Nathan Laube plays Liszt - Les Préludes - S. 97 on the Hook & Hastings "Centennial Organ"

Nathan Laube performs his own transcription of Liszt's famous Symphonic Poem, "Les Préludes," on the organ at St. Joseph's Catholic Cathedral in Buffalo, New York.

This performance was recorded by‪@MoblAudioProductions‬ in March, 2021 for a digital organ concert sponsored by Västerås Cathedral and Kalmar Cathedral in Sweden.

The 1876 E. & G.G. Hook & Hastings organ, Opus 828, is a masterpiece of 19th-century American Organbuilding. Built originally as a showpiece instrument for the Centennial International Exhibition of 1876 - the first World's Fair to be held in the United States - "The Centennial Organ," as it has come to be known, represented the greatest tonal and technological achievements from the prominent Boston firm. It's remarkably efficient specification included two high-pressure Tuba Mirabilis and Stentorphone stops, a free-reed Vox Angelica, 8-and-4-foot reeds in the Great imported from Henri Zimmerman of Paris, and a small, but ingeniously 'extended' Pedal organ of massive scale. Following the Exhibition, it was installed in Buffalo in the newly built Cathedral by famed American ecclesiastic architect Patrick Keely. The organ was expanded in 2001 by the Andover Organ Company as their Opus R-328.

The current specification can be found here:

https://pipeorgandatabase.org/organ/4...

You can listen to more of Nathan playing this unique instrument on the radio program "All the Stops," available online from WFMT 98.7 Chicago Classical Music Radio. Click on the fourth program: United States.

https://www.wfmt.com/programs/all-the...