Record Review in Liverpool

This weekends episode of Record Review featured a really interesting piece on Priory Records' recording session at Liverpool Cathedral. There was a lot of interseting stuff in the program about the recording process and the selection of pieces, but they obviously had far too much material because their website features an extended version of Andrew McGregor's discussion with David Poulter as the latter shows off the capabilities of the huge cathedral organ.

Which made me think of this video — a trail for one of Priory's DVDs — in which Ian Tracey, Poulter's predecessor and now organist titulaire, provides a similar demonstration of the instrument's capabilities:

It's fascinating to see the way an organist builds up and layers stops to get the sound they want and the way that they can build from something that's almost completely inaudible to a huge, building-rattling sound on full organ.

The Barber of Seville comes to town

Not much to say about tonight's Rossini prom. Sounded nice enough but, unlike the opera seria of Boris Godunov, I think this sort of opera buffa only really works as a whole if you're there in the hall, able to see the singers acting it up — and, in a concert performance, hamming it up with the conductor and orchestra.