Ride of the Valkyries at St. John the Divine

Ride of the Valkyries by Richard Wagner
Transcribed for organ by Edwin Lemare
Performed by Anthony Newman

Performed on the Æolian-Skinner organ at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine

Æolian-Skinner
Opus 150A
IV-manuals
115 stops
141 ranks
7,938 pipes

On the night of December 18, 2001 a fire swept through the unfinished north transept, destroying the gift shop and for a time threatening the sanctuary of the cathedral itself. It temporarily silenced the Aeolian-Skinner organ. Although the organ was not damaged, its pipe chambers had to be removed and laboriously cleaned, to prevent damage from the fire's accumulated soot.

In April of 2006 massive $16.5 million cleaning and restoration project got underway. The cleaning and restoration of the organ, with the exception of the State Trumpet, is being performed by Quimby Pipe Organs. Restoration of the State Trumpet is being performed by Douglass Hunt, Curator of Organs for St. John.

It's expected to take several months to reassemble the organ, which is slated to be finished just before November 30, 2008 on the 67th anniversary of the nave's first dedication. That's when the entire cathedral will be rededicated.

All photos© by K. Tsui (used with permission)

Category:

Music

Tags:

• pipe
• organ
• orgue
• orgel
• organo
• edwin
• lemare
• richard
• wagner

[virginiaorganbuilder]

I'm curious why you don't give Anthony Newman credit as the performer, even though it's clear to all of us that this is from the 'Organ Orgy' recording.

[moller11739]

Sorry, I haven't given it much thought since I was told. It's updated now, thanks.

[TikhonJohannovich]

moller11739,

How wonderful that you post vids with the glorious tracks from Anthony Newman's *Organ Orgy*. I hope that you will post all the tracks. I am so pissed that Sony doesn't produce a CD of the old Columbia recording with all these tracks.

OOORAAAH!!!

[moller11739]

Thanks for letting me know who this was, parts of the label and jacket were quite unreadable.

[organman52]

Yes. I feel spastic as well.

[Wagerfilm]

I listened again. You made a strong point about rat race, and someone else did about cleanliness. That's a tough organ to master. I think I simply admire having Newman's having learned the transcription.

[2394040]

I don't know if this is mentioned anywhere, but the record jacket mentioned that Newman had some help playing this. One fellow actually crawled inside the console to play (if I remember correctly) some of the pedal passages--by hand!. A couple of others pulled stops and turned pages (not all that unusual). But the guy inside the console---what a trip!

[RailRoadWorker18]

where is this church located? Also I LOVE THIS MUSIC!

[fml1953]

Before

[kiqw]

Just curious...was this before the fire or after?

[banmen0w]

Too fast but nice.

[Offshoreorganbuilder]

Amazing - the brassy effects of the reed(s) is unreal. Many thanks.

[DCN1234567]

@bhigdaddymark I'm no expert on sound recording, but they may have had the microphones set up in the middle of the cathedral so that the sound from the main organ and the state trumpet would meet them at the same time. To minimize reverberation, they may have used directional mics that do not capture sound bouncing off the walls. I have a CD of Michael Murray playing the Purcell Trumpet tune at St. Johns, usig the state trumpet, and there was no delay. Great point, I wondered the same!

[xenigirl]

Hojotoho!

[godzilloid]

the audience is now deaf

[flybear23]

Just a wonderful piece of music to be played on an outstanding instrument!