Great Pipe Organs of the World.
Posted by: George Fredrik on 12 January 2013
Jacobikirche, Lubeck
This is the "small" organ in this church. It was started in the 1400s and completed in 1685, the year of JS Bach's birth.
I have just been listening to some 1947 records made with this instrument played by Helmut Walcha. A happy co-incidence of a the proper instrument [type], one of the great Bach keyboard performers and scholars, and as it goes a recording session that produced a quality that still sounds fresh as a daisy six decade on.
Please post pictures of other great organs, linking them to first class performances on records ... or memories of recitals attended ...
ATB from George
And here is the organ at Cappel Parish Church not so far away from Lubeck where Walcha completed that first Mono cycle of Bach recordings, massively incomplete though the recordings are, missing about a quarter of the music.
What is recorded, however, is priceless.
Note in both cases the Rukpositv pipes, which are behind the player. These can be used to give a call and echo effect or to make a soloistic prominence for certain lines. An effect that Bach employs, as it was normal enough for organs of the period to have this separate section of pipes.
Both are of the old mechanical action type, and have narrow bass pipes so as to get clarity rather than sheer volume. Bach expected his bass-lines to be as clear and articulate as the treble and middle voice lines.
More modern organs tend to have moved away from clarity to a "big, and diffuse" sonic signature, which makes them at best only partly suitable for the great master's music. There has been a move back towards the the old style in the later 20th Century in many cases, but theese new organs rarely have the integrated and bound together effect of these venerable old instruments, except when they are quite small. These two baroque organs are massive compared, but tiny compared to great efforts by the French School of organ building or the tradition in England exemplified by Father Willis - Hereford Cathedral and the Royal Albert hall, being two of the best Father Willis Organs.
ATB from George
The Father willis Organ in Hereford Cathedral. This does not show the bass pipes which are in the aisle behind the organ. About twenty feet separates them from the main section, and the player is at a remote console on the other side of the choir stalls. Quite near the main pipes, but a long way from the bass pipes.
This is an organ that can roar like a lion, and it is an exciting effect in itself! I have even turned the pages for Roy Massey in the organ loft when he was the Choirmaster and Organist. No replay would ever catch the effect of being in the organ loft. DBLs would seem like pea-shooters in comparison!
ATB from George
The organ of Westminster Abbey
"Built 1937 by Harrison & Harrison, with 4 manuals and 84 speaking stops, incorporating some pipework from the previous organ.
First used in 1937 at the Conronation of King George VI.
Revovations began in 1982 to include extensive additions"
Quote above from the back cover of the Deutsch Grammophon LP of:
Louis Vierne (1870-1937)
Carillon de Westminster op.54 no.6
&
Charles-Marie Widor (1844-1937)
Symphony for Organ no.5 in F minor.
Recordings: September 1983 (Widor) & February 1984 (Vierne)
Interesting and entertaining compositions that may have been well ahead of their time when written.
Simon Preston at the keyboard with never a dull moment, and many trouser-flapping moments of deep-down bass power too.
Debs
And here is the great man himself playing the same music in 1932! AD Blumlein's recording system working rather wonderfully to catch a historic moment at Saint Suplice ...
HMV's London engineers visited Paris to catch the aged composer on disc, and the result is also amazing!
Certainly epic!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8vz1D_L_OE
ATB from George
George we recently got a new organ here in the States, at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC
George,
When I lived in Utah I had a chance to hear the Mormon Tabernacle Organ in Salt Lake City. What I remember most is being impressed by the ultra-low frequencies it produced. It has 11,623 pipes, the longest with a speaking length of 32 feet long, shortest 3/4 of an inch. It's also housed in an air-conditioned building on Temple Square which is very nice to visit when it's 100+ degrees outside.
Is it unusual for an organ of this size to be housed outside of a church/temple/cathedral?
