This is just as impressive as your Moszkowski recording. And good to see more organ recordings on the site !

Sounds like a very elaborate organ in a large church. Can you provide more details ? Seems like you use a lot of different dispositions, did you have someone to pull the stops, or have you got 4 manuals or more ?

I did not notice the 'raspy' sound you mentioned - perhaps when it's played on hifi speakers but certainly not from the PC. Only thing I can say is that the theme, however catchy it is, IMO does not quite sustain such an extended treatment. A bit ungrateful to say so though, with so much good on offer. I am sure this recording will be very popular, and it was about time we had Handel on the site.

Hello Chris and Robert,

Thank you for your kind words regarding my piano and organ debuts on the Piano Society website. I had only discovered this site about a week ago, and set about making some music available to you.

It took about five tries for me to get the original .wav file into an mp3 file that would not exhibit too much sound distortion, yet maintain some semblence of dynamic range. This is true both of the Handel and Moszkowski recordings. I was re-recording the original file onto an outboard CD-burner, and had the gains turned down, because of horrific raspy sounds that resulted from compressing the data down to mp3 format.

The final mp3 product that did reach the Piano Society, in fact, had pleasantly little of the raspiness I had feared -- but had no way of telling until it was uploaded to your site. The original recordings have far more dynamic impact than these mp3s have, but I am pleased that you still enjoyed the performances. Hopefully, in the case of the Steinway, dynamic range was able to be implied (more than actually heard) in subtle changes in the instrument's timbral characteristics.

As I am writing this email, it is approaching 3AM local time, so I had better end my rambling for the night and get some sleep. I will certainly provide personal information for the site and some details of the recording venue including the disposition of the organ. Suffice to say, for now, I am Senior Organist in a church near Chicago, Illinois, USA that has 50 ranks of pipes deployed over three manuals and pedalier. The changes in registration you heard was intended to sound more complicated than just a three manual instrument -- thanks to carefully planned and executed toe studs.

Cheers for now.

Joe <jcfeli>