CE The Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Alban 3rd July 2013

[Vile Consort]

Any other denizens of this board attending the International Organ Festival starting next Thursday? I shall be there for the duration.

[ardcarp]

Not me. But it would be interesting to find out the programme of events. Alas it seems you have to pay for the privilege.

http://www.organfestival.com/

[Vile Consort]

Not just to see what the events are you don't! You have to pay for the printed programme booklet, but the actual events are shewn the web site.

[Triforium]

Not me. But it would be interesting to find out the programme of events. Alas it seems you have to pay for the privilege.

http://www.organfestival.com/

From here - http://www.organfestival.com/festiva...king/index.php - select the date from the column on the left to see the events for that day.

[Magnificat]

I enjoyed this service. Some very nice phrasing indeed in the Psalm. I don't think the Howells was too slow - difficult to take it any faster really, particularly in moments such as "and his mercy is on them", "he remembering" and the tenuto at "he hath filled". Amazing dim and rit on "Israel" in the Nunc. I liked the Bach and thought programming the Howells with all of the Baroque music worked well. Nice voluntary, thanks for the zimbelstern at the end!

As chitreb indicated, it sounded as though the microphones were pretty far away. I could hear the trebles well, but wanted a bit more from the lower voices as it came across on the broadcast. I too would like to have been present for this service.

Many thanks to all involved!

Triforium and others,

Regarding the capture of the sound at the Abbey.

I am no Hi - Fi buff but I believe those that are prefer analogue FM to Digital. I certainly get a very pleasing experience from my ancient tuner and first rate FM reception.

However, I have just had the opportunity to listen to this broadcast on the iPlayer using some state of the art digital equipment and top of the range headphones and it has been a revelation.

I have to say that the BBC seem to have captured the acoustic and sound of the choir as I know it very well from attending many services there over the years absolutely perfectly. Words are definitely nuch more clearly defined. The interplay of the voices of the men ( and how good they are ) and boys is so much clearer in the anthem than it was to me on Wednesday, the depth and intensity of the tone is as I hear it in the cathedral ( the boys tone on my radio came across much more trebly than it is in the Abbey ) and the speaking voices of the clergy were exactly right.

What I noticed most, however, was just how well the St Paul's service was sung. I enjoyed the Bach motet more than I did on Wednesday but I'm still not a fan and I still think that any broadcasts of, say, Golden Age stuff would be better done from the Quire where all the parts would be clearer to any of us with less sophisticated radios.

VCC

IOF Three choirs concert

This year for the 50th Anniversary the boys and girls choirs of SA, York and Salisbury are singing together and individually ( presumably boys, girls and men from each establishment - I haven't seen the concert program ). It won't be quite the same, to me, as hearing three first rate choirs of boys and men ( I was particularly hoping to hear Robert Sharpe's boys and men from York live ) but will be very enjoyable I'm sure.

I think we should at this time all think most about the IOF foundert Peter Hurford who is not at all well at the moment.

VCC

[Wolsey]

I think we should at this time all think most about the IOF founder Peter Hurford who is not at all well at the moment.

Apologies for the digression. He was my organ teacher for two of my three years at Cambridge. I went to the RCO Conferment Ceremony at Southwark in March this year when he was to have been presented with the RCO Medal. It saddened me deeply though to learn from Mrs Hurford's acceptance speech on his behalf that his Alzheimer's disease was already quite advanced, but that he was comfortable and calm in a home that is able to look after him properly. I am one of many who owe him a great debt.

[ardcarp]

Thanks for the info about the Organ Festival.

I too owe a debt of gratitude to Peter Hurford though I did not know him well. He was a Somerset lad, and used to bring his St Albans choristers down to the West Country to sing evensongs/concerts in the Summer. Above all, we should not forget that his Bach playing was world-class (unusual in those days for an English cathedral organist) and his recordings, made on various instruments throughout the world, were certainly a yardstick for many of my generation.

[Vox Humana]

Above all, we should not forget that his Bach playing was world-class

I remember his Bach recordings coming top of the pile in a R3 "Building a Library" programme some years ago - and rightly so; I'm not at all sure they have been surpassed for overall satisfaction, despite some fine competition. A neo-baroque interpretation on neo-baroque instruments, but supremely musical. I just love that Phelps organ in Toronto.

[ardcarp]

...and he took a shine to that instrument in Knox Grammar School, Australia.

[mw963]

Triforium and others,

Regarding the capture of the sound at the Abbey.

I am no Hi - Fi buff but I believe those that are prefer analogue FM to Digital. I certainly get a very pleasing experience from my ancient tuner and first rate FM reception.

However, I have just had the opportunity to listen to this broadcast on the iPlayer using some state of the art digital equipment and top of the range headphones and it has been a revelation.
VCC

It's in part due to the fact that the feed to the FM network is "processed" - in plainer language there is a degree of dynamics compression - or to be even plainer one can say that the quiet bits are brought up in level, and worse still the louder bits are knocked back, with very obvious unpleasant tell-tale effects, particularly for programmes such as Choral Evensong. The satellite and Freeview and (as far as I know) DAB signals for Radio 3 retain their full dynamic range. In some instances the device doing the compression on FM also plays around with the equalisation, upsetting the balance between bass presence and treble. I'm not sure how the Radio 3 unit is set up, it probably doesn't do much to the EQ, but certainly its effects on dynamics can be unpleasant.

Prior to Wright the device was turned off during live relays, in which instance the FM feed might well be preferable to a digital one. However, since his blanket insistence on 24/7 processing many of us feel that the FM version of Radio 3 is so seriously compromised as to be useless. My Revox B160 was confined to the attic many years ago, but that was also partly due to Kenyon's vandalism that turned a devoted Radio 3 listener into one of its fiercest critics.

As far as I know the internet feeds are unprocessed, and the very high quality version is excellent. The iplayer version I've used suffers from some odd artefacts, such as severe stereo imaging problems, but I'm not a computer buff so it may be something stupid that I'm doing to cause the problem.

For comparison, the last time I checked the situation every BBC network - whether on satellite, Freeview, DAB or FM - was processed, with the exception of the Radio 3 feeds I mention above. Processing on satellite makes no sense whatsoever on any network. One of the "excuses" peddled for processing is that it helps audibility in noisy environments, such as cars. I've yet to see a satellite receiver in a car (!) - by definition the installation is fixed and therefore likely to be in the main room of a dwelling. In which case the BBC should not process the satellite feeds of any network, and indeed when BBC radio appeared on Astra 2 it was wholly unprocessed and sounded superb (even Radio 1); however from about 2003 processing appeared on Radios 1 and 2, with Radio 4 adopting some sort of dynamics limiter in about 2007.

Anyone who has heard Friday Night is Music Night will know that it sounds dreadfully processed on whichever network one cares to listen to it.

Not that I've tested any of this for a couple of years, the BBC have succeeded since 1995 in sending me off to European satellite classical radio.....

Incidentally, enjoyed St Albans. Call me an old fuddy duddy but after a number of recent broadcasts - particularly the modern music ones - it's nice to be back on more familiar territory. Sorry to be such an old stick in the mud, I envy the people on here who are able to appreciate seemingly every new commission that comes along. Bit like me and French cheese - much as I adore France I just cannot enjoy it however much I try....