Brentford Muslical Museum formal reopening
I see from the la-*test*-('") edition of the Player Piano Group magazine that the Musical Museum at Brentford (which I still like to think of as The British Piano Museum) was formally reopened in its new building on 9th June 2008. I didn't get an invite :( Can anyone say which instruments were played on the day? There was lots of fuss made about the Wurlitzer which does not interest me in the sligh-*test*-('"). What about the unique collection of reproducing system pianos and organs in the collection? The report includes a nice picture of Sir Christopher Frayling standing in front of the large Imhof orchestrion from Imhof Ltd's London branch. Sir Christopher is a great-grandson of Daniel Imhof and Chairman of the Arts Council of Great Britain. Perhaps somebody who was there can give us a report.

The formal opening was more a formal press-office photo op punt and celebratory thingie for the lottery grant / arts council type folks and building reconstruction as opposed to a musical jolly for enthusiasts. Their press officer sent out various invites and we at the PPG sent along the treasurer as our rep for the evening (who did the write-up). The PPG and the museum share a common history and founder in Frank Holland MBE. As to which instruments were played I understand they had a general musical play around the working stuff that's on display. See my YouTube clip for essentially what was reprised. Obviously the Wurlitzer and stage is now set up which it was not when I visited back in October. Last autumn it was really the first time many of these items had been fired up in a number of years during which period they'd been crated and moved down the road etc. Some things played fine first off, some needed a little more playing in and others needed deeper revisiting. It's a lot less cluttered is the new museum. Most of the well-known sights are on show - some old friends are in storage and, to my understanding, exhibits will be rotated periodically. All in all I think it'll settle in nicely and develop further in due course. The museum has the Gavioli barrel organ in the entirely ersatz old-tyme street which is nice. This is the one which was gotten from a theatre props storeroom (Drury Lane or something) where it had laid since time immemorial when used as a prop in early 20th century show. They never acquired a proper fairground organ as (Frank Holland's words) they didn't want to end up deaf having one of those playing inside! Simply, fair organs and dance organs were never of any interest to the founder or his followers and trustees. Frank Holland's primary interest was in the reproducing piano above all other things and, with the expection of an old barrel piano on wheels all the rest of the instruments are ones originally from indoor settings.

I Believe there was an article in an old key frame magazine stating that the barrel organ was a 45 key Gebruder Bruder with the works number 4118.Maybe someone who knows the instrument better could comment on this.