something.

 

All these possible foibles make the organ such a deep and absorbing object of discussion - hence this very site. They also make manifest an individual instrument that cannot be reproduced in any other situation. This is the joy, the beauty, the inspiration of this extraordinary fusion of the builders' art. We rejoice in it.

 

Best wishes,

Nigel

[Philip J Wells]

Of course, a most interesting topic and observation. It has been a problem encountered by most builders through the centuries, especially in more warmer climes. M. Aubertin realizes that there could be a problem, but the Récit is a solo division and not for general coupling to any other department - thus the plenum of Go and Positive are quite close together and both elevated off the floor. In summer there could be a problem with sun on the roof for the Récit - but in a summer (sic) such as this, it is the risk of flooding that some floor-positioned organs must be prone!

It also must be remembered that St John's chapel is on the college heating system (which is thankfully in a good English tradition I am told, of "just enough" with some hot water and electric for seating) and constantly on. A church is a different matter with weekend heating. This does not apply in Oxford and thus a very stable atmosphere is encountered. But of course, 'tickling' will be necessary for important functions, but not constantly envisaged. There is even greater height in St Louis, and even BA has been more than pleased with how the instrument has coped with parochial heating. One reason, he states, for positioning an Unterwerk and not an Oberwerk in that organ. So, we shall wait and see and perhaps talk about it all again in a year's time.

 

But let me add something.

 

All these possible foibles make the organ such a deep and absorbing object of discussion - hence this very site. They also make manifest an individual instrument that cannot be reproduced in any other situation. This is the joy, the beauty, the inspiration of this extraordinary fusion of the builders' art. We rejoice in it.

 

Best wishes,

Nigel

 

Many thanks for your reply. I'm looking forward to hearing the completed organ installation in due course.

[Barry Jordan]

For readers with much time on their hands, they might enjoy perusing this link below, where a large number of photographs chart the progress of the building on the Saint-Louis-en-l'Isle (Paris) organ. It was completed in 2004 and for it Aubertin was given the Gold Medal of the City of Paris. The photos are quite technical too, so there might be something for everyone - even those who enjoy steam railways (because he has built one to transport materials about the extensive grounds of the Priory which is the vast workshop). Aberdeen gave him a Doctorate honoris causa for providing them with their instrument.

 

http://forumorgue.free.fr/phpwebgallery/ca...t=1&expand=

 

All the best.

Nigel

 

All my attempts to look at these pictures meet with a "403: forbidden". Do any of the more computer-literate have any idea why this might be?

 

Cheers

B

[Guest Nigel ALLCOAT]

All my attempts to look at these pictures meet with a "403: forbidden". Do any of the more computer-literate have any idea why this might be?

 

Cheers

B

 

 

This has happen because the site in which the photos are found have changed their policy for outsiders. If you become a member of Face Book (as countless other organists have - believe me I had no idea that there were so many in Organ-based groups on Face Book), you can access all the photos with no problem. here is the link again in its entirety.

 

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5640276387

 

Do not be alarmed about Face Book! If you are a member here, then there is difference in many ways. If you do not like it, you can depart its pages as easily as you join.

 

By the way - three more pictures of the completed main case were put on today. More to follow.......

 

All the best,

Nigel

[Barry Jordan]

This has happen because the site in which the photos are found have changed their policy for outsiders. If you become a member of Face Book (as countless other organists have - believe me I had no idea that there were so many in Organ-based groups on Face Book), you can access all the photos with no problem. here is the link again in its entirety.

 

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5640276387

 

Do not be alarmed about Face Book! If you are a member here, then there is difference in many ways. If you do not like it, you can depart its pages as easily as you join.

 

By the way - three more pictures of the completed main case were put on today. More to follow.......

 

All the best,

Nigel

 

Yes, you are right. I was pleased to discover CV Stanford, Julius Reubke (who lies about his age, claiming to have been born in 1934) and even Olivier Messiaen, who has relocated to Newcastle. And I could see the pictures of the Oxford Aubertin. But it still didn't help me with the French ones.

 

Thanks anyway

Barry

[Guest Nigel ALLCOAT]

For those following the progress of this new instrument, some new enlightening photos were included on the Group 'Oxford Aubertin at St John's College' FaceBook site.

All best wishes

Nigel