I knew Swisher when he lived in Oregon, and we met often to discuss the Austin opus 500 and Charles' dream of creating a museum around it. I had heard the organ in 1974, when my teacher Ludwig Altman performed Poulenc's concerto with Arthur Fiedler and the San Francisco Pops Orchestra. I later played it myself briefly during an AGO organ crawl in 1981. Anyway, there was a building in Springfield, Oregon where Charles hoped to locate the museum. Unfortunately, the building's owner wasn't willing to consider letting go of the income he received from the current tenants, so those plans fell through.
Charles mentions British town hall organs. He once asked Jack Bethards how large a hall needed to be to re-home Austin opus 500. Jack said it should be as large as St George's Hall, Liverpool. So I then looked up the dimensions of that hall, and we found that the building in Springfield was nearly the same size as St George's Hall, but (1) lying on its side (2) twice as long!
With 117 ranks and three full-length 32' stops, the Austin opus 500 would never fit into the Castro. The Wurlitzer pipe that was there was much smaller.
I knew Swisher when he lived in Oregon, and we met often to discuss the Austin opus 500 and Charles' dream of creating a museum around it. I had heard the organ in 1974, when my teacher Ludwig Altman performed Poulenc's concerto with Arthur Fiedler and the San Francisco Pops Orchestra. I later played it myself briefly during an AGO organ crawl in 1981. Anyway, there was a building in Springfield, Oregon where Charles hoped to locate the museum. Unfortunately, the building's owner wasn't willing to consider letting go of the income he received from the current tenants, so those plans fell through.
Charles mentions British town hall organs. He once asked Jack Bethards how large a hall needed to be to re-home Austin opus 500. Jack said it should be as large as St George's Hall, Liverpool. So I then looked up the dimensions of that hall, and we found that the building in Springfield was nearly the same size as St George's Hall, but (1) lying on its side (2) twice as long!
And to think a digital monstrosity is being put in the Castro instead of something like this...
With 117 ranks and three full-length 32' stops, the Austin opus 500 would never fit into the Castro. The Wurlitzer pipe that was there was much smaller.
NO room in the Castro for this organ