As with any claim to "biggest," you need to define your terms, and of
course, as well as being utterly pointless, the biggest thing in most
such discussions is the error in the claim. Seeing that this is the
silly season, let's play with words for a bit.
Sir David Salomons purchased his Welte Philharmonic Organ to replace a
Welte Style 10 Concert Orchestrion, and had the new instrument specially
extended to play his collection of orchestrion rolls as well as the new
ones. According to the A.C. Pilmer website, the organ is either the
"World's largest Welte Philharmonic Organ" or the "largest such instru-
ment built by the Freiburg firm." The Salomons site simply says it is
the finest. It has 2000 pipes.
Which takes us to the Welte Philharmonic in Speyer, which I was lucky
enough to see recently as well, while on the recent AMICA tour. It is
utterly superb, and the setting is extraordinary: on a suspended plat-
form surrounded by fighter jets! Despite being only just up the road
from Freiburg, the Speyer organ is an American-built one, from Welte "in
association with the Skinner company" according to the Speyer catalogue.
It has 2500 pipes, but how much is Welte and how much Skinner?
So, Speyer's part-Welte is certainly bigger than Salomons' full-Welte,
but it isn't a Freiburg product. Which leaves equivocation the winner.
The claim about Salomons is valid if it refers to Freiburg, and if we go
organ-splitting, it may Welte-wise even be true world-wide.
Julian Dyer
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