Interesting article about 60 Years of Bond films at Royal Albert Hall

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

This is a pretty amazing place to attend concerts let alone film premiere's. Not only can it seat up to 7000 people, the Hall also has a massive pipe organ. Occasionally the organ is combined with today's electronic and or rock music. This organ was the one used in the Hans Zimmer Interstellar sound track. See YouTube videos!

Full article at this link:


https://www.royalalberthall.com/abou...ilsource=70413

[Leo Enticknap]

The organ is one of the last surviving "Father" Henry Willis ones, that hasn't been modified and rebuilt into something not really recognizable as such. Along with Cavaillé-Coll in France, Willis pioneered the idea of the organ as a "one man band" orchestra replacement to be installed and used for concerts outside religious settings (concert halls, town halls, etc.). In the half century or so before the radio and recorded music, the cost of attending actual orchestra concerts was so high that only the upper classes could afford to. Together with the pianola, the secular monster organ was a way of bringing classical music to the masses. Sadly, the instrument that is considered by some organ nerds to be Willis's greatest achievement, the Alexandra Palace Organ, was vandalized by demobbed soldiers billeted in the building after WWI, badly damaged in two fires, and bombed in WWII, and has never been completely restored to its original condition since; though current restoration efforts have got most of the way there. The last time it was in more or less complete shape was from 1929 until the WWII bombing. Some amazing recordings were made of it in the '30s (Marcel Dupré playing the opening movement of Widor's fifth organ symphony sticks in my mind), which, despite the audio quality of 1930s 78s, give you a good impression of just what an instrument it was.

The Albert Hall organ doesn't sound as impressive as it once did, because in an attempt to mitigate the truly shitty acoustics of that building, UFO-shaped acoustic baffles were hung from the ceiling (I believe, around the time the Proms started), which deadened most of the hall's natural reverb, and the impact of the organ along with it.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Thanks for the info Leo, very interesting stuff... I've attached this Youtube clip that shows those acoustic baffles... One thing about domed ceilings though is they tend to focus the sound straight down on people sitting directly under the center of it. I have to wonder if they what they were trying to fix with the baffles?