From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!npois!alice!rabbit!ark Newsgroups: net.music Title: Re: Organs worth a visit Article-I.D.: rabbit.466 Posted: Mon May 17 20:32:20 1982 Received: Tue May 18 01:48:36 1982 References: eisx.146 If you're in New York looking at the organ at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, don't forget to visit Saint Paul's Chapel on the Columbia University campus. It's a small chapel with a large organ -- about 5,000 pipes. Last summer they gave a series of free Bach concerts there -- an opportunity for local organists to show off. They were GOOD! The tracker organ at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center is also first rate. It's almost as large as the one at Saint Paul's, but it's usually invisible, being tucked in behind the panels at the back of the stage. For organ concerts, the whole thing is exposed. The acoustics of Alice Tully are superb for chamber music and rather unusual for organ music -- the hall is much less live with a much shorter decay time than the average cathedral! The result is that pieces sound quite different, with less lingering sound after chords are let up but with much more inner detail exposed to the ear. Anthony Newman is doing a series there this Fall -- I can't wait!