An Interesting Swiss Organ

On the first Sunday of October last, I was in Switzerland, and attended the Harvest Festival service at La Côte Anglican church in Gingins, not too far from Geneva. The organ in the small church has a quite unusual but very interesting specification. Although small (but quite adequate for the church) I was quite surprised at the volume it could produce. I imagine the organist had all stops out for the last verse of Come ye thankful people come. The recessional voluntary was one of the Handel organ concertos. All the congregation stayed for it, and applauded at the end, whereupon the organist closed his book and literally ran, so I didn’t get a chance to talk to him (I learned afterwards that he was dashing to his next service). However, the rector of the church told me I was welcome to examine and play the organ.

It dates from 1958 and was built by Grandes Orgues of Geneva. The following is its specification.
Great: Montre 8, Fl a fusseau 8, Prestant 4, Plein Jeu 1 1/3;
Recit: Quintaton 8, Fl a chem 4, Doublette 2; Trompette 8;
Pedal: Soubasse 16; RCO type pedalboard
3 Couplers, operated by miniature lever-type sort of swell pedals.

The Plein Jeu is quite powerful and added a lot to the overall volume. The sound of the full Great gives the impression that there is more mixture present than there actually is. The Trompette sounds fine both as a solo reed and a chorus reed. Had I not seen the organ in advance of hearing it, I would certainly have though that it was much larger than it is.