Dear list,
our experience with Passau Cathedral and the organ goes back to 1997,
when Felix was not yet 12 years old.
The principal organist, then Hans Leitner, who on November 2003 was
appointed principal organist of the
Cathedral (Frauenkirche) in Munich as the successor of Franz
Lehrndorfer. You could not meet a more friendly and complaisant
organist of a huge cathedral. As one of the picture ("gallery") on
Felix's website shows, Hand Leitner dod not only allow Felix to play the
organ(s) from the main console. It turned even into a not planned
masterclass, working in BWV 564 (T, A & F in C). I even recall that Hans
Leitner found one little wrong note in the fugue which no teacher before
had recognized, and it was in a sequence where it was really hard to
identify. This "masterclass" turned into an invitation to perform one of
the 12-noon concerts in the cathedral. This concert took place in August
2000.
I do not have any feeling or experience how the situation is now. The
new principal organist is Ludwig Ruckdeschel, and it may be that the
situation, described by John Brosseau, is the general policy now.
Hans-Friedrich Hell
-----Original Message-----
Date: Fri, 20 May 2005 08:49:37 +0200
Subject: Re: Passau Dom
From: John Brosseau <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
I'm making a general reply because I thought this might be of interest
to
our readers. I visited the cathedral at Passau last fall as part of a
tour of small cities in Bavaria.
The question of allowing visitors to play the organ came up on the
guided
tour (not from me--I find the whole thing intimidating), and basically
they do not allow it. The stated reason is that it takes special
training
to deal with the time delay when one plays the remote organs from the
main
console. It seems that only the organist and two apprentices are
allowed
to play it.
I don't know if that's the end of the story, and I do know that where
there is a will, there's a way, but that's the information I have.
Many of you are doubtless already aware of this, but Passau pumps itself
up by making its organ out to be things it is not. It ranks itself at
the
top of church organs because as a Catholic cathedral it does not
consider
the West Point Chapel and the real prize winner in California--I'm
having
a memory lapse-- to be churches. Also, it is not really one organ, but
five individual ones that because of hundreds of miles of cabling can
all
be played from one console. That is not to demean the quality of the
main
organ, which makes a joyful noise indeed.
John Brosseau
Bamberg, Germany
> Dear list members,
>
> I have an orgnist friend travelling through Germany and Austria this
> summer
> and would like an opportunity to check out the instrument at the Dom
in
> Passau. Could anyone supply me with contact information?
>
> Thanks.
> Elaine Dykstra
>
>
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Note: opinions expressed on PIPORG-L are those of the individual con-
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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
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