Hello All,
This might sound as though I am a glutton for punishment, but please hear me out.
Within a day of my posting a complete performance of Franck's Grande Piece Symphonique via the PAB library in the Contrebombarde Concert Hall, I received comments within 24 hours effectively stating how ugly the PAB sounded, and how my registrations did not pass muster. I am quick to appreciate the kindness the readers had about my organ playing, but that they commented on my registrations and resulting sound.
I completely agree with the vast majority of organ enthusiasts that Cavaille-Coll instruments are some of the finest instruments ever conceived in the history of organ building. At the same time, their sounds are soooo individualistic (majestic reeds and plenty of them, and sonorous foundations, mystical celestes, etc.) that organs of other countries of origin, such as German, English, American, Spanish, Italian cannot attempt to imitate the French organ sound.
Herein lies a conundrum: If an organist desires to play French music via Hauptwerk sample libraries, must he ONLY play it on French instruments? To me, the answer is "No", but one should strive to make the piece sound as musically valid as possible.
I have gone back and created another Contrebombarde performance, this time using excerpts of my original performance, followed by duplicate passages of Susan Landale's performance on the CC of St. Etienne at Caen. Here are the links to the original performance and the excerpt comparison.
http://www.contrebombarde.com/concerthall/music/1262
http://www.contrebombarde.com/concerthall/music/1284
Now, to the point of this audio comparison:
Despite comments to the contrary, I believe that some of you out there might agree that the CC passages of the Grande Piece might also sound ponderous (but not ugly) in comparison to my own performance.
Here is where I believe the differences might arise: The Caen has fewer number of stops than the PAB, but the CC's pipes are individually more powerful as a whole. Wherein I drew a number of stops for the opening passage, Ms. Landale's performance seemed to draw very few stops -- yet her sound was very full. The question is: did that make my performance sound "ugly"?
Since this is an open forum, I would like to open the debate for your personal opinions or comments. Surely, many of you will disagree with my position (and rightfully so), but there are hundreds of viewers to this Concert Hall. For the interest of healthy discussion -- without being crude, vulgar or generally out-of-hand -- I think this might be a great opportunity to express our feelings and experiences.
The floor open to you, ladies and gentlemen. I would love to hear from many of you who read the forum but who do not normally reply to it.
Cheers,
Joe
This might sound as though I am a glutton for punishment, but please hear me out.
Within a day of my posting a complete performance of Franck's Grande Piece Symphonique via the PAB library in the Contrebombarde Concert Hall, I received comments within 24 hours effectively stating how ugly the PAB sounded, and how my registrations did not pass muster. I am quick to appreciate the kindness the readers had about my organ playing, but that they commented on my registrations and resulting sound.
I completely agree with the vast majority of organ enthusiasts that Cavaille-Coll instruments are some of the finest instruments ever conceived in the history of organ building. At the same time, their sounds are soooo individualistic (majestic reeds and plenty of them, and sonorous foundations, mystical celestes, etc.) that organs of other countries of origin, such as German, English, American, Spanish, Italian cannot attempt to imitate the French organ sound.
Herein lies a conundrum: If an organist desires to play French music via Hauptwerk sample libraries, must he ONLY play it on French instruments? To me, the answer is "No", but one should strive to make the piece sound as musically valid as possible.
I have gone back and created another Contrebombarde performance, this time using excerpts of my original performance, followed by duplicate passages of Susan Landale's performance on the CC of St. Etienne at Caen. Here are the links to the original performance and the excerpt comparison.
http://www.contrebombarde.com/concerthall/music/1262
http://www.contrebombarde.com/concerthall/music/1284
Now, to the point of this audio comparison:
Despite comments to the contrary, I believe that some of you out there might agree that the CC passages of the Grande Piece might also sound ponderous (but not ugly) in comparison to my own performance.
Here is where I believe the differences might arise: The Caen has fewer number of stops than the PAB, but the CC's pipes are individually more powerful as a whole. Wherein I drew a number of stops for the opening passage, Ms. Landale's performance seemed to draw very few stops -- yet her sound was very full. The question is: did that make my performance sound "ugly"?
Since this is an open forum, I would like to open the debate for your personal opinions or comments. Surely, many of you will disagree with my position (and rightfully so), but there are hundreds of viewers to this Concert Hall. For the interest of healthy discussion -- without being crude, vulgar or generally out-of-hand -- I think this might be a great opportunity to express our feelings and experiences.
The floor open to you, ladies and gentlemen. I would love to hear from many of you who read the forum but who do not normally reply to it.
Cheers,
Joe