1972 Beckerath Organ - First Congregational Church - Columbus, Ohio

[@2008truckman]

I wish more organists would present their organ/s like Kevin has done. An amazing organ indeed.

[@peterbrand7131]

Yes. He had a lovely approach.

[@heinmadsen-leipoldt2341]

I'm from South Africa, our church hosts 6 large organs, of witch 3 of them are 5 manuals and 2 of them are 4 manuals and the 6th organ is 4 manual mechanical pipe organ,if that guy can come to South Africa he can make 6 videos. Oh and there is our 5 manual Wurlitzer in our church hall

[@timothybreitenstei4597]

Kevin it was great to see you in this video well done what a wonderful instrument. it’s time like this that I realize how much I miss you.

[@russelljosephweismann6303]

Very nice. Thank you. The 10 2/3 in the pedal was a compromise after Beckerath refused to wire the Kimball 32’ Bourdon up front to his new organ in the back.

[@PapaLynn1]

I played this organ once when I was a student on a studio field trip to Columbus. It was an awe inspiring day. So wonderful to hear the organ again!

[@bhigdaddymark]

Brent Johnson presents the absolute FINEST organ demonstration videos EVER! Superbly stunning videos. OrganMedia Foundation is magnificent, BRAVO!!

[@virginiaorganbuilder]

Baszink= 5 1/3' (Rohrflote pipes!), and 3 1/5' and 2 2/7' open flute pipes. Kevin is the best!!

[@kevinjones3838]

How did I know that you would clarify this!!!! :) Thanks Chris, for keeping her in great condition!

[@bdm1019]

Absolutely love the sound of this organ. 😍

[@davidfurniss670]

Wonderful demonstration! Thank you, Kevin.

[@rolandjohannes6734]

Magnificient intrument! Greetings from Germany (we have a fantastic Beckerath from 2014 here, the company is still going strong!)

[@peter.organist]

Brent does the best organ demo videos! I have a similar Rudolf von Beckerath at First Presbyterian Church in Nashville from 1974 (III/P, 74 ranks). It was overhauled this past winter. Great tour, Kevin. A joy to hear another instrument that reminds me of FPC and is yet remarkably unique. I totally agree with Kevin’s approach with registration-less is more on these organs. The voicing is already so rich.

[@marcnonnenmacher2244]

This instrument has an incredible sound, a symbiosis between German and French temperament. Magical

[@saxachewon8062]

Thanks for the great video.

[@Durufle68]

I LOVE Beckerath organs. I have fond memories of the ones I practiced on and performed on.

[@05Forenza]

Fantastic demonstration. From everything I have watched, I tend to really enjoy Casavant organs, however this is right at the top of my list. Very nice!

[@ianpmcmanus]

This has to be one of my favourite sounding instruments since listening to OMF. Great job, guys!

[@PalmSpringsPatriot]

This builders crowning achievement is the IV-97 in the Saint PaulCathedral in Pittsburgh. You can hear it on several You Tube videos.

[@leeclinkscales2584]

Delightful.

[@bradleyjent7765]

Can you imagine in 1972 on the first Sunday using this organ, all the "sweet little old ladies " head prints (and possibly their hats) are probably still in the ceiling over where they were seated. 😀(comparing this organ to the Kimball)

[@heinmadsen-leipoldt2341]

Beautiful organ indeed,

[@markaustin4370]

Another excellent demo. I really prefer the Kimball but... also interesting that the Swell and Great stop locations are reversed from what I would expect.

[@BruceLudwick]

This is one of the best video on the channel. Really nicely done, Brent and Kevin! Hope you can do the Pittsburgh von B at some point!

[@DavidKrautscheid]

much german builders cant voice a spanish trumpet cause it quacks like a duck or frog but on this organ the spanish trumpets sound phantastic almost like an english post horn from a theatre organ

[@SuperLQQK]

So, this organ and the Kimball organ in the same building. Some buildings have he luck. Sure would like to hear more of both.

[@danielmkubacki]

Wow that is a fun organ.

[@djturbo88]

I heard and got to play the von Beckerath in Pittsburgh several times. Didn't know it had a smaller sibling so close! I foresee a roadtrip in the nearby future...

[@andrewgrahame6000]

Thank you for this wonderful demonstration. Here in Sydney we have the 1972 Von Beckerath organ in the Great Hall of Sydney University. I am slightly familiar with this organ as a player, but I've heard it many times in concert. There are similarities and yet significant differences between the two instruments. At Sydney the Great double is a Principal, and the lower-pitched mixture contains 16-foot harmonics. One should only draw this mixture when the Principal 16 is used. If using just 8, 4 and 2 then the Cymbal is all that is needed. The Great chorus reeds (16, 8, 4) are all trumpets. There is no 32-foot, not even a 10 ⅔ Quint - but I have never felt that the organ or the room needed it. Originally there were no horizontal reeds, but when the organ was overhauled for its 40th anniversary an 8-foot rank known as the "Chancellor's Trumpet" was added - playable from the Great and Ruckpositive manuals via electric action. Its impact is astonishing. Olivier Larry played the re-opening recital and he evidently loved it - he made considerable use of it both as a solo reed and as a chorus reed. The Great Hall is not overly large, but it has a very nice acoustic. Some of the similarities - the Swell Celestes, the RP Quintadena and the Krummhorn (yes, ours are just as nice as yours!). The Quintadena never ceases to amaze me. I have yet to hear any organ music of any period which this organ can't do justice to. As to the absence of a Swell to RP coupler - there's a trick method which I know is used. With all Great stops cancelled, and with Sw/Gt and RP/Gt drawn, one can then play on the Great and get the effect of Swell to RP. I understand that Gillian Weir did this throughout her Messiaen recital series in 1988 - the organ scholar who did her page turning told me he was often required to manually cancel all the Great stops to allow this to be done. As with your instrument, the worst place to judge its impact, especially of the pedal ranks, is in the loft. There's a glorious bloom which builds from about half-way back in the building. My favourite listening location is on the raised platform at the opposite end of the hall, because from back there you not only get the full benefit of the bloom but you also cease to be able to tell which side the sounds come from (the Great and Swell are in the left case along with the console, the Pedal is in the right case, and the RP is in the centre. From the other end of the building everything blends gloriously into a unified whole, though it's still possible to tell that the RP is a bit more forward in presence. Balancing registrations from the console is difficult without help from someone listening down below. Often players will open the RP doors (which can be opened without lifting the floor) to hear it better, and some people even open the side panels of the Pedal case because the Pedal is extremely hard to hear from the console and it sounds late because of the distance across the gallery. The mechanical action runs under the gallery floor to the opposite side are very long, but the response is immediate, though there's still a tiny delay to the player's ears which is not apparent to the audience. Two absolutely glorious organs from the same year!

[@JoseZgheib]

The Pos Quintadena works like a labial clarinet. Very lovely!

[@Pfeifender]

i loved Brents face expression, when Kevin turned the Basszink on :D but i had a smile too on my face, as I play on a german organ of similar age and there the Baßzink doesn't work so well as here.

[@fernomoo]

I played a Beckerath at DePauw University in the early 1970s.

[@stephenkunst7550]

Thanks for the posts, always something interesting. I keep listening to Von Beckerath organs trying to figure out what it is I am missing, and after 45+ years still can't warm up to them. I like their look, am not a fan of their specs, for most church services, but fine if you can afford a 2nd organ. Went to many concerts at Christ Lutheran, Washington DC, in the 1970s & early 80s. Many were featured on the Montreal OHS convention.

[@williammitchell1864]

Bret Johnson, The 16' Quintedena actually sounds pretty nice by itself 🙂

[@TheJohn1567]

You might want to change the Rieger name above. It was an enjoyable visit!

[@christianfeldmann8287]

More pleas in the week

[@Windgonner]

Slightly to analytical for my taste but never the least (?) enjoyable.

[@MrTallwilly]

When are you going to do a video on the patterson organ at our lady of lourdes in minneapolis? I know the builder.

[@SuperLQQK]

Though I am kinda wondering, for all you organist or otherwise out there, which organ would you prefer to sit down and try and figure out how to get the best sound, the Kimball or Beckerath. Do you think one might be more fun (not the technical playing part, the art of registration part) ?

[@richardharrold9736]

In this case I'd choose the Kimball every time. If the gallery organ was a Flentrop like the new one in Hamburg, that would be another matter.

[@richardharrold9736]

Brent, hopefully you will soon be visiting Duke University, where there is a similarly glorious and diverse provision of organs in the chapel! Flentrop is more my thing than Beckerath as far as neo-baroque goes...

[@Rl469]

Pedal 16s have really long wavelengths. It is not possible to hear their full effect unless you are some distance away.

[@robinplanchenault8142]

It's kinda funny to hear that you need a restoration on an organ 50 years after it was built. Our local church here in Belgium, has an organ from 1642 that had it's first restoration in 1999. Usually playing an organ at least twice a week is enough to maintain it. That and having it for a 'check-up' twice a year by (in our case) a local organ builder.... Since the original builder ceased to exist more then 100 years ago.

[@richardharrold9736]

Most organs in the US get very heavily used, plus air conditioning and urban pollution take their toll. Your Belgian organ will undoubtedly have been cleaned and releathered several times in its existence anyway.

[@robinplanchenault8142]

@@richardharrold9736 probably yes... But most of those cleanings weren't recorded in anything so we don't know. In 1999 they added 10 stops to give te pedal it's own independent division... And they actually added pedals in 1999 😅

[@richardharrold9736]

@@robinplanchenault8142 well, what Kevin calls a restoration is really just an overhaul... and surely making such alterations to a then 357-year-old organ is tantamount to vandalism?!

[@robinplanchenault8142]

@@richardharrold9736 not really, the entire organ was lifted 4 inches and moved forward 10 feet so a new case for the pedal division could be hidden away behind it with a separate blower. The organ was lifted so that the trackers could fit underneath without having to change anything inside. The only thing that they changed were the holes for the stops... Everything went by strong regulations as the entire organ is a recognized protected national monument. Every change needed government approval.

[@richardharrold9736]

@@robinplanchenault8142 in this country, the UK, I don’t think such alterations would ever be permitted. Not that we have any organs that old, the Civil War did for them all...

[@alnorman6846]

How is a German Trumpet different from a French Trumpet ? How are different country''s organs different ? to me they sound and look the same.

[@markrankin6715]

To my ear the great and positive mixtures are too strong. But that is typical of the " organ reform movement" organs. I can't imagine Franck on this instrument !

[@jrorganbuilding]

Agree: stop overusing couplers on this style of instrument. Let each division do it’s own job independently - No organ stop gumbo all in one pot.

[@TheProsaicCult]

For my mind this organ should have no more than 5 couplers. Manuals to Ped. & Sw/Gt & Pos/Gt.

[@karlrovey]

@@TheProsaicCult A Swell to Positive would be beneficial. Just don't overuse it. The tuning reasoning is a good one though.