Here are a couple of tracks from a practice tape of the programme I'm in the middle of performing right about now.
Trio Sonata in e minor [BWV 528] -- J.S. Bach
Adagio-Vivace
Andante
Un poco Allegro
Prelude in G (Op. 109, No. 2a) -- Camille Saint-Saëns
These sound best if you listen to these with earphones. There is one movement -- the Andante from the Bach -- that was balanced more effectively in the building than on the recording.
One of the many things I've enjoyed about preparing this programme is the opportunity to re-explore a lot of the colours in the instrument. It was built by George Fincham in 1874, and initially placed in the Fitzroy Town Hall. It was exhibited in the Intercolonial Exhibition of 1875, from where it was sold to the parish priest at Richmond, and installed on a balcony at the back of St Igantius's the following year. Since then it has been moved to a chapel on the north side of the building (by the compass; liturgically it's the south), and most recently to the south transept (again, by the compass).One feature that strikes a lot of people on seeing this instrument for the first time is the unusual pattern of decoration on the facade pipes. In the nineteenth century it was common to paint the visible portion of the facade pipes. I think Fincham was proud of his metal casting, so he chose to have a sparing amount of stencilling, while allowing the metal to be seen. The effect is very rich, and I can imagine it would have been very striking when all the paint and gilding was fresh.
What really strikes me most is the classical conception of this instrument. Both manuals have a logical chorus design, capped off with mixtures and reeds. The pedal includes an 8' Principal, which is a very useful stop. There is a blank spot where a stop knob for a pedal reed might have been intended, which would follow on from the structure of the manual divisions.
It would be nice to say that this was an 'untouched' example of Fincham's work. It's certainly one of the most significant. Somewhere along the line the swell lost its oboe, which was replaced by some well-meaning soul with a very throaty clarinet. I'm a bit ambivalent about whether this was necessarily a bad change in and of itself; certainly an oboe would be more characteristic, and probably more useful. A more pressing issue is the lack of wind. Either the blower is too small, or someone has done something well-meaning (but ultimately malevolent), but the bottom line is that the whole thing falls over when you use a large amount of foundation stops in a big combination. In putting today's programme together, I wanted to see what could be done to make the instrument sound happy making a musical sound in the bigger combinations.
The recordings were made during the day yesterday, so there is some ambient noise from people wandering around, automatic doors rumbling open and shut, and some officiously inconsiderate prig rattling keys (why do some people feel the need to do this?). There's also a fair amount of action noise; one of the joys of playing old instruments. Maybe I'll have an opportunity to station the recorder further from the organ at some stage, which might help to eliminate that source of extra-musical sound.
On the upside, the Bach piece was recorded in one unbroken take, although I had to break it up into separate tracks to keep the file sizes down to a reasonable level. It's a piece that usually comes off second-best during rehearsal -- it is a very demanding piece to work on over time -- but seems to come together just right for performances. That probably tells you more about me than the piece...
