OPTIMUM TELEVISION

Pulling Out All The Stops

Pulling Out All the Stops follows remarkable young organists from around the world as they compete for the largest cash prize ever awarded in an organ competition.

Organists confront a challenge not faced by other musicians. They have only five hours to master one of the largest and most complex Aeolian pipe organs in the world, built to imitate a symphony orchestra with all the percussion and tonal colors of a real orchestra. It is a musical equivalent to learning a new language.

The film also goes behind the inner workings of the 55- ton instrument, made up of 10,010 pipes housed in nine rooms. In size, they range from the pinky finger an adult to 32 feet. There are thousands of stops that release pressurized air to the pipes to produce musical options that even include a bird call sound made with a glycerin trick; and four keyboards plus a piano inside the organ played remotely from the organ console.

Episodic Synopsis available here