1929 Skinner Organ - Opus 783 - Residence Player Pipe Organ at Elm Court - Butler, PA

Dupre (Composer), Kern (Composer), Mendelssohn (Composer), Johnston (Composer), Kreisler (Composer), Ireland (Composer), Offenbach (Composer), Lacombe (Composer), Dvorak (Composer), Dethier (Composer), Karg-Elert (Composer), Nevin (Composer), Bohm (Composer), Moszkowski (Composer), Herbert (Composer), Chabrier (Composer), Jepson (Composer), Chandler Goldthwaite (Performer), Peter Stolzfus (Performer), Ernest Mitchell (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Chandler Goldthwaite, Peter Stolzfus, Ernest Mitchell
• Composer: Dupre, Kern, Mendelssohn, Johnston, Kreisler, et al.
• Audio CD (September 1, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 2
• ASIN: B00005O7ZG
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #646,951 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro Oveture

2. Johnson: Pavane in A - Edwin Arthur Kraft, organist

3. Böhm: Calm as the Night - Ken Cowan, organist

4. D'Aquin: Noel and Variations - Marcel Dupré, organist

5. Bonnet: Elfes - Ken Cowan, organist

6. Dupré: Improvisation on Adeste Fideles - Marcel Dupré, organist

7. G. Nevin: Will O' The Wisp - Chandler Goldthwaite, organist

8. Jepson: Pantomine - Lynnwood Farnam, organist

9. Karg-Elert: Clair de Lune- Ernest Mitchell, organist

10. Dethier: The Brook - Edwin Arthur Kraft, organist

See all 12 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Chabrier: España

2. Moszkowski: Etude in F, Op. 72, No. 6 Ken Cowan, organist

3. Moszkowski: Serenata - Charles Heinroth, organist

4. Rossini: Barber of Seville

5. Kreisler: Caprice Viennois

6. Brahms: from Neue Liebeslieder waltzes (op. 65) Peter Stoltzfus and Ken Cowan, organists

7. Mendelssohn: Fingal's Cave Overture

8. Offenbach: Barcarolle from Tales of Hoffman 9. Ireland: Elegy Ken Cowan, organist

9. Lacombe: Aubade Printaniere

10. Herbert: Selections from The Red Mill - Chandler Goldthwaite, organist

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Splendid Program of Organ Music at Elm Court, May 8, 2003

By 

"jhklee" (New York USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 1929 Skinner Organ - Opus 783 - Residence Player Pipe Organ at Elm Court - Butler, PA (Audio CD)

As a pre-teen at the Chicago World's Fair-A Century of Progress, I had my first ghost-like experience with a pipe organ which played by itself, that is, with no human being seated at the console. It was made less scary for me by my previous exposure to my Grandma's Welte Mignon Player Piano. I was familiar with the perforated paper rolls and it required no great leap of imagination to follow this principal from the keyboard of Grandma's piano to the multiple manuals of the pipe organ.

Here is a double CD of one such Aeolian-Skinner instrument. It was playable by hand and foot as a two manual plus pedals home organ. It was also self-playable by roll. Apparently there was a large enough market, despite the price tag, that a good library of rolls exist. This set combines what producer Joseph A. Vittaco III felt to be the best of these rolls, including several names which are legendary to afficionados of organ music ... Marcel Dupre and Lynwood Farnam for example. We are also allowed to hear the organ as played by two of today's finest concert organists: Ken Cowan and Peter Stoltzfus.

The highlights are where you find them. If your taste is similar to mine, among the rolls you will keep going back to are Marcel Dupre's Improvisation on Adeste Fideles, Chandler Goldthwaite's medley of Selections From The Red Hill by Victor Herbert and a delicious though long-forgotten 1921 hit of the day, Ka-lu-a, from Jerome Kern's score for "Good Morning Dearie" recorded on a roll by Ernest Mitchell, who probably gave Jessie Crawford a good run for his money. Among the live performances, given my self-confessed hero worship of Ken Cowan, all are marvelous performances. I will add, however, the caveat that you shouldn't expect to hear from a two manual plus pedal house organ what you hear from a two manual plus pedal manual Austin organ, which is the Curtis at Irvine. Fortunately, Ken Cowan understands the difference and does not attempt The Ride of the Valkyries or Liszt's Introduction, Fantasia and Fugue on Ad Nos which would sound totally out of place on the salon instrument at Elm Court.

A 63-page illustrated booklet which accompanies the set is most informative. While it will, undoubtedly, mean more to those organ enthusiasts who understand the inner workings of the King of Instruments, even those who just enjoy the music will find their enjoyment enhanced by however much of the technical data they are able to absorb without being talked down to.

While I have absolutely no reservations about these CDs, I would issue one small warning. They are recorded as is, like you would hear them were you a guest at Elm Court. That means the softs are very soft and the louds are very loud with no attempt made to compress either. If you start out at top volume, you just might ... a) blow out your speakers ... b) annoy your spouse, children and neighbors ... c) awaken the dead, or ... d) all of the above. On the other hand, if your speakers, spouse, children, neighbors and ancestors have endured recordings of organ music for this long, they should be used to it by now.