Thu Apr 04, 2019 2:55 am
The Elbertse Adema organ of the H.H. Laurentius en Elisabeth Kathedraal of Rotterdam (NL).
It is with great pleasure that we can proudly announce to the Hauptwerk community, the completion of our new sampleset of the Elbertse/Adema organ (1923) of the H.H. Laurentius en Elisabeth Kathedraal of Rotterdam (NL).
Picture Hans Kleene
The organ, although of Dutch making, Dutch origin, has an unmistakably French Symphonic character and is therefore ideally suited for French compositions from the 19th century and later.
Completely unjustified (as far as we are concerned), this organ enjoys little or no awareness among organ-loving people. One of our team members accidentally came across a recording of this instrument and was immediately struck by the beautiful symphonic qualities of the organ and the immense acoustics of the Cathedral.
PictureJoop Nijs
The most unique is the enormous Bazuin (ContreBombarde) 32. There is no such thing to be found anywhere else in the Netherlands and because of the warm and pleasant acoustics the organ shows strong similarities with the famous Cavaillé Coll organ from Rouen. That the builders had this sound in mind is obvious and in our opinion very successful implemented in this Dutch instrument.
This organ therefore deserves a large audience and partly for that reason we contacted the organist and directors of the Cathedral at the end of 2017 and shared them our plans to turn this beautiful organ into a sample set for Hauptwerk. They were immediately enthusiastic and thanks to the exceptionally friendly and benevolent cooperation, we were able to realize the recordings in the winter of 2017.
We also recorded this organ according to the 3 channel stereo technique devised by Sygsoft, so that there is a very direct recording from the organ loft, a 'middle' recording about 15 meters away and a 'rear' recording at the very back of the church below the church dome.
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PictureJoop Nijs
The direct recording is almost "dry" and therefore very useful in churches or halls. The middle and rear positions provide the desired ambiance and due to the enormous acoustics for up to 7 seconds, artificial addition of extra reverb is certainly not necessary. By means of the 3 sliders the user can create his own favorite sound experience.
On the advice of a few Beta testers, we have added 10 stops (2 of which are transmissions) digitally to make the sample set even more versatile. These voices can be distinguished by the underlined stopname. In particular the Carillion III on the swell is another big nod to the famous Cavaillé Coll.
As far as we are concerned, few sample sets are available in the atmosphere of the large Symphonic organs in soothing acoustics, so we expect to be able to offer a welcome addition to all Cavaillé Coll enthusiasts and great French masters with our new release.
For additional information and the disposition, please refer to the relevant pages on our website
NL: https://www.hauptwerk.nl/laurentiusnl.php
EN: https://www.hauptwerk.nl/laurentiusen.php
FR: https://www.hauptwerk.nl/laurentiusfr.php
One may listen to a number of demos from this sample set on our website and at http://www.contrebombarde.com/concerthall/home/browse (Browse for “Laurentius”). These recordings are "out of the box" and without added extra reverb which is the case with some comparable sample sets on Contrebombarde.
More audio examples will follow soon, so keep an eye on our site.
For EU residents the sample set is available at € 649 incl. VAT and can be ordered directly via
NL: https://www.hauptwerk.nl/bestellennl.php (item 34)
EN: https://www.hauptwerk.nl/bestellenen.php (item 34)
FR: https://www.hauptwerk.nl/bestellenfr.php (item 34)
For non EU residents see the same pages (item 35)
We wish you a lot of playing and listening pleasure.
Yours, The Sygsoft team Netherlands
