Bangkok symphony orchestra

[Kiwi306]

1 hour ago, PeterRS2 said:

I am curious. Where is there a decent pipe organ (the musical variety) in Bangkok? I have been to a couple of churches whose pipe organs were relatively poor.

I think there is almost no musical experience that equates to a pipe organ being played full belt. And so few classical works include an organ, unless you think of the last movement of the Saint Saens Organ Symphony or the much smaller scale ones by composers like Handel. The one work which knocks me out if ever I get a chance to hear it live is the Berlioz Te Deum. The organ plays a massive part in all its six movements. Unfortunately it requires a huge orchestra, two large choirs of around 100 singers in each, and a boys chorus plus that mighty pipe organ. So when the orchestra and singers are all playing/singing fortissimo it is sometimes difficult to make out the organ. But what an experience!

This is the second movement composed of three verses where the organ is more prominent - Tibi Omnes

 

The concert was at Christ Church in Convent Road. 

[mauRICE]

14 minutes ago, Kiwi306 said:

The concert was at Christ Church in Convent Road. 

Church and then the sauna after; your knees must be worn out. 😏

[Olddaddy]

1 hour ago, Kiwi306 said:

The concert was at Christ Church in Convent Road. 

ChristChurch Capital of New Zealand??🇳🇿🥝

[Londoner]

Organs are a sore point for me....that is church and concert ones.   I should have been living a life full of exploratory, adolescent sex: instead I was learning (among other things) the organ on my school chapel.   Never, it has to be admitted, to a very high level.  And yes, before you ask, it was much the same with sex later on.

"Pipe" organs are so expensive that few churches can afford them. And some new concert halls ( yes, Barbican in London, I'm pointing at you) don't even have their own, preferring easily transportable electronic monstrosities that, while clever, much, much cheaper, easy to maintain and useful for teaching, are not the "real McCoy". 

For those of you who have never played a simple chord of C Major on a large church organ, and marvelled at the amount of noise that can be produced with the minimum of effort, including deep notes on the pedal, all I can say is that you've  missed something.

 

[mauRICE]

52 minutes ago, Olddaddy said:

ChristChurch Capital of New Zealand??🇳🇿🥝

Wellington is the capital of New Zealand. 🙄 Clearly the headmistress hasn't been doing a good job and needs to spam you with more copy-and-paste articles.

[mauRICE]

1 hour ago, Londoner said:

Organs are a sore point for me....that is church and concert ones.   I should have been living a life full of exploratory, adolescent sex: instead I was learning (among other things) the organ on my school chapel.   Never, it has to be admitted, to a very high level. ...

For those of you who have never played a simple chord of C Major on a large church organ, and marvelled at the amount of noise that can be produced with the minimum of effort, including deep notes on the pedal, all I can say is that you've  missed something.

Wow, all very exciting. 🙄 Sounds like church was a big part of your life growing up.

Now tell us: did you ever toy with the priesthood?

[floridarob]

34 minutes ago, mauRICE said:

Did you ever toy with the priesthood?

or vice versa ?

[PeterRS2]

2 hours ago, Londoner said:

For those of you who have never played a simple chord of C Major on a large church organ, and marvelled at the amount of noise that can be produced with the minimum of effort, including deep notes on the pedal, all I can say is that you've  missed something.

Totally agree. The volume can hit you right in the stomach!

I was taught piano from the age of six and in my mid teens decided to try playing the organ. But I had a big problem. You need to be able to play not only with your hands but also your feet. That means not only reading three lines of music instead of two which is difficult enough, when sitting on the organ bench you must be pretty agile with your feet. I never made it. Gave up!

This is one of the most famous short organ works - the Toccata by French composer Charles Marie Widor. It was played at one of the Royal Weddings in the UK but I cannot recall which. I wish I had persevered and could play 

[BjornAgain]

21 hours ago, PeterRS2 said:

...This is one of the most famous short organ works - the Toccata by French composer Charles Marie Widor. It was played at one of the Royal Weddings in the UK...

First came to mass attention in 1960 at the wedding of Princess Margaret and Antony Armstrong-Jones as it replaced the more traditional Mendelssohn's The Wedding March. Since then various European Royal Houses have use it. Last UK outing was Wills & Kate in 2011.

Found a recording from 1932 as played by the composer, Charles- Marie Widor himself.

L

 

[Londoner]

Thanks to Classic FM no doubt. The other popular request nowadays is Pachebel's ubiquitous Canon.  Before that, "Here comes the bride"  to the wedding march from Wagner's Tannhauser was popular.

[Olddaddy]

On 7/28/2026 at 6:30 PM, mauRICE said:

Wellington is the capital of New Zealand. 🙄 Clearly the headmistress hasn't been doing a good job and needs to spam you with more copy-and-paste articles.

Oh what a beautiful place 

[PeterRS2]

4 hours ago, BjornAgain said:

First came to mass attention in 1960 at the wedding of Princess Margaret and Antony Armstrong-Jones as it replaced the more traditional Mendelssohn's The Wedding March. Since then various European Royal Houses have use it. Last UK outing was Wills & Kate in 2011.

Found a recording from 1932 as played by the composer, Charles- Marie Widor himself.

That's fascinating. Quite a number of comments on the internet say that most of the many youtube versions are played too fast. This is certainly slower than almost all (including the one I posted - 1'35" slower allowing for the delayed start). And he even slows down further in the quieter middle passage. Yet for the age of the recording and the very resonant church acoustic, the sound and the notes are remarkably clear.

[PeterRS2]

Another little organ anecdote 🤪. The Scottish-American industrialist Andrew Carnegie was very fond of music. He was sad that so many towns in the USA had no access to orchestral music as funding an orchestra was hugely expensive outside the dozen or so major cities. By the time he died, he had given away 90% of his fortune - estimated today to be worth US$6.9 billion. 

He was aware that a good pipe organ could to a certain extent imitate the sound of an orchestra. After all it has many hundreds of pipes each tuned to sound like an orchestral instrument. So he purchased 8,000 organs and donated them primarily for buildings other than churches where the people of the towns could hear a variety of music, including transcriptions of the great classical repertoire. 

The largest still-working pipe organ ever made was located in Macy's (before it recently closed last year) in Philadelphia. The Wanamaker Organ has a massive number of pipes - 28,762. It used to be played to encourage customers to come to the store, mostly during shopping hours but occasionally for special concerts. The organ remains in Macy's old Building and is still sometime played. It can produce the volume of three full-sized symphony orchestras playing fortissimo!