What an amazing instrument! The construction is beautiful with the build of the swell chambers and shutters is so effective down to just a whisper level. The reeds are outstanding, love that beautiful Oboe, and the whole instrument is so versatile. Many soft-ish stops that combine so well yet the tutti is absolutely thrilling. The sustaining devices open up many musical possibilities as demonstrated, and an organist who is very capable and also does not rubbish the Hammond organ. Altogether a wonderful video of a fabulous organ and a great thinking organist to play it. Thank you Jeffery and Brent for walking us through this wonderful organ.
I remember when this organ was being installed. It was all laid out in the sanctuary and took up a good 2/3 of it. I've sung with this organ as well and it's amazing to hear in person. It can shake the building and play as delicately as a whisper without losing any sound quality.
@Fredrik Larsson the best thing that can be said of this organ is that it doesn't sound like a Rieger. I'm not quite sure what it does sound like, though - it doesn't have the warmth, power or colour of a Cavaillé-Coll. It's sort of a diet low-sugar low-fat skimmed-milk version of one.
@Fredrik Larsson in a building this size, Cavaillé-Coll would have provided a 2-manual organ of no more than thirty stops, certainly no 32fts, likely only one 16ft reed on the whole organ, and yet it would have had more warmth, colour and strength of character than this has. A real C-C Montre, Gambe, Flûte Harmonique, Basson-Hautbois etc would have far more impact than those in this 59-stop Rieger do. Personally, given the dry acoustic at Bryn Mawr, I would not have attempted a French style organ there, but rather an English late Romantic organ, almost all enclosed, in Audsley fashion, to enable it to be used fully without deafening. Ironically, it would probably work a lot better in the now very generous acoustic at Wanamakers, where the 402-stop monster is severely lacking any real organ tone. Hopefully Peter Richard Conte's successor will have the guts to tackle a rethink of that organ's structures and ensembles - not discarding pipework, just making additions and revoicing/rebalancing what is there to match. Replacing the existing uninspiring case (squat, dumpy, shallow and empty) with a deeper, taller case containing new Great and Pedal divisions would be an immense help to that organ... but I digress. This Rieger could usefully be transferred to Philadelphia's Catholic cathedral, which has the acoustic to cope with a Cavaillé-Coll copy but a very sickly bastardised mongrel of an organ, and be revoiced closer to C-C to suit (and be converted to electric action, of course). The Rieger case at Bryn Mawr would be retained to house its Audsleyesque EP-action successor.
This is my favorite of your demos so far, to hear not just individual stops, but some stop combinations, like all the strings (with their celestes) or all the flutes, was very revelatory, especially relevant for the French nature of this organ
What wonderful demonstration of the organ! As close as I live to Bryn Mawr, I have not traveled down to hear the organ. I was in Doylestown PA, north of the city in the early 70's when the previous instrument was completed. The musician at the church I attended was friends with the musician @ Bryn Mawr then and we made the trip to hear what was, as I understood, the biggest thing in the Philadelphia organ scene at the time. I was told there had been no new instruments in over 20 years. The church was packed and the program was played twice in one day. If I remember, the Liszt Ad nos was part of the program. All of the series of Philadelphia instruments has been wonderful, particularly the visit to Stonleigh and the tour of the archives with Marsha who is a classmate of my brother from their undergrad days.
Wonderful demo. I have the great privilege of hearing this organ every Sunday, and, personally, i dont think there is a better organ anywhere in the US.
this was awesome. I wish I had a book that would explain the difference between a "French" "German" "English" and "American Classic" organs. I mean other than stop names.
There is actually a very good book in german called "Die Orgel - Kulturgeschichte eines monumentalen Instruments" by Karl-Heinz Göttert. I don't know, if there is an english translation. But if there is, it is exactly what you want and even more! I truly love this book.
Just listen to the old big organs in the cathedrals of each country and you quickly pick up the unique overall sound of each country....don't forget Spain whose organs have an even different flavour.
What a wonderfully voiced instrument! Knowing well Rieger instruments I was highly sceptical at the start of the video, but first few tones quickly changed that. This is really the first Rieger organ that wows me, I have encountered my share of their instruments, none that sophisticated and delicate. Congratulations, the voicing job here os outstanding as well as organist´s obvious improvisational skills !
Wow, what a treat this demonstration was! Not only is this organ something really special, but having Brillhart do this demo, who really knows this organ and also has serious improvisation chops, made it one of my favourite organ demos I've ever seen. Here are a few moments in the video that I especially liked: 17:55 - all 8' flutes 19:09 - mixtures - yes, these do sound very French! It reminded me of Dupont's demonstration at Saint-Sernin which can also be found on UA-cam 21:54 - gigantic reed sound (32' + 16' + 8' + 4') 30:37 - using the sostenuto feature for effects like pizzicato 34:14 - mutations with octaves graves 48:38 - a bit of Brillhart improvising
I've heard quite a few Rieger tracker organs located in Slovakia, Frantisek Beer's channel has quite a few in his videos, they all sound well maintained and wonderful. Most of them are pre 1900 like ; Rieger, Budapest, Opus 846. /Rieger testverek
Those are not trackers, but mostly pneumatic action cone chest and were built by the founders of the Rieger firm. Indeed, they do sound very beautiful. The Rieger instruments of today use tracker action and are often in the french symphonic style.
Yes! Glad you all were able to play it!!! Now, there's an even more special instrument in that church's tower: a carillon. I've played one; it's a keyboard instrument that strikes big bells rather than strings or opening valves.
I met Jeff Brillhart from his days at Bethany Pres. Church in Rochester NY at a performance of Faure Req. I think the baritone was Jeremy Pick (?). I also believe Jeff was from the class of David Craighead at Eastman. (Also could have been Russel Saunders) Bethany has a really cool Holtkamp organ which I always felt was the sister of the Holtkamp at Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word which was down the road from Eastman School of Music. So, after the Faure, he invited a friend of mine and me to his place for drinks and some music-making. It was great fun. What a pleasant surprise it was to see him in this video.
So nice to read this! You've a great memory, though I was a student of Russell Saunders (but a good friend of David Craighead, who in the 1940's was organist at Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, which had a buried-in-the-tower Welte. David was a student at Curtis at the time.
Very interesting video! One thing to point out: 68 stops/4 manuals was definitely not anywhere close to the largest instrument Rieger had ever built, even in the 70’s. Even just considering the instrument at the Konzerthaus in Vienna, which has well over 100 ranks. Maybe it was the largest Rieger organ in the US at the time. (I used to work for Rieger)
@@andrewpearce2562 They are brilliantly creating immense mechanical action organs now... especially for the far east... but of course, also the Philharmonie in Paris (fabulous organ) and of course the Wien concert hall.... also sublime. But the 1972 organ was large for them at the time AND placed in an extremely tight case (so compact that maintenance was very challenging..... even tuning some stops required removing swell shutters and in some cases, removing pipes in order to access out of tune pipes behind them)
@@GabrielPierne funny, I thought the Paris Philharmonie organ sounded utterly horrid and completely unsuited to its purpose - give me the RAH Willis/Harrison for that job any day! - but maybe it was just Latry finding the ugliest and most bizarre noises it could make. Also, mechanical action is overrated. There are two large-ish 4-manual Riegers here in the UK, Christ Church Oxford (1979) and St Marylebone London (1993), the former replacing a Willis/Harrison in the same case (the original lower part of which Rieger replaced with a taller one!), the latter supplanting an Anglo-German Romantic bitsa (the Great chorus was Schulze) that wasn't even in the same place but got removed anyway... luckily the bulk of it survived in a museum, and as with Christ Church, the 32ft Open Wood discarded by Rieger found a new home. Neither of these organs is much liked by the people who have to play it, and Marylebone swiftly got the crap kicked out of it by Royal Academy of Music students - there was hardly a stop-knob that hadn't been broken and crudely reglued, and the key actions were in a dire state of regulation - this only about five years after installation. The tide has now turned and Britain is once again an exporter of organs, not an importer.
Finally someone agrees with me about having too many console gadgets. 10 generals and up and down sequencers are ergonomic enough for me. Great demo - I’ve always been curious about this one since its installation.
This is perhaps the finest Organ Media presentation to date. Bravo to Jeffrey Brillhart for your brilliant improvisations. Have any CD's been recorded on this organ?
Thanks for listening! YES, two recordings have been made. The first is a stunning disc by Aaron Tan, winner of AGO NYACOP. The second, will be released by Eric Plutz…. Vierne Symphonies.
If i remember correctly, the budget in 2001 was $2.5 million, a fair price, with Rieger giving us a discount on top of that for taking back the old organ. Today, 20 years later, the replacement value got to be in excess of $5 million
A truly remarkable and beautiful instrument. However... I think it's a serious error, in an organ of this size, not to have a proper IV-to-V rank Pedal mixture. (And, no, you'll never convince me otherwise.)
Cavaille-Coll organs almost never have pedal mixtures. An organ does not need a pedal mixture in order to be successful; just couple the Grand Orgue or Positif to the Pedal instead!
Nah, American organs pre 1928 are pretty much useless for Bach, usually nothing above 4ft on the Great, maybe a 2ft if you're lucky, only a Dolce Cornet in the Swell, the 4fts are half the power of the 8fts, and everything just dies in the treble.
@@richardharrold9736 as a senior-citizen student organist preparing for a post-retirement bucket-list vocation, I thank you for your response. I refer to Bach as the composer discussed in Schweitzer’s volumes -as commissioned by Mssr. CM Widor; as such I regard Herr Bach’s music as pure music; this supersedes the strict discussions of instrumental authenticity for a given epoch. Schweitzer referred to the Master as an objective composer and this is the context -inclusive of his devout Christian ethos-I suggest. Moreover, I appreciate Mssr Latry’s perspectives as well. Also my sincere complements, respect, and admiration to the organist at Bryn Mawr not only for his adroit demonstration of the renewed Reiger(sp?) but also his remarks viz the Hammond B3. Would love to hear his or Mssr Latry’s extemporization on that.
@@dkeithtag while not disagreeing with you, there comes a point where attempting Bach is pointless if any contrapuntal clarity is impossible to achieve in the tonal fog of thick, heavy 8ft tone. Such organs, where they survive, must either be embraced for what they are, or carefully revoiced and rebalanced to make them work better. A Skinner with nothing above 4ft on the Great could have a 2⅔, 2ft and Mixture added in suitable period style, and the trebles of the foundational ranks opened up to increase the brilliance of the ensemble, without detracting from the quality of what Skinner did best. Ditto any other organ of that era suffering similar lack of brilliance.
What an amazing instrument! The construction is beautiful with the build of the swell chambers and shutters is so effective down to just a whisper level. The reeds are outstanding, love that beautiful Oboe, and the whole instrument is so versatile. Many soft-ish stops that combine so well yet the tutti is absolutely thrilling. The sustaining devices open up many musical possibilities as demonstrated, and an organist who is very capable and also does not rubbish the Hammond organ. Altogether a wonderful video of a fabulous organ and a great thinking organist to play it. Thank you Jeffery and Brent for walking us through this wonderful organ.
Have always loved Riegers, fantastic voice on this instrument. Talented organist to show it off as well, thanks Brent and OMF for your work
I remember when this organ was being installed. It was all laid out in the sanctuary and took up a good 2/3 of it. I've sung with this organ as well and it's amazing to hear in person. It can shake the building and play as delicately as a whisper without losing any sound quality.
Amazing colors Sounds like no other Rieger I've ever heard. Oboe is Heaven. So many rich and glorious sounds. Great demo
@Fredrik Larsson the best thing that can be said of this organ is that it doesn't sound like a Rieger. I'm not quite sure what it does sound like, though - it doesn't have the warmth, power or colour of a Cavaillé-Coll. It's sort of a diet low-sugar low-fat skimmed-milk version of one.
@Fredrik Larsson in a building this size, Cavaillé-Coll would have provided a 2-manual organ of no more than thirty stops, certainly no 32fts, likely only one 16ft reed on the whole organ, and yet it would have had more warmth, colour and strength of character than this has. A real C-C Montre, Gambe, Flûte Harmonique, Basson-Hautbois etc would have far more impact than those in this 59-stop Rieger do.
Personally, given the dry acoustic at Bryn Mawr, I would not have attempted a French style organ there, but rather an English late Romantic organ, almost all enclosed, in Audsley fashion, to enable it to be used fully without deafening. Ironically, it would probably work a lot better in the now very generous acoustic at Wanamakers, where the 402-stop monster is severely lacking any real organ tone. Hopefully Peter Richard Conte's successor will have the guts to tackle a rethink of that organ's structures and ensembles - not discarding pipework, just making additions and revoicing/rebalancing what is there to match. Replacing the existing uninspiring case (squat, dumpy, shallow and empty) with a deeper, taller case containing new Great and Pedal divisions would be an immense help to that organ... but I digress. This Rieger could usefully be transferred to Philadelphia's Catholic cathedral, which has the acoustic to cope with a Cavaillé-Coll copy but a very sickly bastardised mongrel of an organ, and be revoiced closer to C-C to suit (and be converted to electric action, of course). The Rieger case at Bryn Mawr would be retained to house its Audsleyesque EP-action successor.
Thank Mr. Johnson for your demonstration and historical perspectives.
.
Truly BEAUTIFUL! Nothing to add. Gorgeous voicing and stop list.
What a lovely French Symphonic style Rieger organ demonstrated by one that has a great understanding of the Cavaille Coll Symphonic Organ.
This is my favorite of your demos so far, to hear not just individual stops, but some stop combinations, like all the strings (with their celestes) or all the flutes, was very revelatory, especially relevant for the French nature of this organ
thanks for the great demonstration! 😍
What wonderful demonstration of the organ! As close as I live to Bryn Mawr, I have not traveled down to hear the organ. I was in Doylestown PA, north of the city in the early 70's when the previous instrument was completed. The musician at the church I attended was friends with the musician @ Bryn Mawr then and we made the trip to hear what was, as I understood, the biggest thing in the Philadelphia organ scene at the time. I was told there had been no new instruments in over 20 years. The church was packed and the program was played twice in one day. If I remember, the Liszt Ad nos was part of the program.
All of the series of Philadelphia instruments has been wonderful, particularly the visit to Stonleigh and the tour of the archives with Marsha who is a classmate of my brother from their undergrad days.
Magnificent instrument.
Such a beautiful organ with so many colours. Love the french romantic sounds, could listen to it all day!
Wonderful demo. I have the great privilege of hearing this organ every Sunday, and, personally, i dont think there is a better organ anywhere in the US.
I’m welsh and it’s good to see a welsh connection with bryn mawr 👍🏻🍻🏴
this was awesome. I wish I had a book that would explain the difference between a "French" "German" "English" and "American Classic" organs. I mean other than stop names.
There is actually a very good book in german called "Die Orgel - Kulturgeschichte eines monumentalen Instruments" by Karl-Heinz Göttert. I don't know, if there is an english translation. But if there is, it is exactly what you want and even more!
I truly love this book.
I wonder if Organ Media Foundation could attempt a video explaining the differences. Just a thought.
Just listen to the old big organs in the cathedrals of each country and you quickly pick up the unique overall sound of each country....don't forget Spain whose organs have an even different flavour.
It also depends on the era. German Baroque is different than German Romantic. Furthermore, German Baroque had major regional differences.
mind blowing instrument and superbly demonstrated. .
Stunning instrument. I would love to hear it in person and experience playing it.
What a wonderfully voiced instrument! Knowing well Rieger instruments I was highly sceptical at the start of the video, but first few tones quickly changed that.
This is really the first Rieger organ that wows me, I have encountered my share of their instruments, none that sophisticated and delicate. Congratulations, the voicing job here os outstanding as well as organist´s obvious improvisational skills !
Love ❤️ to hear it in-person!
Nicely shot and the Reiger organ incumpusses a very sharp, crisp sound, for an orchestral type organ...
Wonderful organ!!
What a fabulous demonstration!
Wow, what a treat this demonstration was! Not only is this organ something really special, but having Brillhart do this demo, who really knows this organ and also has serious improvisation chops, made it one of my favourite organ demos I've ever seen.
Here are a few moments in the video that I especially liked:
17:55 - all 8' flutes
19:09 - mixtures - yes, these do sound very French! It reminded me of Dupont's demonstration at Saint-Sernin which can also be found on UA-cam
21:54 - gigantic reed sound (32' + 16' + 8' + 4')
30:37 - using the sostenuto feature for effects like pizzicato
34:14 - mutations with octaves graves
48:38 - a bit of Brillhart improvising
9:48 - discussion of combining the 8' stops (Montre, Gambe, Bourdon, and Flûte Harmonique) on this organ - every stop adds a distinct colour
Spectacular!
I've heard quite a few Rieger tracker organs located in Slovakia, Frantisek Beer's channel has quite a few in his videos, they all sound well maintained and wonderful. Most of them are pre 1900 like ; Rieger, Budapest, Opus 846. /Rieger testverek
Those are not trackers, but mostly pneumatic action cone chest and were built by the founders of the Rieger firm. Indeed, they do sound very beautiful. The Rieger instruments of today use tracker action and are often in the french symphonic style.
Yes! Glad you all were able to play it!!! Now, there's an even more special instrument in that church's tower: a carillon. I've played one; it's a keyboard instrument that strikes big bells rather than strings or opening valves.
I met Jeff Brillhart from his days at Bethany Pres. Church in Rochester NY at a performance of Faure Req. I think the baritone was Jeremy Pick (?). I also believe Jeff was from the class of David Craighead at Eastman. (Also could have been Russel Saunders) Bethany has a really cool Holtkamp organ which I always felt was the sister of the Holtkamp at Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word which was down the road from Eastman School of Music. So, after the Faure, he invited a friend of mine and me to his place for drinks and some music-making. It was great fun. What a pleasant surprise it was to see him in this video.
So nice to read this! You've a great memory, though I was a student of Russell Saunders (but a good friend of David Craighead, who in the 1940's was organist at Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, which had a buried-in-the-tower Welte. David was a student at Curtis at the time.
Nicely voiced organ!
Very interesting video!
One thing to point out: 68 stops/4 manuals was definitely not anywhere close to the largest instrument Rieger had ever built, even in the 70’s. Even just considering the instrument at the Konzerthaus in Vienna, which has well over 100 ranks. Maybe it was the largest Rieger organ in the US at the time. (I used to work for Rieger)
It was the largest AMERICAN Rieger (the 1972 instrument)
@@GabrielPierne and possibly the largest mechanical action organ they had built? The Konzerthaus organ is EP.
@@richardharrold9736 at the time, possibly… but they do now have 4 and 5 manual instruments with 80+ ranks with mechanical key action.
@@andrewpearce2562 They are brilliantly creating immense mechanical action organs now... especially for the far east... but of course, also the Philharmonie in Paris (fabulous organ) and of course the Wien concert hall.... also sublime. But the 1972 organ was large for them at the time AND placed in an extremely tight case (so compact that maintenance was very challenging..... even tuning some stops required removing swell shutters and in some cases, removing pipes in order to access out of tune pipes behind them)
@@GabrielPierne funny, I thought the Paris Philharmonie organ sounded utterly horrid and completely unsuited to its purpose - give me the RAH Willis/Harrison for that job any day! - but maybe it was just Latry finding the ugliest and most bizarre noises it could make. Also, mechanical action is overrated.
There are two large-ish 4-manual Riegers here in the UK, Christ Church Oxford (1979) and St Marylebone London (1993), the former replacing a Willis/Harrison in the same case (the original lower part of which Rieger replaced with a taller one!), the latter supplanting an Anglo-German Romantic bitsa (the Great chorus was Schulze) that wasn't even in the same place but got removed anyway... luckily the bulk of it survived in a museum, and as with Christ Church, the 32ft Open Wood discarded by Rieger found a new home. Neither of these organs is much liked by the people who have to play it, and Marylebone swiftly got the crap kicked out of it by Royal Academy of Music students - there was hardly a stop-knob that hadn't been broken and crudely reglued, and the key actions were in a dire state of regulation - this only about five years after installation. The tide has now turned and Britain is once again an exporter of organs, not an importer.
I heard Gillian Weir perform on the old instrument in the 1980s.
JESUS love you ❤️💕💕💗
32' Reeds. Don't see that often. It is as colorful as Rieger and it is still different.
Finally someone agrees with me about having too many console gadgets. 10 generals and up and down sequencers are ergonomic enough for me.
Great demo - I’ve always been curious about this one since its installation.
Great video! Love your videos! Will you be doing a demo of the Chapel Organ at Bryn Mawr Presbyterian?
I'd love that.... its' a very different instrument, quite beautiful in its own right.
Sand sandwiching was used in the cases of English Wharfedale speakers made in the 1960s, most notably the W90.
Rieger Orgelbau are my absolute favorite organs outside of Cavaillé-Coll. PLEASE get Milan Digital Audio to sample this wonderful organ!
A good organ.
This is perhaps the finest Organ Media presentation to date. Bravo to Jeffrey Brillhart for your brilliant improvisations. Have any CD's been recorded on this organ?
Thanks for listening! YES, two recordings have been made. The first is a stunning disc by Aaron Tan, winner of AGO NYACOP. The second, will be released by Eric Plutz…. Vierne Symphonies.
I was confused at first, My Episcopal Church has a Reuter organ
Anyone know the names of any of the pieces that he played?
All improvisation
I shut my eyes and thought I was in Paris.
There's only one church in Paris with an acoustic this dry, and that is Saint-Etienne du Mont.
Bryn Mawr - a Welsh name?
How much did it cost to have it built and instillation?
I wondered the same thing! It sounded like they had a very large budget to say the least!
If i remember correctly, the budget in 2001 was $2.5 million, a fair price, with Rieger giving us a discount on top of that for taking back the old organ.
Today, 20 years later, the replacement value got to be in excess of $5 million
I asked about that when it was being installed. The number I was told was 4.5 million.
83 ranks
No Solo Division like chamade Tuba .... Big reeds and the fondations
No need for a Tuba in an organ like this, and chamades even in the French style as part of the ensemble would be overkill in that relatively dry room.
A truly remarkable and beautiful instrument.
However... I think it's a serious error, in an organ of this size, not to have a proper IV-to-V rank Pedal mixture. (And, no, you'll never convince me otherwise.)
Cavaille-Coll organs almost never have pedal mixtures. An organ does not need a pedal mixture in order to be successful; just couple the Grand Orgue or Positif to the Pedal instead!
...all organs are Bach organs --
Nah, American organs pre 1928 are pretty much useless for Bach, usually nothing above 4ft on the Great, maybe a 2ft if you're lucky, only a Dolce Cornet in the Swell, the 4fts are half the power of the 8fts, and everything just dies in the treble.
@@richardharrold9736 as a senior-citizen student organist preparing for a post-retirement bucket-list vocation, I thank you for your response. I refer to Bach as the composer discussed in Schweitzer’s volumes -as commissioned by Mssr. CM Widor; as such I regard Herr Bach’s music as pure music; this supersedes the strict discussions of instrumental authenticity for a given epoch. Schweitzer referred to the Master as an objective composer and this is the context -inclusive of his devout Christian ethos-I suggest.
Moreover, I appreciate Mssr Latry’s perspectives as well. Also my sincere complements, respect, and admiration to the organist at Bryn Mawr not only for his adroit demonstration of the renewed Reiger(sp?) but also his remarks viz the Hammond B3. Would love to hear his or Mssr Latry’s extemporization on that.
@@dkeithtag while not disagreeing with you, there comes a point where attempting Bach is pointless if any contrapuntal clarity is impossible to achieve in the tonal fog of thick, heavy 8ft tone. Such organs, where they survive, must either be embraced for what they are, or carefully revoiced and rebalanced to make them work better. A Skinner with nothing above 4ft on the Great could have a 2⅔, 2ft and Mixture added in suitable period style, and the trebles of the foundational ranks opened up to increase the brilliance of the ensemble, without detracting from the quality of what Skinner did best. Ditto any other organ of that era suffering similar lack of brilliance.