1958 Aeolian-Skinner Organ - First Presbyterian Church - Evanston, Illinois

Brent Johnson and Andrea Handley talk about the Aeolian-Skinner organ of First Presbyterian Church in Evanston, Illinois.
Specification of the organ: pipeorgandatabase.org/organ/2...
First Presbyterian Church: firstpresevanston.org/
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[@goofyrulez7914]

Too many churches these days are going to guitars, drums and, maybe a piano but give me a beauty like this organ and organist any day. There is nothing more moving than a hymn or an organ, and, better yet, a pipe organ.

[@francois7]

I agree !

[@TomPauls007]

Nice final demo with a good build to the Tutti! I am a lover of the A-S organs. I visited the St. John Cathedral in Spokane WA and during the prelude, quickly deduced that it was an A-S. I was right! Amazing find way up there.

[@PapaLynn1]

The comments on here complaining about the organist’s demeanor are just cruel and unnecessary. Brett thanks her for demonstrating on short notice. She was not prepared or expecting to do this, and played brilliantly when demonstrating organ music on the instrument. Be kind, and appreciate the gifts she brought to this FREE video you are enjoying.

[@brinkbush9312]

Thank you for showing this beautiful organ. Virgil Fox dedicated it and Annette Middelschulte the wife of the composer Wilhelm Middelschulte was Director of Music and organist from about 1905 until about 1925. She presided over the Johnson Organ that was there at that time.

[@davef.2329]

Thank you.

[@garygreen7552]

Wonderful exploration of a fine instrument. I enjoyed your great video of Ms. Handley playing the Jongen. It was fun to see her use of the toe studs and seeing her at the console.. Thank you to both of you.

[@buttersrow426]

Excellent video on a great Aeolian-Skinner organ! I appreciate that you included more music this time around!

[@Tracygriffith-dz2ys]

Nice sounds and very nice organ

[@markholm7050]

I am frequently amazed and perplexed, viewing these videos, at how tight the space is inside pipe organs. It’s a bit hard to imagine the contortions a tuner, or worse, a repair tech has to go to to work in there without damaging everything around them.

[@Edwin572]

I would love to play this beautiful organ.

[@christopherjhoh]

Thanks, nice to hear this colorful and extensive instrument. Seems the specification on the OHS dbase is incomplete, so I hope that gets updated before long.

[@WilliamMitchell-sc3fe]

I want to know more about that acrylic music rack that's on this organ's console

[@8546Ken]

For matching of the digital stops - is the pitch affected by the chamber ambient temperature or the wind temperature? Or do they stabilize? I've heard there was a problem with vintage tracker organs having ranks of pipes at different levels. Sometimes they couldn't use all the ranks due to the temperature gradients.

[@8546Ken]

@neindanke3916 The organist doesn't usually have this option.

[@TheProsaicCult]

you never play the digital stops. WHY?

[@8546Ken]

@neindanke3916 Then what is the point of installing them? Are they necessary?

[@ThatcherNelson]

@neindanke3916they are totally necessary

[@peterstorandt5664]

The title says 1955, but you say 1958.

[@audiolab1962]

Shame about the continuous low frequency thrum/wobble in the background, blower?

[@fortepiano_enthusiast-f8t]

it would be nice to hear more than just five notes or two cords on every stop… Why in such a hurry

[@AJ12-76]

That organist doesn’t have much of a personality. A couple of chords on each rank is a poor demonstration.

[@robertamcguffin3446]

Stop bossing her around!! She's been playing this organ for years,; she can tell you more about the instrument than you'll ever know. Why don't you just let her talk?

[@bobmcrobertson848]

In no way is he bossing her around! And it wouldn’t hurt if he asked the lovely lady to play more than a C-major chord or a few notes so we could get a better idea of the character of the stop being demonstrated.

[@doctorfoster1968]

Oh puh-lease! What a ridiculous comment. He was not "bossing her around". He was trying to draw her out and to elicit some life and energy from her, but it was like trying to get blood out of a stone. Did you notice that he cut it short before she had demonstrated all the stops? I wonder why....I've seen every video on this channel and this lady's presentation and demo was the dullest that I have seen on here, by far. She plays only two chords and one scale, over and over. Her answers to questions are robotic and monosyllabic: "Yes. Yes. Yes." Brett should have done the demo himself!