Lew Williams - Radio City Music Hall Concert

Live concert, part of "Col Jack Moelmann & Friends", August 9, 2008, 4/58 Wurlitzer Theatre Pipe Organ.

[@mainaccount131]

Super excellent with very good interesting video

[@carterdriggs]

Dear Lew, I think you're truly amazing in every way!

[@MrMartmatsil]

What a great renditions of Rodgers and hammersteins great music.Always a great time to go to Radio City MUSIC Hall.

[@theatreorganbuilder]

Lew, you were wonderful! Thanks! Jack, thank you for the best night ever. I'm so glad I was there.

[@theatreorganman]

Lew, Rosa and I are very proud of you. As usual you know how to play around dead notes, non-speaking stops and the like, and still you make grand music! Thanks for sharing a little music history with us...John McCall

[@HiringAPtAdvocate]

Dear Lew, thank you for that night. I had no idea you has only 2 hours that day with no amplification while practicing. Sorry my home town was not more welcoming to the performers. That platform was obviously built with the Howard Seat in mind!

[@Hakuna65Matata]

Playing the songs from Rogers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma!

[@HiringAPtAdvocate]

So sorry to hear that notes were out considering all of the work recently done on that organ. It was nice to hear the organ amped once more - recollection of years gone by - do not know why they stopped use of amplification since everything else in the hall is heavily amplified. It simply is not enough organ to fill that space. I remember being able to hear it in the lobby!!!!

[@joanerhard454]

I love organ music,deep in my heart. beautiful, I have techneck digital, would rather a beautiful,with Parkinson’s,s I have a big problem

[@TheMysticalOrgan]

The story I heard was that it was closer to the Atlantic City Convention Hall organ - no, not the 446-rank Midmer-Losh, but the 55-rank Kimball in the ballroom over the lobby.

[@allegheny48]

@3dwurli The RCMH Wurlitzer organ is supposedly an expanded version of the 34 rank Kimball in the Roxy Theatre. Since Roxy was opening Radio City he wanted to duplicate & expand the Roxy Kimball. The original spec was drawn up by Kimball but wound up going to Wurlitzer. I can understand why George Wright wanted nothing to do with it. The 34 rank Wurlitzer that resided in the RKO (later Center) Theatre was a true late model Wurlitzer. Its console is now in the Berkeley Center.

[@manon1952]

je n'ose pas essayer le prix de cet orgue wow même le look est beau!

[@521wurlitzer]

Herd a story from the late Dick Loderhose that when George Wright was playing at the New York Paramount in the 1940s' he was asked by the Rockefellers to try out the RCMH organ. He played it for a very short time and told them in no uncertain terms that he wanted no more to do with it. Never herd this story form him, but wouldn't doubt it.

[@121cornwall]

521wurlitzer and

[@TrjnMgnms10]

I agree with you 100% StuartLou!

[@Gaygarious]

Why don't the officials have this beauty repaired????

[@tregnier279]

@LittleItalianGal33 From what I understand, the organ is in poor (read, in need of quite a bit of restoration and repair work) but playable condition.

[@allegheny48]

StuartLou: No one is debating that the RCMH Wurlitzer is not a theatre organ. But the original Kimball specification it was built to contains voicing normally associated with concert or church styled instruments such as a 6 rank Tierce (Gedeckt) mixture. Check out the link below. Whether the Roxy Kimball and the AC ballroom Kimball are similar in spec I do not know. Would be interesting to find out. Lord Google would not allow a web address in my reply. The NYTOS website has the RCMH spec.

[@praestant8]

allegheny48 It does’t have a 6 rank tierce Gedeckt mixture which doesn’t practically exist. Church and concert organs aren’t voiced on the usual theater 10-25” of wind pressure. You are obviously ill informed... This isn’t some odd duck Compton with bizarre and experimental ideas. And RCMH is certainly a theater organ with a few extras. To posit otherwise is equally ill informed.

[@OrganMusicYT]

@@praestant8 Poor Compton being passed off as "odd ducks"...

[@tregnier279]

@LittleItalianGal33 I can't say I know about that. :/ I'm sure someone else (like the video uploader) could tell you when this performance was given.

[@W4KSR]

I wonder if you sold DVD copies of the concert, it might help you recoup some of the money you spent on your dream of playing the Radio City Music Hall Wurlitzer. My dream is to play one of the Fox Specials. Maybe someday!

[@chem100]

Lew is great, but I don't understand. I thought the organ was restored in 1999?

[@shnewsman]

If you know anything about theatre pipe organ; $50 a ticket was a bargain to see that show with those players. Sorry I couldn't be there. I hope Jack made some money back. It was a daring move to rent out RCMH for a day--but I probably would've done the same thing. As Victor Kiam once said; "I liked it so much--I bought the company!"

[@steveeneboe7890]

What kind of relay does the RCMH organ have?

[@praestant8]

steve eneboe The original at the time this was filmed. It was replaced with Peterson circa 2002.

[@ziggyboi1995]

Wasn't he a student of Eddie Weaver?

[@AnOrganCornucopia]

I think he was being ironic - hence the remark about men in white coats. It's certainly pretty amazing as far as I'm concerned!

[@EstateManor]

And this is one of the MOST DIFFICULT instruments to play. Like the great tracker organs of the baroque era, the organ exacts much physical exertion from the player. In the case of Radio City, the long distance between the chamber locations poses a great challenge to the fine organists that perform there. Mr. Moelmann is a great master as was Dick Leibert.

[@praestant8]

janine bryant It’s not that physically exerting...

[@Organsk8er]

Wow...that is one big, beautiful console!

[@2010kiril]

why the quality is like from a 90's camera if that was recorded in 2008?

[@SyrPipeOrg]

Not necessarily. If properly rebuilt and regularly maintained, you shouldn't have dead notes or stops with any frequency. The only way I can see this happening is if you're still relying on the original Wurlitzer relays and wiring, which do have intermittent contact issues that can sometimes go unresolved less replacing the entire system. The action design and construction are nearly flawless.

[@KE5RHD]

Bring grad of O.U. it was delightful to see the opening bars of Boola Boola which was borrowed for Boomer Sooner. Then he goes right into, "Oklahoma!" The first performance I heard on the Radio City organ was E. Power Biggs. Biggs had a vendetta against Virgil Fox. My brother found my Biggs tapes and told me that Biggs thought we were unsophisticated. Lew sits in a state of poetic irony as Biggs sat at this console and lobbed subtle insults at Fox. "It's a 'Real' pipe organ!" he said.

[@irkibby]

@ReneeNme Who needs the real thing when you can have a shit approximation?

[@m4dan]

Yeah but theatre pipe organs need CONSTANT maintainence.

[@praestant8]

Dan Minervini Usually because there are no professionals involved and the quality of work going in to them by volunteers is less than substandard.

[@Jarvis2many]

Too fast

[@praestant8]

Jarvis Nash And sloppy!