Luigi Benedetti plays the organ in the Duomo, Milan

Luigi Benedetti playing Venerdi Santo Dal Trittico by the Italian composer Arnaldo Galliera (1871 1934) on the vast Tamburini/Mascioni organ in the Duomo, Milan. Bendetti was the titulaire of the Duomo and organ and composition professor at the G.Verdi conservatory in Milan at the time of this recording. The current titulaire is Emanuele Carlo Vianelli who took over in 2005.

The organ here is huge 15,550 pipes to be exact, making it one of the largest organs anywhere in the world. It now occupies four tall but shallow cases in the chancel area, following traditional practice. Previously there were divisions located in the two old cases and the rest scattered around the chancel area making it difficult to play. Henry Willis III gave a critical appraisal in the Organ quarterly back in July 1948. The organ was built in 1938 and there was a time limit of 10 months to build it, so two firms were utilised, Tamburini and Mascioni, each firm was alloted divisions of the organ to construct. The scheme is unusal as each department has its own pedal stops and at the time it had 180 stops and 15,350 pipes, a recent restoration in 1983-86 by Tamburini made a few changes to the specification. HW III loved the console (manuals and pedals set to Willis specs!) and was impressed by the workmanship of the instrument. He says that some divisions are so far from the player and so quiet it was very difficult to balance. This problem was addressed in the last rebuild. Wind pressures from 2-3" with 8" for the reeds and 20" for the Tuba Magna, along with small scaling meant it struggled to fill the edifice, or at least thats how Willis saw it, he said he would have "...doubled all the pressures of the organ with Four times the effect with half the number of stops - this is not opinion, but fact".

An interesting fact is that Willis records that the longest pipes of the 32' flue stops are constructed from polyphone pipes so an accurate pipe count was not possible! He also says that while there are many beautiful stops, their effect is lost in the acoustic, the scheme uses "The accepted tonality of the Middle Ages with pipes breathing their notes..."

This recording comes from Priory Records PRCD 427 Great European Organs No. 38, recorded in May 1992. It features some works by Vincenzo Petrali (italys answer to Lefebure-Wely), Enrico Bossi and some more modern works. I had no idea what to expect from the CD, but I have come to adore the whole disc, the organ is extraordinary and the playing very fine indeed.