Happy Birthday, Cavaillé-Coll Organ at Saint-Ouen, Rouen, France! Kalevi Kiviniemi joins the party and plays Toccata (from 5th Symphony) by Charles-Marie Widor. On 17 April 1890, Widor himself played this piece as the last one in organ's inauguration recital.

We decided to put this video online on the very same day to celebrate this magnifient organ, cathedral and its stained glass paintings, architecture and acoustics. Video was recorded in 2008 during the recording sessions of Kiviniemi's "Cavaille-Coll" -CD/Super Audio CD (OrganERA vol.14, FUGA-9282, www.fuga.fi). As far as we know, this is the only video of Widor's Toccata, from Saint-Ouen, that is recorded and filmed live in professional quality.

Organ in Saint-Ouen is one of those rare instruments from a French organ builder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, that are remained untouched to our days, no alterations has been made. Many organ freaks also know this organ from its very loud reed stop, Bombarde 32, in Pedal, generating 16 Hz tones at its lowest. It sounds like a four-motor WWII bomber flies over! Still it blends perfectly with other stops. In video, there are some shots of Bombarde pipes behind the organ. They do not look special, but - listen...

This video was specially made and prepared for Youtube. Audio was taken from high quality multi channel recording setup, not from video camera's built-in microphone. The better your computer's audio system and especially the speakers and the subwoofer are, the better is the sound. Video was filmed in full HD, please enjoy the better picture quality that it offers (720p, 1080p). In 720p and 1080p versions also audio quality is better.

We really hope that you enjoy this special anniversary video!

Video, audio, editing and description by Mika Koivusalo.

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