King's College Organ - back up and running.

[Nick Armstrong]

Inaugural recital in a couple of weeks: http://shop.kings.cam.ac.uk/product-p/17000160.htm

[Keraulophone]

Nathan Laube is a fabulous organist. He's been down here a couple of times. One of those players fortunate to have it all: impeccable technique, obvious love and understanding of the music and the instruments he plays (see his extensive accounts on the Book of Face), very thorough preparation, and a really charming fellow.

[Nick Armstrong]

Nathan Laube is a fabulous organist. He's been down here a couple of times. One of those players fortunate to have it all: impeccable technique, obvious love and understanding of the music and the instruments he plays (see his extensive accounts on the Book of Face), very thorough preparation, and a really charming fellow.

The recital is to be streamed live tomorrow evening, apparently, at this link: http://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/choir/listen/webcasts.html

[BBMmk2]

Thanks for the heads up Cali! will need to remember this!

[Petrushka]

There's zero chance of my getting to the Christmas Eve service (one of those things on my 'to-do-before-I die' list) due to transport difficulties getting back but now that the organ is back in commission I've resolved to take myself down to Cambridge for Evensong at some stage before the end of the year. At least I don't have to worry about getting home the next day!

[Keraulophone]

The recital is to be streamed live tomorrow evening, apparently, at this link: http://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/choir/listen/webcasts.html

Many thanks!

[Keraulophone]

I've been told that Nathan Laube's recital will be available on the King's webcast page from Friday.

I hope this proves to be the case, as it was impossible to tear myself away from the rebroadcast from 2001 of Dame Gillian Weir's 60th birthday recital on the RFH organ last night. The chat with John Drummond was as between two friends, and the Reubke received a thrilling performance, as one temporarily forgot about the parched acoustics of the hall. Apparently the electrical system of the organ had recently been upgraded; it did indeed seem to be behaving itself.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07xhvz3

Bach: Toccata and Fugue in F major, BWV.540
Schnizer: Sonata in C
Healey Willan: Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue in E flat minor, B.149
Franck: Chorale No. 2 in B minor, M.39
Reubke: Sonata on Psalm 94, in C minor

[Keraulophone]

http://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/choir/listen/webcasts.html

From Nathan Laube's FB page:

'I'm taking a moment to share with you the webcast from last Tuesday's unforgettable evening at King's College Chapel, Cambridge for the great Harrison & Harrison's inauguration. Some of you had questions about the (too close) microphone placement for the live webcast that evening - all of that has been now sorted out for a much better and representative balance of the instrument by using the more distant set, rather than those immediately in front of the case that you would have heard. I hope you enjoy - what glorious sounds.'

[Nick Armstrong]

Organistas may find this interesting, from the King's organ scholar:

https://www.facebook.com/KingsColleg...4858120231425/

[Keraulophone]

David Briggs, ex-King's Organ Scholar and lover of French organ sounds, installed a Pedal Divide in the Truro Father Willis over thirty years ago. It doesn't get as much use from visiting players as one might expect.

[Vox Humana]

David Briggs, ex-King's Organ Scholar and lover of French organ sounds, installed a Pedal Divide in the Truro Father Willis over thirty years ago. It doesn't get as much use from visiting players as one might expect.

He had one put in at Gloucester too. There are one or two other organs with one, I believe. I guess if you don't have the facility on your own organ it's difficult to make provision when you are practising to perform on an organ that does. I wouldn't want to be doing it in the limited amount of practice time likely to be available on the organ in question, but that may be just me. Great fun for improvising though.

[ardcarp]

What a personable young man on the video clip! One can quite understand however, that extra bells and whistles (eg the pedal divide) could be quite unnerving. (You notice he forgot to switch it off at one point!) Certainly a visiting organist will want to 'play safe'. The same applies to Buckfast Abbey organ which had a ventil control gadget (meaning you could disable all the high pressure reed stops at the touch of a piston) and a rollerschweller, a device rarely found in the UK. I call the latter a lazy organists' assistant. With a push of the foot you can crescendo and diminuendo as it adds or subtracts stops gradually. No names, no pack-drill, but a long time ago the many monastic services there were accompanied with the left foot dabbing some pedal notes and the right foot hovering between the swell pedals and the rollerschweller.

[Vox Humana]

... and a rollerschweller, a device rarely found in the UK. I call the latter a lazy organists' assistant.

The Rollschweller (note spelling) at Buckfast shows clearly in this photo of the old console. It's the wheel between the two sets of toe studs, to the left of the two swell pedals. It actually operated the wrong way round: you increased the volume by rolling the wheel forward whereas on the German examples which it supposedly emulated you obtain a crescendo by rolling it towards you.

[Keraulophone]

Pedal Divide at lower right.

[Keraulophone]

Video from this recital of Healey Willan's Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue in e flat (Op. 149):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=share&v=UIwVPafaWk0&app=desktop