Is that mothballs I smell?

Went to the aforementioned free organ recital at the Wellington Town Hall this afternoon. Most enjoyable.

I donned a ‘vintage’ cable-knit jacket made by my grandmother for my mother in the 60’s (I think) but still didn’t blend in – the elderly were out in force and other than a few youngun’s that were probably muso’s we were certainly among the youngest there.

The organist, Rober Costin (www.robertcostin.com) was quite a young guy and very talented. Not that I’ve a lot of experience or much appreciation for organs having mostly heard smaller ones blurbling away in the corner of a church during the certificate signing at a wedding. However this guy really got it cracking. Feeling it vibrating through the chairs and floor was just fantastic. A pianist myself I know it can be quite difficult to operate 2 hands on a single keyboard at breakneck speed and 2 pedals with 2 feet let alone 4 keyboards and 2 panels of knobs operated by 2 hands and a whole other ‘keyboard’ and 2 pedals on the floor operated in a heel-toe-heel-toe manner without really being able to see your feet and getting from one side of the keyboard to the other by sliding along the bench seat taking care not to knock over the guy turning the music pages! Very impressive.

Hopefully I’m not breaking any copyright laws but got 20 seconds on the camera of one of the mid-level noise bits (War March of the Priests, Felix Mendelsson). Wellington can be proud to have such a great instrument in its Town Hall and thank you to whoever paid for the concert to happen! We might even go to some of the concerts during organ week in September when organs in churches around Wellington get to have a bit of a bellow.