Private Client New Zealand October 2018

Our client is a former Organist and Master of the Music at Nelson Cathedral who has designed this instrument to his own special requirement. Built in Oak it has keyboards of Cherry Wood with Nut sharps and very traditional ‘English Style’ drawknobs by Kimber Allen with their unique ‘ferrule’ moulding set tight up against the jambs.

This instrument will play in our customers home through 6 external speaker cabinets and a sub bass. The mixture compositions have been a matter of particular discussion and created especially for this instrument. You will see perhaps a very personal stop list as defined by our customer below.

Watch this space for more information about the install and voicing of the organ.

For over a year a Viscount Digital Organ has graced the central open-plan space of my home on the South Island of New Zealand. It made the journey across the world in company with a large four manual Viscount instrument destined for Wellington Cathedral, following the damage of their pipe organ in an earthquake. So far as I know my instrument, a custom made Regent Classic is the first and, at present, only Viscount Digital Organ in a private residence in New Zealand.

The individually designed organ is a three manual and pedal instrument of 52 stops with the usual couplers and a fairly traditional specification. There are 6 speakers around the room and an additional bass woofer. The console and fully-adjustable, sturdy organ bench have been beautifully crafted and are a delight to behold - an attractive item of furniture in their own right. As significant, if not more so, I can truly say that in a lifetime as a Church and Cathedral musician, I have never played at a more comfortable console. This of course is a great inspiration for performance preparation as well as the learning of new repertoire, which has been a particular privilege during the lockdown period of New Zealand as well as the envy of some colleagues! In particular the UHT keys are a joy and delight, and in general all features of the console feel to be in the right place for comfort, access and security.

The team of two were with me for three days receiving and setting up the speakers and console. They gave great care and respect to my home, laying speaker cables to be thoroughly neat and out of sight. Then voicing was undertaken, which these many months later, sounds excellent in the central space of my home. To take just one aspect of the voicing - even with 16 reed stops, a pleasing and musical range of aural personalities has been achieved.

An amazing and unique touch relating to this installation, was the return of one technician some weeks later for just two nights from UK to NZ! This was in order to fully ensure the customer's specification details and satisfaction.

I am very pleased to recommend Viscount Classical Organs Limited and their UK based team for any client considering a similar project.