Mendelssohn Sonata #3 in A Major Played on Fisk Pipe Organ

[jmcgatkinson]

A very fine choice of tempo; it is only marginally slower than the recording done with Peter Hurford performing in the Ratzeburg Cathedral, Germany. Thanks for the post. It reminded me of what a grand piece this is when played so well as this..

[organist1982]

@jmcgatkinson

Thank you so much for your kind words!

[AeolianSkinner1983]

Nice organ and a great room as well!

[88yp88yp]

Awesome and magnificent!

[organist1982]

@88yp88yp

Thank you very much!

[unkastacky]

Tempo seems exactly right to me--grand and stately. Thanks for the upload.

[organist12345]

A wonderful organ, even though i see it is made for Baroque pieces, the sonata sounded wonderful.

Well Done

[PETfilm]

Great vid! I'm currently working on this marvellous sonata, and I hope organists all over the world will make an effort in celebrating the 200 years anniversary of the great composer Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.

[jpwsml]

Beautiful, I love the tracker style. Analog, oh yeah!

[BiliousTrumpstaine]

what a great job you have. that almost made my hair stand on end. and to be able to fix those magnificent instruments too is quite an art.

[cromorne]

I happen to prefer the French Romantic sound as well, particularly Cavaille-Coll. Also, as far as the Trumpets, I was impressed with the Trommeten. I would've taken it for a German Trompete! I agree that some certain transcriptions would sound nicely on the organ. I wonder what Franck's E-Major Chorale would sound like. If you ever do figure out that tremulant I'd love to hear the Voix Humaine again. Thanks for posting!

[organist1982]

I think Fisk designs their Trommeten to be a German-styled reed, and I'm not sure why they don't just call it "Trompete" as you said. I think one of the greatest things about Fisk is that they usually supply both French- and German-styled reeds on the Great and Positiv divisions of their larger instruments.

[organist1982]

I do love the Franck E-major chorale; I will soon post a video of my playing the Fugue from Franck's Prelude, Fugue, and Variation on this organ, which basically uses the same registration as the beginning of the Franck Chorale in E (I wanted to show off the sound of all the 8' foundations coupled together!).

[cromorne]

Ah, nothing quite like fonds de 8! I can't wait to see it. Also, in your demonstration video, the camera took a look at the ratchets, and there was one that said "ON". Might this be the elusive Tremulant ratchet? I'd really like to hear the Vox with the tremulant.

[cromorne]

A truly beautiful instrument. For someone who really prefers Romantic sound this instrument is a fine example of Baroque sound! Well played and keep on posting!

[organist1982]

I, too, prefer Romantic sound, specifically French Romantic, but, from what I understand, the German Romantic plenum was not that different from the German Baroque plenum, so I imagine that Mendelssohn had this kind of sound in mind for the beginning of his sonata. And, this organ has plenty of French Romantic-styled stops as well, including the 8' Flute Harmonique on the Great, the beautiful strings, Hautbois, and Voix Humaine in the Swell, and the French-style Trompettes!

[organist1982]

Granted, it doesn't have much by way of 20th-century American/English orchestral colors for transcriptions, but I bet certain transcriptions would even sound nice on this instrument.

[edelvang]

The romantic organs weren't available to Mendelssohn. He played on classical and baroque organs. That also explain's his directions regarding dynamics (no expression, except for an early childhood piece).