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NEWSLETTER
FOR FRIENDS AND DONORS
DECEMBER 2009
A KING OF INSTRUMENTS IN WAITING
Photo: Hans Weichselbaum
THE TASTE OF SUCCESS
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Those closely associated with the AucklandTown Hall Organ restoration project were invited to a mayoral reception on December 2, the official date for the organ to be completed.
Speeches were given by Auckland City Mayor, John Banks, Chairman of the Organ Trust Stephen Hamilton, project consultant Ian Bell and Orgelbau Klais MD Philipp Klais.
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From the Council Chamber the guests were escorted to the Great Hall where City Organist Dr John Wells gave a 15 minute improvisation on the restored instrument.
In his speech, Ian Bell, had referred to the project brief requiring the hall to be filled with sound to the point where ‘the earth would move’. There is no doubt whatsoever that this objective has been met!
At the other end of the decibel range, the organ whispered almost inaudibly.
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Philipp Klais’s description of the organ sound is apt –‘like being in a big warm bath”! The organ sound is not distant – at the other end of the room. Whether soft or loud, it is all around; one is definately in a sound 'bath' - warm and with great beauty without clarity being sacrificed.
At fortissimo, few present would not have had the hairs standing up on the back of their necks! |
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WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
The organ builders have returned to Bonn for the moment but a small team will return in March to make final adjustments and tune the organ right through. In the meantime the organ ’proving’ will take place. Leading organists will play the organ for many hours (privately) to discover if there are any bugs. Dust and the odd wood chip are likely to be in the wind system and all the working parts are new.
Like a new car need they to be ‘run in’ – no one wants gremlins on Inauguration day!
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INAUGURATION WEEK
Sunday March 21 at 3.30pm.
Official Inauguration
Civic Ceremony, Organ solos, Organ with choir, Organ with orchestra – all are included on this historic day. Tickets are not available yet but they will be early in the new year.
Preference will be given to Donors and Friends. |
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Thursday March 25, 8.00pm
The Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra with English celebity organist Thomas Trotter present Poulenc’s Organ Concerto and Saint-Saens ‘Organ’ Symphony. This is a main series subscription concert and is already almost sold out.
If you want to be there you will have to book immediately.
Sunday March 28, 2.30pm
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Thomas Trotter in Solo Recital
BBC Music Magazine says of a CD Trotter recorded on the Klais organ of Birmingham Symphony Hall:
" This is unquestionalbly one of the finest organ recordings I have ever heard and confirms Thomas Trotter as one of today's greatest living organists".
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THIS MONTH'S PHOTOS
1. The restored Auckland Town Hall Organ
2. Auckland Mayor John Banks - organ handover
3. Town Hall Organ Trust Chairman, Stephen Hamilton
4. The organ's voicer Markus Linden and organ builder Moritz Fassbender with Organ Trust member Patricia Goddard. (Moritz who has been with the project from the beginning has just completed his apprenticeship, and so enjoys New Zealand, he is joining the South Island Organ Company next year.)
5. Adviser Dr Indra Hughes, Consultant Ian Bell and Orgelbau Klais MD Philipp Klais after the organ's first sounds
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6. An exhilarated City Organist!
7. Through the main level of the organ -Pedal pipes on the left, Great on the right.
8. The Solo Organ's Tubas and Orchestral Trumpet at the top of the organ.
9. The Choir Organ with Corno di Bassetto and Cor Anglais pipes in the foreground.
10. At the suggestion of Heritage Manager George Farrant, organ builder Gunther Schumacher recorded (inside the organ) the last day of his 52 years and 2 months career. After a life time of building organs all round the world for Orgelbau Klais, his last working day was spent on the Auckland Town Hall Organ.
Newsletter Editor: Kerry Stevens
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