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About LinkBacksThere are some nice photos of bits and pieces of the organ, sadly none from within, here:
http://www.sydneyorgan.com/SACorgan.html
(yes, you're right, there is no altar).
There are some nice photos of bits and pieces of the organ, sadly none from within, here:
http://www.sydneyorgan.com/SACorgan.html
(yes, you're right, there is no altar).
WOW! ... I'd love to hear that organ if I ever get over there!.
I'd say I'd like to play it, but fear it might be a bit too big for me to tackle!!!!!
Hey Jonesey, sadly there are hardly any recordings of it about. The "bombarde" division is quite noisy (not surprising). And my favourite is the 32' flue pedal stop, it's very, very strong and fairly shudders at the bottom of its range cutting through even the noisy reeds.
Thanks for the link, CT64!Since I'm roughly at the antipode of that organ (and vice-versa
), I won't have the chance of listening to it anytime soon, but if it sounds as good as it looks, it should be promising indeed!
As for recordings, am I right in assuming that so far, all organ recording teams converging on Sydney have invariably been drawn to the Town Hall "magnet"?
acc - no, you are in fact wrong. Whilst there are quite a number of recordings of the Town Hall Grand Organ there are many more recordings of Sydney's many and varied other organs. Mostly churches, of course, but universities and schools.
For example the organ at the University of Sydney has been recorded a little bit and it's a fine, small to medium sized instrument.
Unfortunately, in my humble opinion, the recordings of the Sydney Town Hall monster are very much aimed at the "man in the street" with much crappy music in plenty. I dream of a day when the six Vierne symphonies are recorded there (or at least a complete Widor).
I'm not an atheist and I don't think I can call myself a pantheist. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many different languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn't know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God.
—Albert Einstein.
Well, I guess that in this instance, one can say that I'm very happy to be wrong!
As for the content of the Town Hall CDs, you may be right (and I guess the worst ones don't even reach me here "up over"). To be fair, we should however mention at least one exception, David Rumsey's Messiaen CD.
What a beautiful group of pictures. The organ's pipes are simply stunning to look at. I would LOVE to hear it.
Stephen, it's a wonderful instrument indeed and beautiful to look at, too.
Bet you'd love to get your hands on it, huh?
It's impossible to get to really, unless you know the cathedral's organists ... !
That's actually a pretty good disc that one, demonstrating the versatility of the "megathyrium". However, I do vaguely recall DR himself mentioning to me that he had problems getting that disc finished. Why? Apparently because of the programme content!!Originally Posted by acc
CT65 mentioned the Sydney uni organ (Bekerath I think) I recall a damn fine Messiaen recital there too by Dame Gillian. As for St Andrews, last time I heard that one, it was a rather nice recital of the Brahms Chorale Preludes - wish I could remember who it was.
MPA
Music is made to transform the states of the soul, for an hour or an instant (J. Alain)
The place I now work, a private girls' college, has a stunning two manual organ in their chapel. The head of music gladly showed me the organ, how to turn it on and encouraged me to play it whenever I felt like it. Sadly I've not had a chance yet, I'll see if I can't get some photos. I do have some organ music here, on my desk, as an inspiration to just get into the chapel and have a go...
Last edited by Contratrombone64; May-28-2009 at 07:12.
I'm not an atheist and I don't think I can call myself a pantheist. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many different languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn't know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God.
—Albert Einstein.
That wouldn't be Abbotsleigh by any chance would it? I vividly recall the beautiful organ there - a Silbermann copy I think (with a drawstop for the blower!)
Soubasse - no, not Abbotsleigh (but within about 10 kilometres of said).
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