Just listened and watched this magnificent recording. Brought back memories of wonderful concerts at Symphony Hall until Coronavirus. Hoping we will be able to return soon.
Just have to have those blaring reeds. Remember when most music could be played by much more usable reeds not being so loud as only to be used for full organ or some solo.. Why couldn't that English Horn (Cor Anglais) be used for other than a southern tune.
Not a wonderful organ, but not a bad one either - some judicious tonal revision and refinishing by Nicholson would work wonders. The Great plenum needs rescaling larger, the pressures raised and the mixtures reduced in pitch and power. The big trumpet stage right sounds like a giant kazoo - some new English shallots and weighted tongues to smoothen it out could work wonders - and the chamade is simply foul beyond words. The French Horn does not impress compared to a Skinner/Willis one - it's just a muted trumpet - and the Cor Anglais is similarly lacking in refinement - just a really poor, nasty reed. But then, the Germans never could voice reeds at all well. For all this, there are plenty of nicer sounds in it, it just needs a good English (or better still, American) voicer to pull it all together, with some replacement ranks.
Just listened and watched this magnificent recording. Brought back memories of wonderful concerts at Symphony Hall until Coronavirus. Hoping we will be able to return soon.
What an organist. I remember him dimly as the first organ scholar I sang with at King’s when I was a wee chorister back in the 70s.
I heard Mr Trotter refer to the Organ as a Weapon Of Mass Destruction, well look at it and the horizontal pipes ha ha ha ha.
Adjustable room acoustics?! Amazing. Organ voicing is similar to the rufatti sound.
Great articulation! It's good to hear a crisp staccato on an organ, in an acoustic that doesn't steal the hard work you put in to make it.
The piece is by J.S. Bach - his Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565
Is there a stoplist or NPOR listing for this fabulous instrument?
Just have to have those blaring reeds. Remember when most music could be played by much more usable reeds not being so loud as only to be used for full organ or some solo.. Why couldn't that English Horn (Cor Anglais) be used for other than a southern tune.
What was the work by Percy Whitlock?
Hamish Madden folk tune
Not a wonderful organ, but not a bad one either - some judicious tonal revision and refinishing by Nicholson would work wonders. The Great plenum needs rescaling larger, the pressures raised and the mixtures reduced in pitch and power. The big trumpet stage right sounds like a giant kazoo - some new English shallots and weighted tongues to smoothen it out could work wonders - and the chamade is simply foul beyond words. The French Horn does not impress compared to a Skinner/Willis one - it's just a muted trumpet - and the Cor Anglais is similarly lacking in refinement - just a really poor, nasty reed. But then, the Germans never could voice reeds at all well. For all this, there are plenty of nicer sounds in it, it just needs a good English (or better still, American) voicer to pull it all together, with some replacement ranks.