Georges Delvallee plays Vierne from St Quentin

[stormkingfan]

In this clip, the mixtures sounded more German to me than French, however, one thing that stands out is the Cromorne, which sound as French as they come.

On the Great Toccatas and Chimes CD, the 32' Bombarde didn't have as much consistency with its 16' counterpart as you would hear in Cavaille-Coll's with the same arrangement.

[bordone32]

amazing. I bought this cd in 1990 in Turin. Never seen this orgue until this moment!

[EccentricRichard]

I think it sounds wonderful. No, it's not a Cavaillé-Coll or a Puget, but it is an interesting organ nevertheless, and an important part of our heritage. It should be good for Duruflé, Tournemire, Messiaen, Alain, etc. Organs like this and Chartres (and, this side of the Channel, Liverpool Met and Blackburn) must be preserved.

Personally, I'd still prefer a Puget =D

[sanysov]

Good pedal tuning. Very bad mixtur voicing. Haerpfer & Herman, is little organshop

quality. Sorry.

[EccentricRichard]

@sanysov - ah, but what of the old Dalstein & Haerpfer instruments? Now THEY really are something...

[frenchiecocorico1]

I- By chance I can tell you the very sad story of this organ because I am native of Saint Quentin and at the organ rebuilt period, I was a young singer in the Basilica Choir.

The St Quentin Basilica baroque organ was formely built in 1702 by Robert Clicquot (king Louis XIV 's organ builder king Louis XIV) and the case designed by Berain (king's cabinet draughtsman). It had 40 stops on 4 keyboards and a 24 steps pedalboard plus a "grand ravalement" (the first C# key sound AA).

[frenchiecocorico1]

II- In 1859,Sauvage who learned organ building with A Cavaillé Coll, transformed the baroque organ into a romantic one by suppressing "echo" keyboard, mutation stops (tierce, nasard, larigot) and mixtures (fourniture, cymbale), changing the mechanism, adding new romantic stops (gambe , salicional, euphone, ...) but preserving 12 stops and the baroque case from the ancient organ.

[frenchiecocorico1]

III- Then in 1917, during 1° WW occured a catastrophic event for this organ. In the occupied territories German army requisitioned every kind of metal including organ pipes or statues to made cannon, shells or bullets. So the pipes were threw down from the organ tribune and the internal mechanism was destroyed. Only remained the wonderful baroque case void of any pipe.

[frenchiecocorico1]

IV- This organ was only rebuilt no more than in 1967 by builder factory Erman Haerpfer from Boulay (Moselle). The art ministery historic organ commission choose a neo classic organ allowing to play every kind of repertoire. It was the first organ in France equiped with an electronic memorised selector switch and a double transmission system (tamburini system = mechanic + electro magnetic).

[frenchiecocorico1]

V- Now, It has 72 stops, 4 keyboards with 61 keys and a pedalboard with 32 steps. It makes part of the ten greatest organ of France. Although, the building quality is not very good and the most part of the pipes are industrial products.

This organ were often used to record french neo romantic repertoire (Vierne, Tournemire, Duruflé, ...).

[speedstick77]

Nothing bashful about this instrument. I like the sound. The miracle of the organ world is that so many builders were free to express their artistry unfettered by academic twaddle. Every instrument is an adventure. Vive la difference!  The cathedral is stunning. Thank you so much for sharing.

[willowthebored]

It's an INTERESTING sound. I'm not going to call it bad, because I actually like the way it sounds, but I will agree that it does NOT have the appropriate fonds for Vierne. It offers some interesting registration possibilities, and certainly has its place, but it's not well-balanced, and definitely not here.

[ThirtyTwoFoot]

It has a lot of go though, and lovely sparkling mixtures that would be good for Durufle's music.

[ds1868]

A very strange beast. Not to my liking at all. Can we ditch this one in the builders skip as well please??

[JFSnail]

This we can agree on! Not the finest monent in French organ building ;-)

[ds1868]

So glad you agree - such a pile of inconsequential rubbish, straight to the recycling skip please!

[1401JSC]

This Carillon is written in 2/2 and not 4/4.

Half note = 63.

The opening pedal ostinato is written legato, but the manual version is written staccato (with a legato tenor countermelody).

Originally written for Harmonium or organ.

The organ is in style 'neoclassic', built as a post-war reaction to the heavy symphonic organs of the industrial 19th Century and on which Bach should sound better than on a CC or Willis.

(32' Principal, not Montre on the pedal etc.).

[cezig]

Delvallée et Tournemire !!!  je ne m'en lasse pas !

[organum74]

Yes, this organ sounds big at the pedal, it has a Bombarde 32", but it is clear that it is not the case of the manuals which sound a bit too cheap, especially in the high notes.

Solo stops are very clear and nice, but where are the reeds at the manuals ?

We are far from a Cavaillé-Coll, and very far from Saint-Ouen organ for example.

[JFSnail]

This organ is very odd, the spec shows they are attempting to emulate the glories of the French 17th century organ (Clicquot, Isnard, Bedos etc) with a few stops from the romantic era (C-Coll, Merklin etc).

But they have an instrument that sounds neither classical nor romantic, but (that dreaded word) neo-classical . Its a modern hotch-potch of sounds all thrown together and is devoid of finesse and fire so typical of French organs.

[Rankett16]

I agree, it is an ill-thought-out by-product of the neo-Baroque era. Scaling and balancing are crucial in creating the fonds 8' which H-E seems to have no inkling of. French-named reeds are present but lack the eclat of the real thing. Hopefully, this instrument will be seen as marking the turning point towards an informed, technical approach to the C-C legacy.

[mattbod]

It's better than the rather thin sound of the Danion Gonzales organs at Beauvais and Chartres which are helped enormously by their acoustics.

Best recent "French" organ is St Eustache but that was built by the Dutch Van Den Heuvel firm.

[sousukesagaraJKD]

Finally a good Carillon de Longpont!!

[maxouf1]

@sousukesagaraJKD Hey, mine is excellent too (see my video), and I play it even better now, record was only 1,5month after starting learning it, that was several months ago -_-

from 1:28 to 1:36 it is supposed to be staccato, I don't hear any here, it's horrible, and tempo is not regular between parts of the piece. Last chord is played too soon, there is no respiration before it... Overall, sound looks like much like when I performed it on the 100 stops of Lille cathedral's organ, neoclassic too

[Xanekros]

@maxouf1

Well, it's difficult to do the staccato on such an organ. I know it's not perfect but among the recordings I listened (1 year ago!), it was one of the best. I like your recording. You interpreted it exactly the way I used to play it! It seems I'm listening to my exam! It's a pity for the sound quality, but it's very good! Compliments! =)

[CoutureOrganiste]

I like this organ. It has a bit of a wooly English sound. I've played a Dalstein-Haerpfer at St. Sebastien in Nancy that was more French. Otherwise, don't know much about the firm. I love C-C but this is a nice contrast and interesting to find it in France.

[MonsieurOrgue]

No, this instrument definitely is missing some of the required 'fire' here. However, excellent performance though!

[BeFrSc]

Needs a stronger 32' reed and Notre-Dame like Chamades, that'll bring the fire in.

[Organiste06]

I play a Haerpfer & Erman organ.

[marsvltor2]

Agreed that this instrument lacks the normal French panache. I am desperately trying to find this piece on a C-C: is there anything on YouTube, or, indeed are there any recordings availble on CD? Strangely enough, I(until this posting) only have English instruments playing this. Used to have S Ouen, but the records were stolen, together with much other stuff :-(

[JFSnail]

I have 2 recordings of this piece from St Ouen, both by george Baker on the Solstic label, I dont know of any other recordings on other C-C organs though.

[gkgamer]

Hello marsvltor2,

There is recording by Ben van Oosten played on Cavaillé-Coll organ in Saint-Antoine des Quinze-Vingts in Paris on the Musikproduktion Dabringhaus und Grimm label.

[mattbod]

Jennifer Bate: Virtuoso French Organ Music: Regis RRC 1147: at the Gonzales organ of Beauvais Cathedral.

Hope this helps!

[marsvltor2]

MattBod: thanks for information! I think I know you - Birmingham Town Hall, Lampeter, and Cavaille-Coll ;-)

[a55b47]

Haerpfer & Erman? With builders like that, you'd expect a French sound? ;-). As I recall, St. Quentin is in Normandy (Brittany?)  Maybe we could call this a French/English/Belgian combination.

[chwidder]

Not quite: Saint-Quentin is in Picardy. As for the Haerpfer & Erman firm, they were located in Lorraine, one of the two Eastern regions of France that switched back and forth between France and Germany during history (and in which many people do indeed bear Germanic patronyms).

I can't say that I like their organs very much...

[JFSnail]

Agree with about not liking their instruments, or at least those I have heard. I only included it for novelty value :-)