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First live recordings for the 1904 Wilhelm Sauer organ

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OAM

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First live recordings for the 1904 Wilhelm Sauer organ

PostSat Jun 28, 2008 8:16 am

Hello all,

Anton Doornhein just released the very first live recordings for the 1904 Wilhelm-Sauer organ:

Max Reger (1873-1916):
Romanze a-moll op.80,8

This is the typical German late romantic organ sound demanded by Reger. Registration details please check the demo web site.
In my youth, I played this piece on a "neo-baroque" 1960 organ and couldn't find the achievable sound very exciting. When listening to this organ today, I know, why...

The second piece is the very famous Toccata d-moll op.59,5 (1901).
Listen to the breathtaking interpretation of Anton Doornhein (where one could think, Reger is easy...).
Toccata d-moll, op.59,5
This medium difficult piece (according to Reger level!) can also be played be talented organ amateurs as well.

If you compare his interpretation with some of the available YouTube videos (or own disks), you hear (not regarding the poor video sound quality), that most of the modern and neo-baroque organs with their screaming sharp mixtures and their missing "singing voices" are not appropriate for his music. Unfortunately we have lost or modified (thus destroyed) most of those late romantic organs.
Although being an organ with profound tenor and bass voices, all musical lines could be heard very clearly.

At last, listen to the Fuge D-Dur op.59,6.
Fuge D-Dur, op.59,6

The Fuga, besides the usual complex Reger polyphony, has the big difficulty, to steadily increase the sound volume and tempo without any big disruption.

For me, working on this project, the Reger perception and understanding has completely changed. It's interesting to know, that the organ workshop of the renowned Sauer organ specialist, Christian Scheffler (who was a great help in so many questions), now again builds new German late romantic organs, using original Sauer pipe measures.

More live demos, featuring a lot of (late) romantic composers, will follow!

Thanks so much, Anton Doornhein!
Last edited by OAM on Wed Jul 02, 2008 3:53 am, edited 1 time in total.
Prof. Helmut Maier
OrganArt Media Sound Engineering
D-88662 Überlingen/Lake Constance
http://www.organartmedia.com
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Dutch Brad

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PostSat Jun 28, 2008 3:28 pm

A very impressive organ and once again some great playing. This is an important addition to the Hauptwerk library. It's the first true late romantic German organ in the collection for which very much music has been written.

I am amazed at the power of the organ although it only has 3 reed stops and 3 mixture stops.
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PostSun Jun 29, 2008 4:47 am

Thanks, Brad!
Yes, at the first glance it's not really obvious, where the power and and richness of the Tutti sound come from.

French romantic organs get their sound richness from the 16', 8', and 4' reed ranks, especially with the Clairon 4.

Due to my studies, I found, that the richness of the Sauer sound mainly comes from
- Sonorous, warm 8 feet flue ranks
- Sonorous French romantic like Trompete 8
A speciality of Sauer was the realization of the upper treble reed ranks as double flue pipes, usually from g2 (!) on, one sharp sounding pipe for the overtones and one flute-like for the volume.
So, the upper treble pipes nearly sound like reed pipes without having their typical weakness

- Brilliant Cornett with a lot of overtones
- String like Octaves 4 with big overtone richness
The Octaves seem to have similar effects like a Clairon 4
- Sharp German Gamba 8
- Mild Rauschquinte and Mixtur with perfect blending
- Last but not least the super-octave coupler

The sound concept is a real additive one and the ranks blend perfectly. This also explains, why later "neo-baroque" modifications usually destroyed the sound of those instruments.
Prof. Helmut Maier
OrganArt Media Sound Engineering
D-88662 Überlingen/Lake Constance
http://www.organartmedia.com
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PostTue Jul 01, 2008 9:54 pm

Hello Professor Maier!

Huge fan of your sample sets, I went to listen to the new Sauer demo but received a http error.

Thanks,
David
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PostWed Jul 02, 2008 2:40 am

Thanks, David!

I just tested the demo links again and everything worked fine.

Which error did you get exactly? Perhaps it was an intermediate server problem, please try again.
Prof. Helmut Maier
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http://www.organartmedia.com
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PostWed Jul 02, 2008 3:26 am

Ditto when linked from this page:

Object not found!

The requested URL was not found on this server. The link on the referring page seems to be wrong or outdated. Please inform the author of that page about the error.

If you think this is a server error, please contact the webmaster.
Error 404
www.organartmedia.com
Wed Jul 2 10:25:31 2008
Apache/2.2


However the links seem to be OK from the OAM Sauer page. The difference seems to be "-" versus "_" in the URL
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erikds

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PostWed Jul 02, 2008 3:33 am

imcg110 wrote:Ditto when linked from this page:

Object not found!

The requested URL was not found on this server. The link on the referring page seems to be wrong or outdated. Please inform the author of that page about the error.

If you think this is a server error, please contact the webmaster.
Error 404
www.organartmedia.com
Wed Jul 2 10:25:31 2008
Apache/2.2


However the links seem to be OK from the OAM Sauer page


Here also for the 3 demo's, clicking the links in the message above in this thread gives the error as shown above.

Best regards.

Erik.
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OAM

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PostWed Jul 02, 2008 3:33 am

Please try, to reload the page.

I did some minor changes in the names, yesterday. Perhaps you try, to load with an older page.
Which browser do you use?

I've tested with FireFox and Internet Explorer, no problems found.

Does anybody else have problems?

Hope, that helps!
Prof. Helmut Maier
OrganArt Media Sound Engineering
D-88662 Überlingen/Lake Constance
http://www.organartmedia.com
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erikds

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PostWed Jul 02, 2008 3:39 am

HMaier wrote:Please try, to reload the page.

I did some minor changes in the names, yesterday. Perhaps you try, to load with an older page.
Which browser do you use?

I've tested with FireFox and Internet Explorer, no problems found.

Does anybody else have problems?

Hope, that helps!


Tried with reloading, but no change.
Error still persists on all 3 links.
Very likely the minor name changes are the cause.
Could it be the use of "italic"?

Using Firefox derivative (Seamonkey).

Best regards.

Erik.
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pwhodges

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PostWed Jul 02, 2008 3:51 am

The links in the message above have some "_" characters, whereas the working links on the demo page on your web site have "-" in those positions.

Paul
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OAM

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PostWed Jul 02, 2008 3:56 am

Thanks for the info!

O, I'm sorry for this silly bug. I only forgot also to change the links on the forum web site!

Now, it should work!!
Prof. Helmut Maier
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PostWed Jul 02, 2008 8:47 am

Anton Doornhein kindly provided the complete registration for the Reger Toccata and Fuge op.59, please check demo web site.
http://www.organartmedia.com/Sauer-Demos.html

The appropriate use of German late romantic stops may be of interest for those, who don't have much experience with such organs.
Prof. Helmut Maier
OrganArt Media Sound Engineering
D-88662 Überlingen/Lake Constance
http://www.organartmedia.com
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PostSun Aug 31, 2008 4:52 am

Anton Doornhein has live recorded some more works for the 1904 Sauer organ:

The following famous and perhaps most poetic Reger work especially shows the dynamic range and colours from pppp to fff
Max Reger: Benedictus op. 59,9

Max Reger: Te Deum op. 59,12

Liszt has composed some lovely romantic pieces for organ and for use in church service, which don't demonstrate the virtuous Liszt piano style, but show him as a poet. These pieces unfortunately aren't played very often.

Franz Liszt: Ave Maria

Franz Liszt: Benedictus

(Complex) registrations to all pieces will be provided in future for all, who want to learn more about the registration of such a German romantic organ type.

Thanks to Anton Doornhein for these excellent interpretations!

Enjoy!
Prof. Helmut Maier
OrganArt Media Sound Engineering
D-88662 Überlingen/Lake Constance
http://www.organartmedia.com
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PostSun Aug 31, 2008 2:12 pm

Thanks so much, Prof. Maier!

I started learning Reger's Benidictus several times now, but I often find myself lost without a reference recording. I don't have stops like the Aeoline, so it's really hard for me to know how the piece should sound. I look forward to seeing the detailed registrations!

Take care,
Rob Stefanussen
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PostThu Sep 18, 2008 5:31 am

Anton Doornhein has recorded some French works for the 1904 Sauer organ:

The following recordings show how well the Sauer organ performs for Cesar Franck and is a prove for the French influence on Sauer
C. Franck: Pastorale

C. Franck: Prelude, Fugue et Variations

Registrations to all pieces will be provided.

We hope, to get the sample set ready by end of October, pre-orders starting soon.

Thanks again to Anton Doornhein for these sensitive interpretations!

Enjoy!
Prof. Helmut Maier
OrganArt Media Sound Engineering
D-88662 Überlingen/Lake Constance
http://www.organartmedia.com
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