Vital Organs - pipe organ face-off

[donsu]

http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2004/12/17/103.html

Vital Organs

The battle of the pipe organs begins this week with the debut of Russia's largest instrument to date.


Here are what you call your classic matchups: Yankees vs. Red Sox. Fischer vs. Spassky. Ali vs. Foreman. And now Moscow, being the kind of city that likes to do everything its own way, is going to treat holiday concertgoers to a whole new variation on the theme.

Dueling pipe organs.

The first contender, a brand-new instrument at the Moscow International House of Music, or MMDM, has the size advantage -- not just over its immediate competitor, but over every pipe organ in Russia.

Co-designed and built by the German firms of Glatter-Goetz and Johannes Klais, MMDM's new organ boasts more than 5,500 pipes, ranging in size from 8 millimeters to 9.25 meters, and weighs in at a staggering 30 tons. Its total of 84 stops, or registers, beats out the second-largest Russian pipe organ -- at Moscow's Tchaikovsky Concert Hall -- by three.

-snip-

The scrappy competitor in the opposing corner is the new pipe organ at the Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, scheduled to be completed in January. Though this one falls short of the size and range of MMDM's, having only 74 stops, it has the distinction of being the only pipe organ in Russia designed by the famed Swiss organ firm of Kuhn.

-snip-

Perhaps in response to "Music of the Cathedrals of the World," MMDM has announced plans for its own "grandiose organ festival featuring worldwide celebrities" in March 2005. Which means that this contest may not be settled anytime soon.

The classic matchups never are.

Moscow International House of Music debuts its new organ Tues. at 7 p.m. MMDM is located at 52 Kosmodamianskaya Naberezhnaya, Bldg. 8. Metro Paveletskaya. Tel. [phone].

"Music of the Cathedrals of the World" runs from Jan. 16 to Feb. 13 at the Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, located at 27/13 Malaya Gruzinskaya Ulitsa. Metro Krasnopresnenskaya. Tel. [phone].
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Wow

they should make DVDs

[short bus president]

1. Screw DVDs.

They need to organize a tour of Russian organs.

Jeebus - I'll bet the low pipes on those badboys approach the infamous "brown sound." ;-)

[ooglymoogly]

2. when i was still a kid

playing in the towers and vaulted ceilings of grace cathedral we used to sneak into the choir and play around on the humongous aeolian skinner and white and i thought that must be the greatest organ ever built. but what did i know? will look forward to hearing the russians, thanks for the post

[Kellanved]

3. just 5,500 pipes?

:shrug: