organ135
organ 135
September 2013
4 manuals
74 speaking stops
Click here for full spec
Llandaff
Cathedral
Builder:
Nicholson & Co, 2010
Weblinks:
Llandaff Cathedral
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Organ of the Month archive
(contains over 100 organs)
The new organ case
now frames the image
of "Christ in Majesty"
by Sir Jacob Epstein
that dominates the
cathedral
For several months, we have been looking at organs visited during the 2012 IAO Congress and last year's BOA trip to South Wales. To conclude this sequence, we have Llandaff Cathedral, which featured in both these visits and where the new Nicholson organ (in use since 2010) is now (summer 2013) being completed by the addition of (mainly) pipework to the Solo Division.
The cathedral's original (1861) organ by Gray & Davison was replaced in 1900 by an instrument by Hope Jones. Fortunately, the G&D survives at St Mary's Usk (see Organ of the Month 132).
Norman & Beard were also involved with the 1900 organ from the start, and were responsible for subsequent maintenance & rebuilding - including in 1958 after the damage inflicted on the cathedral during World War II. But in 2007, the cathedral suffered a severe lightning strike and serious damage was done to the electrics of the organ, which were already in a poor condition.
An appeal to raise £1.5 million was launched, resulting in the construction of the present instrument, the largest all-new British-built UK cathedral organ since Coventry in 1962.
You can listen to the cathedral choir, accompanied by the new organ, as September 13's Music of the Month