Brighton Dome

The Brighton Dome is a building complex in Brighton, England that contains the Concert Hall, Corn Exchange and the Pavilion Theatre. It was built for the Prince of Wales and completed in 1805. It famously staged the Eurovision Song Contest on 6 April 1974 where ABBA won for Sweden with Waterloo.

The Dome Pavilion

The first pipe organ in the Dome's Concert Hall was built in 1870 by the famous London firm of Henry Willis & Sons to a specification of forty-four stops spread over four manuals and pedals [cite web|title=The National Pipe Organ Register - The Brighton Dome Willis|url=http://npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=N15482] . Unfortunately, this modestly-sized but nonetheless splendid instrument was removed in 1935 for the great rebuilding of the theatre and was never returned, but broken up for parts. The instrument which replaced it is greatly inferior in tonal quality as a classical organ, which its curators claim it can be, but is effective as a cinema organ: it is a large Christie organ built in 1935 by the firm of Hill, Norman and Beard. This large instrument has four manuals and one hundred and seventy-eight stops obtained by extension and borrowing of numerous ranks, plus numerous percussion effects [cite web|title=The National Pipe Organ Register - The Brighton Dome Willis|url=http://npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=N08247] . It has recently been restored by David Wells of Liverpool and a 'floating' String Organ added from the organ at Glyndebourne, which had been broken up.

External links

* [http://www.brightondome.org/venues/ The Brighton Dome Online]
* [http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/aboutus/project_detail.php?sid=11&id=237 Restoration of the Dome — information]

References