SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE ORGAN EXTRAVAGANZA BACH HAYDN CLARKE BUXTEHUDE MESSIAEN VIERNE AND MORE Michael Dudman
SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE ORGAN EXTRAVAGANZA JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH 1685-1750 Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV565 [9 18] 1 Toccata 2 42 2 Fugue 6 33 DIETERICH BUXTEHUDE c. 1637-1707 Prelude and Fugue in D major [5 21] 3 Prelude 0 58 4 Fugue 4 21 JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV582 [13 30] 5 Passacaglia 7 34 6 Fugue 5 53 JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH 7 Chorale Prelude Herzlich tut mich verlangen (My heart cries in yearning), BWV727 2 52 LOUIS-CLAUDE DAQUIN 1694-1772 8 Noël grand-jeu et duo Quand Dieu naquit à Noël (When God was born at Christmas) from Nouveau livre de noëls, Op. 2 5 15 JEREMIAH CLARKE c. 1674-1707 9 Trumpet Voluntary (Prince of Denmark s March) 2 03 2
JOSEPH HAYDN 1732-1809 Two Pieces for Flute-Clock [1 58] 0 V. Menuett 0 59! XII. Presto 0 55 EUGÈNE GIGOUT 1844-1925 @ Toccata in B minor 2 53 ALEXANDRE BOËLY 1785-1858 Fantasia and Fugue in B-flat from 12 Pieces, Op. 18 [4 26] Fantasia 0 59 $ Fugue 3 36 JOSEPH BONNET 1884-1944 % Concert Variations Op. 1 8 45 OLIVIER MESSIAEN 1908-1992 ^ Les Bergers (The Shepherds) from La nativité du Seigneur (The Nativity of the Lord) 6 12 LOUIS VIERNE 1870-1937 & Finale from Symphony No. 1 in D minor, Op. 14 6 02 Total Playing Time 70 10 Michael Dudman Ronald Sharp organ 3
The grand organ of the Sydney Opera House is believed to be the world s largest mechanical-action organ. It is housed in the Concert Hall, the largest of the Sydney Opera House s four theatres, and was built by Australian Ronald Sharp, who was assisted by a small personal staff and, during the final phase of construction, by the Austrian organ-building firm of Gregor Hradetzky. Its construction began in May 1969 but the planning and design had begun several years earlier. Completed in May 1979 at a cost of $1.2 million, it is only recently that the Sydney Opera House organ has come to be regarded as one of the finest instruments in the world. Its construction parallels that of Sydney s other great concert hall organ nearly a century earlier, the William Smith & Sons instrument in the Sydney Town Hall. That organ, and indeed the Centennial Hall (as Sydney Town Hall was then known), was also of record-breaking size and the organ itself is still widely regarded as one of the finest examples of its kind from the 19th century. The Sydney Opera House organ, however, is unique in that it has married the materials and fine craftsmanship of traditional organ-building with modern materials and technology to create a magnum opus for the 20th century. The result is a creation, very much like the work of art in which it is housed, that has attracted international respect and stirred national pride. The visible portion of the organ is an imposing 15-metre façade consisting of 109 show pipes, made from pure tin and polished to a glittering finish. Behind this façade is the greater part of the instrument which measures 15 metres high, 13 metres wide, 8 metres deep and weighs in at 37 tonnes. It is built into a shell-like concrete chamber above the stage of the Concert Hall. It is constructed from over 10,000 pipes grouped according to 200 ranks and sub-grouped into 127 speaking stops, along with 28 couplers and numerous other percussion and ancillary stops, as well as a number of electronic accessories. There are five manual keyboards consisting of 61 keys each and a pedalboard of 32 keys. There are 25 soundboards distributed throughout the framework which support and control the pipes, in addition to the air reservoirs, trunking and other mechanisms. One of the features of the organ is its use of a direct mechanical linkage, known as a tracker action, to interconnect between the console keys and the pallet valves in the chests that supply air to the pipes. This is the type of action that had been used by classical organ builders before the 4
advent of pneumatic or electric techniques. It has the benefit of giving the player continuous control over pipe speech and makes possible the fullest musical expression of the instrument. The adoption of this type of mechanism can result in a slightly heavier touch which would usually require the player to apply maximum physical effort to take full advantage of the potential in an instrument of this size. However this has been minimised by the use of modern materials and particularly through precision design and workmanship. The way in which electronics have been employed in the design and construction of the organ has also made the instrument unique. One particularly important feature is the way in which the changing of stops and the combinations of stops are made. Whereas organ stops are often fixed by the builder or through what is known as a capture action, which allows the organist to change stops and combination of stops according to a preset program, the size of the Opera House organ made such an approach unworkable. Setting up the program for the stop combinations in the Opera House organ, which has 69 pistons, could take more than half an hour. But Ron Sharp, along with Myk Fairhurst, found a way round these problems using modern electronics. The capture action has been implemented through a semiconductor memory which is used to store the stop combinations. These can be transferred to cassette so that the transfer of information is achieved in a matter of seconds and the need for tedious manual programming is avoided. Electronics have also been used to improve aspects such as key touch, through the inclusion of an electric action that runs parallel to the system of mechanical couplers. This has had several benefits. A player s performance or rehearsal can be recorded electronically and, at a later stage, played back so that the performer can more effectively gauge tonal balance and contrast from the audience s perspective. Similarly, this can be applied in a way that allows organists to play a duet with themselves. Other benefits include an electronically implemented crescendo that gives the player greater control over this aspect of the instrument. 5
Cover and Booklet Design Imagecorp Pty Ltd ABC Classics Robert Patterson, Martin Buzacott, Hilary Shrubb, Natalie Shea, Claudia Crosariol 2005 Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 2010 Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Distributed in Australia and New Zealand by Universal Music Group, under exclusive licence. Made in Australia. All rights of the owner of copyright reserved. Any copying, renting, lending, diffusion, public performance or broadcast of this record without the authority of the copyright owner is prohibited. 6
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