Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast
Aug 12, 2026 · 32 min · 10 segments
In this episode of the Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast (SOPP791), Aušra and I dive into the technical and physical challenges of organ keyboard actions. Inspired by a comment from Dan about the…
Ausra Motuzaite-PinkevicieneHost
Vidas PinkeviciusHostUm, the last time we played ex- extremely light keyboard was, in fact, the organ in Zapishkis.
Uh, you had to basically control the touch really well, and o- on top of that, you had to think about the music, about the reverberation, although the reverberation was small because the church, um, space is small.
You never know what, know what kind of touch is waiting for you when you go to a unfamiliar organ, and you have to adjust, and basically you often have to adjust in a really short amount of time, but that's life.
But, uh, what do you prefer yourself? Like, heavy keyboards or light keyboard?
For a long time at Vilnius University St. John's church, we had, um, really, uh, heavy mechanical tracker action, uh, action keyboards, right? Uh, and they were a little bit made easier after a recent renovation of, uh, of the team that, uh, Janis Kalnins did a couple of years ago, uh, the team from Latvia, Ugales Organ Workshop.
And uh, second manual especially was made lighter because Barker Machine was installed.
Well, you know, my understanding of, and my liking of, you know, like, the keyboard actually, uh, changed over the years.
Because as I was young and strong, I preferred, you know, heavier keyboards.
Not as heavy as it was at St. John's, obviously, or let's say in the Kiszdorus, remember, when we were just students, played there once.
It had extremely heavy keyboard, at least for, uh, what I thought.
But, you know, probably if you are playing a, a large tracker organ, you cannot expect probably to have a really light, light keyboard and light touch.
Um, the last time we played ex- extremely light keyboard was, in fact, the organ in Zapishkis.
Uh, you had to basically control the touch really well, and o- on top of that, you had to think about the music, about the reverberation, although the reverberation was small because the church, um, space is small.
You never know what, know what kind of touch is waiting for you when you go to a unfamiliar organ, and you have to adjust, and basically you often have to adjust in a really short amount of time, but that's life.
But, uh, what do you prefer yourself? Like, heavy keyboards or light keyboard?
For a long time at Vilnius University St. John's church, we had, um, really, uh, heavy mechanical tracker action, uh, action keyboards, right? Uh, and they were a little bit made easier after a recent renovation of, uh, of the team that, uh, Janis Kalnins did a couple of years ago, uh, the team from Latvia, Ugales Organ Workshop.
And uh, second manual especially was made lighter because Barker Machine was installed.
Well, you know, my understanding of, and my liking of, you know, like, the keyboard actually, uh, changed over the years.
Because as I was young and strong, I preferred, you know, heavier keyboards.
Not as heavy as it was at St. John's, obviously, or let's say in the Kiszdorus, remember, when we were just students, played there once.
It had extremely heavy keyboard, at least for, uh, what I thought.
But, you know, probably if you are playing a, a large tracker organ, you cannot expect probably to have a really light, light keyboard and light touch.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.
