Organ restorations - Town Hall Projects

[Dave2002]

I stumbled across this one - http://www.nicholsonorgans.co.uk/pf/mth/ after looking at details of the Leeds Town Hall organ restoration.


I didn't know that Manchester had a Cavaillé-Coll organ and it would be interesting to know more about this restoration and hear some music when the restoration is complete.

Cavaillé-Coll clearly made a number of organs, many splendid sounding - rather different from traditional English organs. One other I know of - and have heard very briefly - is at St Omer in northern France.

The video here shows the Manchester organ before restoration started -

[smittims]

Despite some accusations of penny-pinching, quite a lot of expense went into ensuring Manchester Town Hall was a showpiece; For instance , the murals painted by Ford Madox Brown depicting moments from the city's history. Brown became friends with the organist Kendrick Pyne , who used to play while Brown was painting. Unfortunately their wives also became friends, Mrs. Pyne smuggling Emma Brown bottles of rum, for which she had an addiction.

I should like to hear the restored Cavaille-Coll instrument, perhaps in one of Cesar Franck's Chorales, composed on this type of organ .

[Dave2002]

In the case of the Leeds TH organ there are virtual organ samples available. It'd be good if something similar could be made available for the Manchester organ - even if that had to be done at a cost to end users. The Leeds organ sounds are available as a free sample set - though the set is not as versatile as some of the much more expensive VST sample sets.