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JONESEY

JONESEY

New member
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!!!!!
 
Contratrombone64

Contratrombone64

Admiral of Fugues
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.
 

acc

Member
Thanks for the link, CT64! :tiphat: Since I'm roughly at the antipode of that organ (and vice-versa :smirk:), 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! :up:

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"? :crazy:
 
Contratrombone64

Contratrombone64

Admiral of Fugues
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).
 

acc

Member
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.
 
greatcyber

greatcyber

New member
What a beautiful group of pictures. The organ's pipes are simply stunning to look at. I would LOVE to hear it.
 
Soubasse

Soubasse

New member
acc said:
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.
Click to expand...

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!!:rolleyes:

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
 
Contratrombone64

Contratrombone64

Admiral of Fugues
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...
 
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Soubasse

Soubasse

New member
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!)
 
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