A new pipe organ for New York's Philharmonic Hall?

[tbeck]

Here's an article from the New York Times discussing the upcoming refurbishing of David Geffen Hall (nee Avery Fisher Hall) and whether a pipe organ is in it's future.

The site is metered, but it's a pretty interesting article.

[AllenAnalog]

Given the history of concert hall pipe organs being torn out either because they were perceived to have a negative impact on the orchestra sound and hall acoustics or the space was needed for a larger stage, dressing rooms, etc. I'm not putting much money on a bet that they will include a pipe organ in the new design.

[Admin]

I'm not optimistic either, but as the article points out, there is some reason to hope that the trend of removing organs has been reversed. Keeping up with the Jones' in LA and Texas may tip the scale for a pipe organ installation.

[AllenAnalog]

I've always been amazed, given the population, money, venues and musical institutions like Juilliard in NYC that the only big pipe organs there are in churches. But strange things do happen in New York, including kicking Avery Fisher's name off of the concert hall when a bigger donor came along.

So let's take a poll. What's your guess on the outcome of this?

1 - No pipe organ (keeping the current situation of bringing in an electronic organ when needed).
2 - New pipe organ (of limited size, unlike LA, Dallas, Philly, etc. since they claim to have very limited space for an instrument)
3 - M&O or other premium electronic organ with a permanent speaker installation behind an architectural facade

[RogerM]

4? Now that would be what? 🤔

[AllenAnalog]

That's my bad - I edited the options to fold #4 back into #1 after my initial post since the decision to not have a pipe organ would still require them having some kind of organ on occasion. Michael must have been responding as I was editing.

[myorgan]

Yup, I was.

Michael

[Victor Jules]

Who knew the Hall already had an organ -- "12 speaker arrays hung along the back of the stage, and two large bass speakers on either side of it"! What is it, how long has it been there? What do they play on it? Thank you, tbeck, for calling it PHILHARMONIC Hall!

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[Admin]

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