Favorite organ.

[Caddis]

Hi acc
Is the organ at St. Pierre still in good condition?,when it last was it restored?I,ve got the entire series of Charles Tournemire's L'Orgue Mystic (except vol. 5) played by Tjeerd van der Ploeg,beautifull sounding organ,especially the flutes.

[acc]

Hi Caddis,
The organ in St-Pierre is in perfect working order. It was last restored by Jean Pascal in the 1950s, with a subsequent overhaul during the 1980s. Besides its liturgical function, the instrument is also extensively used by the organ class of the Douai Conservatoire. It is very well maintained on a regular basis by Antoine Pascal (Jean's son). All this is possible mainly thanks to the local town council's healthy policy towards cultural development.

I've also got the entire van der Ploeg series (including vol.5), and it's indeed very beautiful. Really the perfect instrument for Tournemire.

One particular feature of this organ is its setzer with four combinations : it does not work electrically, but pneumatically. And even after 85 years, it still works beautifully!

[Caddis]

Glad to hear it.Were electrical components (with reference to the action) part of the original organ plan by Mutin?

[acc]

With the obvious exception of the blower, there is nothing electrical in this instrument, and I'm not aware of any plans of Mutin's in this direction.

Actually, most of the instrument was already built before 1914. Initially, it was an order from the St-Petersburg Conservatory for their concert hall, but the project was put on hold when World War I broke out, and completely abandoned after the Revolution of 1917.

Around the same time, the organ in St-Pierre was stripped of all its pipes by the German occupants (metal was precious to them), so after the end of the war, a new organ was needed, which gave Mutin the opportunity to "recycle" his St-Petersburg organ, with a 4th manual added.

[Caddis]

One would'nt expect anything electrical in the action from Mutin.Having listened to the L'Orgue Mystic recordings and a few mp3 samples,I hav'nt dedected anything electrical about the organ's action.To the best of my knowledge there are no electrics in the action of the organ.Thanks for the interesting bit of history.