On Thu, 22 Jan 2004 03:20:28 -0500, Michael Davidson
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>On Wed, 21 Jan 2004 14:53:54 -0500, Emmons, Paul <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
>
>>
>> It had made for a most impressive contribution to the Great Cathedral
>> Organ Series of recordings in the sixties.  The then organist Mr. Cook
>> (What was his first name?  He later moved to Canada.) drew from it jaw-
>> dropping accounts of Langlais' "Incantations pour un jour saint" and
>> Jongen's "Sonata Eroica" among other works.
>>
>
>That would have been Melville Cook.
>
>It was a wonderful recording and was my first introduction to both
>the "Sonata Eroica" and also Durufle's "Prelude & Fugue sur le Nom
>d'Alain"
>
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It was indeed Melville Cook.

I was the page turner at the original EMI recording in 1966.  I remember
there was a very tight timetable with the entire LP recorded during one
evening with only a couple of takes of each item.  Part of this recording
has been re-issued on Amphion.

I don't recall Melville Cook making many other recordings although I
suspect some were made around that time by the late Michael Smythe of
Vista.  Does anyone know what happened to his master tapes and whether
thhey have any been re-issued on CD?

As to the organ, it is essentially a superb Father Willis with additions
by Willis III.  It was conservatively restored in 1978 by Harrision and
Harrison who improved the position of the choir organ and the tonal egress
of the swell.  There are excellent articles by Roy Massey and Cecil
Clutton in the programme book to the 1979 Three Choirs Festival.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Note:  opinions  expressed on PIPORG-L are those of the  individual con-
tributors and not necessarily  those of the list owners  nor of the Uni-
versity at Albany.  For a brief  summary of list  commands, send mail to
[log in to unmask]  saying  GET LSVCMMDS.TXT  or see  the  web
page at http://www.albany.edu/piporg-l/lsvcmmds.html .
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