Regarding the 125-key Verbeeck concert organ, "The Glacier", owned
by Glenn Thomas, I have also listened to its sister organs on YouTube,
such as the 118-key beast "Victory" owned by Wilhelm and Monique
Kelders of The Netherlands.
Due to European organs such as these having the addition of a fully
chromatic scale, arrangers for these types of organs, such as Tom
Meijer and Hiddo Van Os, have arranged a number of trending tunes that
are sweeping the nation today including Katy Perry's "Firework" and
Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie" and "Waka Waka".
Personally, I think (even though I absolutely abhor the original
recordings of these horrible songs), they actually sound much, much
(and I mean MUCH!) better on European concert organs and the
arrangements of these songs actually aren't half that bad.
According to a comment from Andrew Barrett under his YouTube account
"Great Pianists", he stated that what amazed him was that Verbeeck
concert organs like "The Glacier", "Centenary" and "Victory" are able
to handle these "pop" tunes with ease which goes to demonstrate that
European organs have the potential for turning the pop songs of today
into musical masterpieces.
Andrew Lardieri
Voorhees, New Jersey
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