Inauguration of the Dubois organ of Wissembourg

The inauguration of »L’Orgue Dubois de l’abbatiale Sts. Pierre et Paul en Wissembourg« is over. There was an excellent presentation of the timbres of the instrument followed by a concert with pieces of Nicolas de Grigny (Veni Creator), Johann Sebastian Bach (Deux chorals de Leipzig), Georg Böhm (Partita sur le choral »Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten«) et Pierre Dumage (Suite du 1er Ton). Screens have been used so that the attendees could directly see what is happening at the organ’s console.

Once again I was completely overwhelmed by the sound of the instrument. And once again I noticed that the sound of famous instruments gains its living and breathing from little imperfections. Individual pipes have an individual chiff, some pipes rattle a bit when being played (especially lingual pipes), others are not tuned perfectly.

The presentation will be available as a recording in CD respectively DVD formats. The visitors got a nice printed handout (available both in french and german language) which provides valuable information of the history and restoration of the instrument.

From 2012-05-27 through 2012-09-30 each sunday free concerts will be provided between 5:00PM and 5:45PM. Obviously I’ll revive a hobby of mine and choose Wissembourg as the favorite destination of my sunday biking trips :) .