Audio Demo Tracks:
Top Hat
Played by Stephen Ades. This is a medley from the 2011 stage musical version of Top Hat. The plot of the stage show is roughly the same as the original RKO film, but it incorporates many additional songs by Berlin, taken from other Astaire films. The medley consists of:
Let's face the music and dance
Isn't this a lovely day
No strings
Top hat, white tie and tails
After recording this medley Stephen was struck by how similar the Brompton organ sounds to a number of Christie instruments. For those of you not from the UK, Christies were the second most numerous theatre organs built in the UK, after Comptons. By way of a comparison we have included another Astaire-themed medley that Stephen recorded on the Christie that is now in Ipswich: AstaireMedley IpswichChristie.MP3
Top Hat Medley - Contrabombarde
You're the cream in my coffee
Played by Stephen Ades. This is a hit song from the 1920s, which has been much used in stage musicals, films and television series over the years. The organ is a hybrid theatre organ combining ranks from the Redford Barton 3/10 and the Wyton House Compton 4/16, hence the name Brompton, which is also the name of a fashionable district in London. Barton organs are famous for their sweet sound - they were known as the 'golden voiced Bartons'. The addition of Compton ranks adds body and dynamism to the organ while maintaining sympathy with the original sound style.
You're the cream in my coffee - Contrabombarde
Barcarolle
Played for us by Stephen Ades. This gentle song, "Sweet night, O night of love", from the Tales of Hoffman, is in sharp contrast with many of the 'big bash' pieces that we associate with Offenbach's operas. Grove's Dictionary describes it as "one of the world's most popular melodies".
Carmen Suite 3
Played by Stephen Ades. Carmen is an opera in four acts by French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed by the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 3 March 1875, where its breaking of conventions shocked and scandalized its first audiences. The third and final selection from Carmen, consisting of:
Smugglers' March
Michaela's Aria
If you love me
Parade of the Toreadors
Carmen Suite 3 - Contrabombarde
Fanfare for the Common Man
Played by Stephen Ades. This recording on the 'Brompton' hybrid organ showcases the combined Barton and Compton reeds, as well as the crucial Chinese Gong.
Fanfare for the Common Man - Contrabombarde
Mr Blue Sky
Played by Stephen Ades. A song performed by English rock band The Electric Light Orchestra, which specialized in rock music with classical overtones. In a 2020 poll by small British radio station Greatest Hits Radio, a fifth of all respondents voted Mr Blue Sky as the 'happiest song' ever. The song appeared on the ELO album Out Of The Blue with a vocoder voice singing 'Mr Blue Sky', but the final symphonic passage ends with the vocoder instead singing "Please turn me over" as it was the last track on side 3.
Romeo and Juliet: Balcony Scene
Played by Stephen Ades, from Prokofiev's orchestral suite, showing the symphonic side of the Brompton organ.
Romeo and Juliet: Balcony Scene - Contrabombarde
Send in the Clowns
Played by Stephen Ades. This wistful song, about two people who fall in love with each other but never at the same time, is from the musical A Little Night Music.
Send in the Clowns - Contrabombarde
The Impossible Dream
Played by Stephen Ades. This is the best known song from the musical Man of La Mancha, which interweaves a story about Miguel de Cervantes and his famous fictional creation Don Quixote.
The Impossible Dream - Contrabombarde
The Watermill
Played by Stephen Ades. This evocative piece was written for oboe and string orchestra. For examples of the landscapes that it evokes see the paintings of John Constable. It was used as the theme music to the 70s BBC production of 'The Secret Garden'.