What follows is a strong and perhaps biased personal opinion, which you can take with a grain of sea or land salt, if you so desire.
Dr. Helmut Meier kindly asked me to write a review of the Ottobueren set and post some of my improvisations (I'm having trouble uploading anything right now). In thinking about this, I thought it would only be fair to provide a quick review of several sample sets I have acquired in the past 6 months or so.
Allow me first to give a little reflection on my organistic background, so you know my frame of mind and my historical context, as well as my preferences and perhaps biases.
I grew up in the organ garden of the Netherlands, namely in and around the city of Groningen, in the province with the same name. It has apparently the densest presence of well preserved historical organs, with many of the baroque period, as well as some interesting instruments from before and afterwards. The brothers Huis/Husz, his successor Arp Schnitger and his successors Albert Anthoni Hinsch (Hinsz) and his stepson Frans Caspar Schnitger Jr.and his compagnon Heinrich Hermann Freytag all left their significant stamps here, with competition in the 19th century from the brothers Lohman, Petrus van Oeckelen, Wilhelm Timpe and a little bit from Joachim Wenthin.
I grew up in the village of Noordwolde, home of a 17th century (Huisz?) organ, later reduced from three to two manuals by Freytag and recently restored. I listened to this organ every Sunday for 11+ years, a d had a chance to play it myself as well. A fantastic instrument that forever ingrained into me what good and authentic organ sound sounds like.
You can understand that this exposure every Sunday led to my love of the organ. At home I played on a harmonium, now a regretfully forgotten instrument with its own beauty and vast treasure of sheet music literature. I now possess a beautifully restored 1894 Mason & Hamlin 2-manual reed organ (sans pedals; only two for pumping).
On many Sundays, with my father in the beginning and later alone and with a friend, I scoured the province in search for the old organs I had read about. And so, I had a chance to play a large gamut of historical organs, from Krewerd (16th century; and before and after restoration) to e.g. Usquert which houses a 19th century Van Oeckelen. And anything in between, including several Schnitgers, Hinsches, Lohmans, Timpes and Freytags.
When I listened to a newly restored organ, in the late 1960s, when restoration techniques were somewhat still in its infancy, I wasn't always happy with the results (as in e.g. Leens and Appingedam). My ears were already well trained. It was easy to hear the difference between original stops and reconstructed ones, like reeds especially. Reeds were still very difficult to make sound old. And not every organ builder was yet making their own pipes.
Thus, over time, my ears developed a very good sense of distinction and to sense how an organ survived history. A very good example is the Vollenhove sample set, masterfully sampled by OAM. It's easy to hear the differences between the 17th and 18th and also 19th century pedal pipes. Personally I don't think the stops of the Rugwerk and Hoofdwerk blend well; they represent a different era and musical world. Also, I question the correctness of the mixtures; they all sound just a bit over the top and reveal that the restoration techniques of the time that they were carried out weren't quite perfected yet and still feel "neo-baroque." I'm sure it would be done a lot better if it were done today.
The organ of Zwolle is another well-known example and need no further discussion. When you witness what Flentrop (who did the 1950s restoration in Zwolle) has now been able to produce in Hamburg, you have a hard time believing that this new organ is "new". It sounds old. If money allows them to handle the Zwolle organ once again, it will reveal a sound you never could imagine! It will be reborn. It's one of the few major organs in Holland needing a re-restoration (as does Gouda, actually). The work done recently in Alkmaar is another testimony of how far we've come .
In my later teens I had the privilege of taking lessons from Johan van Meurs, a fantastic human being, who inspired so much love of organs and organ music, and who was a very patient and kind teacher. He was the "organist maker" of the Groningen city and province (à la Sweelinck; as he raised many great organists in Holland) on the world-famous Schnitger organ (with much older material) in the Aa-kerk of Groningen, and I had also the privilege of being able to practice there, and I also became involved with the Saturday night concerts there, where I was a host handing out programs and taking free-will offerings. After the concerts, I was allowed to hang out in the coffee room, where famous organists would gather and have many discussions about organs, music, etc. What a treat! A great influence on me was Klaas Bolt, originally from Appingedam,who became my good friend, then already organist in Haarlem of the famous Chr. Muller organ, who was an organ expert and helped advise churches and organ builders on restorations. As a trained archivist he used many of the reports I wrote.
This is my foundation: solidly rooted in old organs. Consequent listening to many records and now CDs of organs of the world once again confirms my suspicion that some restored organs have lost their original luster quite bit and this has become rather easy to detect. But I understand the challenge of a restoration: wind leaks are fixed, wind pressures are different and brought back to their original levels, and some revoicing is needed. The trick is to make old stops and new stops blend well. Recent work by some great organ builders who have tons of firsthand experience maintaining, studying and restoring old organs make this almost indistinguishable now. They can even make new organs sound like old ones! That's extremely encouraging, but not all organ builders are capable of producing the same top results. Not yet at least. Some say it's a dying art, as not enough young people become organ builders or work for organ building firms.
It is with this same set of ears that I approach historical organs sampled for Hauptwerk. And then there are a few organs that stand out immediately for their basically unspoiled sounds.
Frechilla stands out, even though the instrument has pipes from two, but close, periods.
St. Michel de Thierache stands out as an outstanding French baroque organ; and has deservedly gained fame as such. It's an absolutely gorgeous sound; and those Flutes are to die for! The much larger and flashier grand Isnard in St. Maximim is supposedly totally original, but I do detect some elements in the sound that may reflect some, but probably unintentional "tampering" overtime. But nevertheless a glorious organ that inspires to play the larger works, and the later works by Balbastre and his contemporaries. And to improvise!
Other smaller organs of note are: Rabsteijn and Zlata Koruna. Small organs, but also in their fantastic acoustical surroundings a great joy to play. A trip back in time! I do not have the little OAM set of the Frans Caspar Schnitger organ in Duurswoude, but this instrument has survived very well as well, as far as I understand.
Zoblitz-is an example of a recently sampled organ whose sounds really strike me as very musical, authentic, and in a good acoustical setting. A modest organ but with lots of possibilities.
Weissenau. This recently acquired and published sample set, which has been an excellent labor of love by Gernot Wurst, is an instrument with a wonderful palette of 8' flues and strings, as well as some nice reeds. This instrument is my view best suited for carefully chosen registrations, as personally I find the mixtures and trumpet stops too harsh, unblending and bombastic. Perhaps my 66-year old ears cannot take this 'in your face;' sound anymore. Perhaps. Nevertheless, here is a case where I personally want to place some question marks as to the sounds of the trompet reeds and mixtures/plenum. I cannot say that I find the organ sounding really old, even when played with a historical temperament.
And I think I know why old organs have irregularities in voicing; some pipes speak a little better, faster, slower, differently, than their brothers and sisters in the same rank. This actually adds the human touch to an organ: the slight imperfections make up for a perfectly satisfying musical experience. The more "perfect" the voicing is, that is, when the pipes in a rank all speak equally smooth, and thus the same, in a kind of monotonous fashion, the organ's sounds seems more dead, less alive, less human, and almost electronic and artificial.
Ottobueren. Now, here is an interesting and rare historical organ. Also, plenty of 8' flues and strings, as well as reeds. Luckily, no blaringly loud trompete and mixtures here. The Crumhorn is more like a little trumpet and does a good job trying to be a trompette. Quite useful. A well sampled organ; and I tried to even play early baroque and renaissance music on it, but then you do hear that the organ is from a later period. If you play old music on it, I recommend the Cimbel of the Hauptwerk and leaving the low mixture out. Then, just for fun, I started playing even suitable piano music on it, and it adapts extremely well. What I sorely miss on this sample set: no 16' reed in the pedal, no pedal coupler and no 2' flutes anywhere. But the Bourdon 16' in the manual is fabulous. Combine that with the Octave 4', and you have a wonderful sound. The same is true for the Weissenau: Principal 16' and Octave 4' function very well together as a running bass, where normally you would use a Fagot 16'. Ottobueren is a highly recommendable set. Here you hear desirable imperfections as you run up and down the scale of a stop. It's a good test.
Tholen: A wonderfully sampled organ, with good implementation of tremulants and the "acoustical slider". The organ is very well suited for the smaller works from around the turn of the 18th to 19th century and for smaller romantic works. And for choral preludes. But the organ's stoplist has been criticized throughout its history as being underdeveloped, and this remains the organ's Achilles heel. You have to be careful about stop usage. Modesty is key to musical success here. The Prestant 8' foot stops are very beautiful.
I once asked Jiri Zurek to sample a French double harpsichord. He said he had no plans. He sampled three string instruments so far, and I must say in one sense they are all a natural failure. Not because they are sampled badly, but simply, because you cannot reproduce in Hauptwerk software the natural resonance of an entire soundboard. In a way, end of discussion.
If we want ideal stringed instrument sounds, we have to either expand the possibilities of Hauptwerk (which is not going to happen, I'm sure; as this is organ software), or simply use other software that have natural resonance built-in. Harpsichords still sound kind of dead and artificial in Hauptwerk. It just cannot be helped. Organ pipes not played may vibrate sympathetically a little, but are still not heard. If they were, it would be trouble.
In stringed instruments, this is exactly the opposite and desirable, which cannot be imitated in Hauptwerk. The soundboard of a harpsichord and piano or psaltery, dulcimer, and what-have-you, is the natural acoustical environment, while for an organ it is the entire building. If the non-played pipes would "sing" as well and be heard; it would create double acoustics and thus overtone confusion. It's amazing how these two opposite natural principles are nevertheless totally perfect!
My sample set collection is bit bigger than what I covered here. As I said, it's my personal testimony and observation. It's not meant to be complete. I have some romantic organs and other baroque organs as well.
Hope it's helpful or interesting at least. It's not meant to exert any influence upon your decision to buy or not to buy.
I can naturally recommend any of the sample sets I have myself; otherwise I wouldn't have them...right?
Dr. Helmut Meier kindly asked me to write a review of the Ottobueren set and post some of my improvisations (I'm having trouble uploading anything right now). In thinking about this, I thought it would only be fair to provide a quick review of several sample sets I have acquired in the past 6 months or so.
Allow me first to give a little reflection on my organistic background, so you know my frame of mind and my historical context, as well as my preferences and perhaps biases.
I grew up in the organ garden of the Netherlands, namely in and around the city of Groningen, in the province with the same name. It has apparently the densest presence of well preserved historical organs, with many of the baroque period, as well as some interesting instruments from before and afterwards. The brothers Huis/Husz, his successor Arp Schnitger and his successors Albert Anthoni Hinsch (Hinsz) and his stepson Frans Caspar Schnitger Jr.and his compagnon Heinrich Hermann Freytag all left their significant stamps here, with competition in the 19th century from the brothers Lohman, Petrus van Oeckelen, Wilhelm Timpe and a little bit from Joachim Wenthin.
I grew up in the village of Noordwolde, home of a 17th century (Huisz?) organ, later reduced from three to two manuals by Freytag and recently restored. I listened to this organ every Sunday for 11+ years, a d had a chance to play it myself as well. A fantastic instrument that forever ingrained into me what good and authentic organ sound sounds like.
You can understand that this exposure every Sunday led to my love of the organ. At home I played on a harmonium, now a regretfully forgotten instrument with its own beauty and vast treasure of sheet music literature. I now possess a beautifully restored 1894 Mason & Hamlin 2-manual reed organ (sans pedals; only two for pumping).
On many Sundays, with my father in the beginning and later alone and with a friend, I scoured the province in search for the old organs I had read about. And so, I had a chance to play a large gamut of historical organs, from Krewerd (16th century; and before and after restoration) to e.g. Usquert which houses a 19th century Van Oeckelen. And anything in between, including several Schnitgers, Hinsches, Lohmans, Timpes and Freytags.
When I listened to a newly restored organ, in the late 1960s, when restoration techniques were somewhat still in its infancy, I wasn't always happy with the results (as in e.g. Leens and Appingedam). My ears were already well trained. It was easy to hear the difference between original stops and reconstructed ones, like reeds especially. Reeds were still very difficult to make sound old. And not every organ builder was yet making their own pipes.
Thus, over time, my ears developed a very good sense of distinction and to sense how an organ survived history. A very good example is the Vollenhove sample set, masterfully sampled by OAM. It's easy to hear the differences between the 17th and 18th and also 19th century pedal pipes. Personally I don't think the stops of the Rugwerk and Hoofdwerk blend well; they represent a different era and musical world. Also, I question the correctness of the mixtures; they all sound just a bit over the top and reveal that the restoration techniques of the time that they were carried out weren't quite perfected yet and still feel "neo-baroque." I'm sure it would be done a lot better if it were done today.
The organ of Zwolle is another well-known example and need no further discussion. When you witness what Flentrop (who did the 1950s restoration in Zwolle) has now been able to produce in Hamburg, you have a hard time believing that this new organ is "new". It sounds old. If money allows them to handle the Zwolle organ once again, it will reveal a sound you never could imagine! It will be reborn. It's one of the few major organs in Holland needing a re-restoration (as does Gouda, actually). The work done recently in Alkmaar is another testimony of how far we've come .
In my later teens I had the privilege of taking lessons from Johan van Meurs, a fantastic human being, who inspired so much love of organs and organ music, and who was a very patient and kind teacher. He was the "organist maker" of the Groningen city and province (à la Sweelinck; as he raised many great organists in Holland) on the world-famous Schnitger organ (with much older material) in the Aa-kerk of Groningen, and I had also the privilege of being able to practice there, and I also became involved with the Saturday night concerts there, where I was a host handing out programs and taking free-will offerings. After the concerts, I was allowed to hang out in the coffee room, where famous organists would gather and have many discussions about organs, music, etc. What a treat! A great influence on me was Klaas Bolt, originally from Appingedam,who became my good friend, then already organist in Haarlem of the famous Chr. Muller organ, who was an organ expert and helped advise churches and organ builders on restorations. As a trained archivist he used many of the reports I wrote.
This is my foundation: solidly rooted in old organs. Consequent listening to many records and now CDs of organs of the world once again confirms my suspicion that some restored organs have lost their original luster quite bit and this has become rather easy to detect. But I understand the challenge of a restoration: wind leaks are fixed, wind pressures are different and brought back to their original levels, and some revoicing is needed. The trick is to make old stops and new stops blend well. Recent work by some great organ builders who have tons of firsthand experience maintaining, studying and restoring old organs make this almost indistinguishable now. They can even make new organs sound like old ones! That's extremely encouraging, but not all organ builders are capable of producing the same top results. Not yet at least. Some say it's a dying art, as not enough young people become organ builders or work for organ building firms.
It is with this same set of ears that I approach historical organs sampled for Hauptwerk. And then there are a few organs that stand out immediately for their basically unspoiled sounds.
Frechilla stands out, even though the instrument has pipes from two, but close, periods.
St. Michel de Thierache stands out as an outstanding French baroque organ; and has deservedly gained fame as such. It's an absolutely gorgeous sound; and those Flutes are to die for! The much larger and flashier grand Isnard in St. Maximim is supposedly totally original, but I do detect some elements in the sound that may reflect some, but probably unintentional "tampering" overtime. But nevertheless a glorious organ that inspires to play the larger works, and the later works by Balbastre and his contemporaries. And to improvise!
Other smaller organs of note are: Rabsteijn and Zlata Koruna. Small organs, but also in their fantastic acoustical surroundings a great joy to play. A trip back in time! I do not have the little OAM set of the Frans Caspar Schnitger organ in Duurswoude, but this instrument has survived very well as well, as far as I understand.
Zoblitz-is an example of a recently sampled organ whose sounds really strike me as very musical, authentic, and in a good acoustical setting. A modest organ but with lots of possibilities.
Weissenau. This recently acquired and published sample set, which has been an excellent labor of love by Gernot Wurst, is an instrument with a wonderful palette of 8' flues and strings, as well as some nice reeds. This instrument is my view best suited for carefully chosen registrations, as personally I find the mixtures and trumpet stops too harsh, unblending and bombastic. Perhaps my 66-year old ears cannot take this 'in your face;' sound anymore. Perhaps. Nevertheless, here is a case where I personally want to place some question marks as to the sounds of the trompet reeds and mixtures/plenum. I cannot say that I find the organ sounding really old, even when played with a historical temperament.
And I think I know why old organs have irregularities in voicing; some pipes speak a little better, faster, slower, differently, than their brothers and sisters in the same rank. This actually adds the human touch to an organ: the slight imperfections make up for a perfectly satisfying musical experience. The more "perfect" the voicing is, that is, when the pipes in a rank all speak equally smooth, and thus the same, in a kind of monotonous fashion, the organ's sounds seems more dead, less alive, less human, and almost electronic and artificial.
Ottobueren. Now, here is an interesting and rare historical organ. Also, plenty of 8' flues and strings, as well as reeds. Luckily, no blaringly loud trompete and mixtures here. The Crumhorn is more like a little trumpet and does a good job trying to be a trompette. Quite useful. A well sampled organ; and I tried to even play early baroque and renaissance music on it, but then you do hear that the organ is from a later period. If you play old music on it, I recommend the Cimbel of the Hauptwerk and leaving the low mixture out. Then, just for fun, I started playing even suitable piano music on it, and it adapts extremely well. What I sorely miss on this sample set: no 16' reed in the pedal, no pedal coupler and no 2' flutes anywhere. But the Bourdon 16' in the manual is fabulous. Combine that with the Octave 4', and you have a wonderful sound. The same is true for the Weissenau: Principal 16' and Octave 4' function very well together as a running bass, where normally you would use a Fagot 16'. Ottobueren is a highly recommendable set. Here you hear desirable imperfections as you run up and down the scale of a stop. It's a good test.
Tholen: A wonderfully sampled organ, with good implementation of tremulants and the "acoustical slider". The organ is very well suited for the smaller works from around the turn of the 18th to 19th century and for smaller romantic works. And for choral preludes. But the organ's stoplist has been criticized throughout its history as being underdeveloped, and this remains the organ's Achilles heel. You have to be careful about stop usage. Modesty is key to musical success here. The Prestant 8' foot stops are very beautiful.
I once asked Jiri Zurek to sample a French double harpsichord. He said he had no plans. He sampled three string instruments so far, and I must say in one sense they are all a natural failure. Not because they are sampled badly, but simply, because you cannot reproduce in Hauptwerk software the natural resonance of an entire soundboard. In a way, end of discussion.
If we want ideal stringed instrument sounds, we have to either expand the possibilities of Hauptwerk (which is not going to happen, I'm sure; as this is organ software), or simply use other software that have natural resonance built-in. Harpsichords still sound kind of dead and artificial in Hauptwerk. It just cannot be helped. Organ pipes not played may vibrate sympathetically a little, but are still not heard. If they were, it would be trouble.
In stringed instruments, this is exactly the opposite and desirable, which cannot be imitated in Hauptwerk. The soundboard of a harpsichord and piano or psaltery, dulcimer, and what-have-you, is the natural acoustical environment, while for an organ it is the entire building. If the non-played pipes would "sing" as well and be heard; it would create double acoustics and thus overtone confusion. It's amazing how these two opposite natural principles are nevertheless totally perfect!
My sample set collection is bit bigger than what I covered here. As I said, it's my personal testimony and observation. It's not meant to be complete. I have some romantic organs and other baroque organs as well.
Hope it's helpful or interesting at least. It's not meant to exert any influence upon your decision to buy or not to buy.
I can naturally recommend any of the sample sets I have myself; otherwise I wouldn't have them...right?