1914 Austin Organ - St. Clement's Episcopal Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

[@kyleswannmmus]

I have watched this a million times. The music coming from Conte is nothing short of molten lava. It's amazing, and inspiring.

[@kuiperroerdink1670]

this instrument is brilliantly demonstrated

[@marcvcivsnoveboracensis]

Conte is incomparable.

[@caseyflorida]

Peter Conte clearly understands how these old symphonic organs work and he makes them sound fantastic! He's an incredible organist, and I've heard him play the Wanamaker organ and was amazed.

[@keithsy75]

Mr. Conte is a gent.

[@Kupcakepa]

PRC is one of the kindest and most knowledgeable organist I’ve met! He’s such a gem and Philadelphia is so lucky to have him here!!!!

[@gels1922]

Brilliant - thank you

[@MarcMercier1971]

What a surprise to see the opening video and seeing the great Peter Conte at the console. Made me immediately smile and think "this is going to be good!"

[@philipmarlowe8763]

Wow, I felt the same thing...

[@organexplorer5898]

This is a masterclass in how to demonstrate a symphonic organ. EXCELLENT!!!

[@elizabethgober3266]

He has played the Skinner Organ at Old St. Joseph's, and I heard every sound I'd heard from the organ when it was in St. Peter's in Germantown.

[@HenrikBergpianorganist]

Don't we all crave a warm big hug from time to time...?😄

[@Durufle68]

45 ranks and has all that? What a stunning instrument.

[@danes3dfaberik403]

Thank you for making this video I found it immensely informative. Yesterday I got to play the aeolian at Duke chapel, it helped really me make a proper hymn registration on it. Thank you Conte.

[@danielobrien7738]

I’ve always loved the richness of Austin’s VDO’s. If I was stuck with one string/Celeste for the rest of my life, it would be those

[@JWHall-il8oe]

I’ve always been an Austin fan and this organ is one of the best. Leo Sowerby played on this organ is the sound of heaven.

[@WillCN514]

OMG!!! Peter Conte, my alltime organ hero has just spoken to Brent Johnson himself! What an experience! Also, the sounds on that organ are JUST... astoundingly Emotional, honestly I haven't sobbed this much in a year, ever! I myself am a young organist, looking to eventually become a film music composer, and, I mean Peter really inspires me, with is dramatic melodic harmonisation! I really do hope I meet MR Peter Conte one day... Thanks so so much for making this video Brent, you're a leg!

[@paulreilly4510]

So very nice. I grew up singing to an Austin orchestral organ and these sounds are so familiar. I miss it terribly.

[@donaldstanfield8862]

Great to see this instrument is being preserved for generations to come. What a treasure and well demonstrated! 🥰

[@antoniboleslawowicz8095]

This organ is magnificent, expressive, flexible, with many colorful individual stops with excellent harmonic development. The console is marvelous, including the thumb controls for swell shades (a Wanamaker inspiration). Conte is a superb keyboardist with a beautiful and flexible set of hands. He is a good improviser. He and this organ were made for each other. I would very much like to play this instrument.

[@choirboyfromhell1]

The sweetest organ this side of the Atlantic. Seriously.

[@snowbird29803]

I really enjoyed seeing this, esp. the scenes of this Historic church I remember attending as a child with my Mom sometimes in 1950s. Mom's uncle, Wm I. Edwards, was ordained there in 1929, and in '34 moved to his own church in W. Philly. Brings back lots of memories.

[@williamsimonds5429]

I remember the Austin Fan Tremulant. Impossible to wiggle an Austin windchest; guess this was their only way of achieving a tremulant. The Fan Tremulant an unusual effect on the sound and I really liked it. Bill Simonds - formerly with M. P. Moller. Richmond, Virginia - 80 years old.

[@johnlandacre767]

Despite the limitations of my iPad and tiny speakers, this organ has such an interesting and lush sound. Just incredible. Thank you for the demonstration.

[@robertsmith-sj6ib]

Beautiful

[@richardcasey7521]

Geez, the clarinet stop is beautiful!

[@kodygoad9711]

I’ve been with the channel since the beginning and this is one of my favorite videos! I had a permanent smile on my face.

[@adrianmlridgewayarcmlramll1965]

Oh my gracious, what a total delight, how amazingly inspirational and educational. Peter’s gorgeous improvisations on the various stops and ensembles absolutely make this video especially special, my grateful thanks to you all, God bless! Adrian in Bermuda

[@montre16]

I watched the easter eucharist from S. Clement's this morning and was impressed with the sound of this instrument, and then puzzled at how some of it was achieved as I reviewed the stoplist, noted the paucity of 2' tones and mixtures, and thought (foolishly, in retrospect) "my, what an outdated disposition!". Fortunately I didn't have to puzzle over it too long before this video showed up in my recommendations and all was made clear. Thanks!

[@christopherjhoh]

Fine instrument, excellent demonstration. I learned on an Austin of the same vintage (in Reading, no replaced), so these sounds bring back wonderful memories.

[@paulh5293]

What a beautiful instrument, impeccably demonstrated. Thank you for bringing these organs to a wider audience. Look forward to next week's instalment!

[@matthieubazile3350]

What a wonderful demonstration by Mr. Conte of this incredible symphonic organ!

[@WINCHANDLE]

Ditto below. Will have to get down to St. Clement's soon.

[@danielmkubacki]

Cool! A great organ!

[@grahamtwist]

Agreed! Peter Conte is amazing and I can see why he loves this organ!

[@pierrelauwers8719]

.....And another gem more, splendidly demonstrated by a passionate organist.

[@wurlic300]

Wonderful! My kind of organ. :)

[@marvinjtaylor4646]

Hi, Peter! Thanks for touring us through your wonderful organ! Cheers! Marvin

[@scronx]

Wonderful, gentlemen -- both of you!

[@joespeciale5875]

Another great presentation by Brent Johnson and the nonpareil Peter Conte. Amazingly beautiful sonorities of this instrument -amazing singing symphonic diapasons on each manual, lush strings, all of it. Would love to hear Sowerby “Carillon” on this organ.

[@markaustin4370]

Lovely organ. It brought back many memories of sore muscles from turning myself into knots tuning and servicing instruments like this. I think many great organs such as this were lost beacause the serviceability was so poor. Moller did the same thing, putting in 100 ranks in a space that should hold 40.

[@markaustin4370]

Seeing a video on the restoration of the Cavaille Coll organ from Notre Dame this past evening reminded me of their philosophy of being able to easily walk around every pipe chest.

[@gunthermeisse457]

Wonderful series I just happen to stumble on. Keep up the great work.

[@mitchquade]

Fantastic! Thank you, Brent and Peter!

[@bobh5087]

So many beautiful stops. (But wish you'd demonstrated the Pedal division. I'll check out the Specification link.) Thanks to everyone. 👍

[@WumboRagamuffin]

The S. Clement organ is a wonderful example of organ building of that century, an era that's been sorely underappreciated and misunderstood, unfortunately resulting in a lot of these organs being mangled! (the organ at the cathedral basilica not far away was an Austin of the same vintage, but after 3 attempts to make it sound neo-baroque it's pretty much a mess now) Very fun but random fact, in south philly, there is an organ built the same year by CS Haskell at St Thomas Aquinas with a similar stoplist that seems like it would be muddy on paper, but thanks to being able to super couple the violina, octave, and solo gamba, you get an ensemble sound despite there being no mixtures or mutations.

[@garysmith8455]

Wonderful to see this. Both my partner and I attended a Eucharist in this church while visiting during a Wanamaker Organ Day weekend some years ago. It was fantastic ! Curt Mangel in the choir as well ! Great memories (O: Peter may remember myself as photographer capturing a pose with he and Tom Murray at the Wanamaker console which may still reside framed in Peter's office at the store!

[@BJBeds]

absolutely superb. thank you

[@BruceLudwick]

Brent, I remember hearing this organ waaaaaaaaay back when I was like 18. Actually made a roadtrip to do so! Choir is the main attraction there, IMO, but I'm glad the organ is getting some love. These instruments are so satisfying to play!

[@Mattmanutube]

A wonderful treasure

[@praestant8]

A nice demonstration. It is interesting there are stops that according to the OHS database don't exist on the Austin and there is apparently Walker Technical equipment visible in the chambers. How much of it is digital additions?

[@noahpierson4810]

With the little mentions of the nods to the Wanamaker console, I'm honestly surprised that there was no mention of the thumb slides underneath each manual on the piston rails. Such a cool feature.

[@bradleyjent7765]

Just wow!!!!

[@louisglen1653]

Very nice organ!

[@iamrepete]

P.R. Conte recorded many concerts on this organ during the pandemic. Just do a search on here.

[@christianfeldmann8287]

Pleas more

[@brucetominello325]

Cared for properly Austin Organs last forever.

[@JonasClark]

Are the brief sample used in demonstrating the Great Orch. Flute/4' Roosevelt Flute and a few following from something? They strike me as things I've heard somewhere before.

[@MitchellWeisiger]

What about the pedal division?

[@ikonix360]

At 21:40 what was the motor used for?

[@davef.2811]

A quite aged motor, by the glance at it.

[@evanakers]

I’m guessing that motor would have driven a fan tremulant

[@ikonix360]

@@evanakers maybe so or some other feature that either was made redundant with the console update or was no longer needed

[@hagenanselmfritzsche6644]

I really wish, that you would demonstrate the Wanamaker Organ rank by rank :-).

[@kimballwhitaker6092]

I give up, what's a BDO (the string stop on the choir)?

[@awnardone]

VDO, short for Viole d'Orchestre.

[@kimballwhitaker6092]

@@awnardone Thank you

[@jazzman578]

Name of the tune and composer please.

[@OrganMediaFoundation]

All music was improvised by Mr. Conte.

[@jazzman578]

@@OrganMediaFoundation He really has something great there. Should title and publish it.

[@connor_flanigan]

and the organist kinda looks like Ben Franklin

[@Ken_Weber_organist]

call this organ the "Little Wanamaker", nonetheless, nothing like these symphonic organs, they can play ANY literature, organ and organ transcriptions, like Peter says, 'who needs mixtures' when have strings like these, especially with 73 note chests!

[@philipmarlowe8763]

Beautiful Organ, but I think you should rename this to "Peter Conte demonstrates an organ..." This is a masterclass and not something you see regularly. I am a bit surprised.

[@degroot9914]

Lovely organ, but I don't like all the modern stuff of it, it takes away some of the craftsmanship of old.