Alessandria is a city in northwestern Italy. It is almost exactly between three major cities: Milan, Turin and Genoa. Here is the church dedicated to San Giovanni Evangelista built in 1905 and carefully restored in recent years.

Thanks to the efforts of the church's pastor, Don Claudio Moschini, the new organ was built in 2010 by the famous organ builders firm Mascioni. The organ received 45 stops divided over three manuals consisting of 5 divisions:
Grande Organo, Positivo, Recitativo espressivo, Pedale and Tuba.

The sounds are focused on old style symphonic compositions including those of the romantic era and is designed by M°Massimo Nosetti. One of the very interesting features is the high-pressure Tuba 8' stop, which is fed by a separate wind motor with a pressure of 400 mmWC, unique in Italy.

A few minor changes have been made to the sampleset. On the real instrument it is possible to link the Tuba register to only the 1st manual and pedal (not separately from each other), or to the 3rd manual. In the sample set, the tuba is available separately on each keyboard.

The organ in the church has one tremulant for the whole organ. In the sample set, the tremulant can be selected manually.

Also, two new stops have been added: Clarone 4′ in Recitativo espressivo division and Bombarda 32 in Pedale, resulting in a total of 47 registers.
The keyboards range is from C to c4 (61 notes) and the pedal from C to g1 (32 notes).

Because of the organ's well thought-out concept and colorful registers, it is widely regarded by many organists as an exceptionally beautiful and very versatile instrument. Several of them indicated that they were enthusiastic about the special qualities of the instrument and the beautiful acoustics of the church.

Mascioni, based in Northern Italy, is one of the oldest organ builders in Europe. Started in 1829, the company grew to become one of the most experienced companies in building organs in various styles. The sixth generation is currently building and restoring organs of excellent quality.

Every part of a Mascioni organ is made in-house. Special types of wood mature in a special wood storage and are processed according to traditional methods. Pipes are made by craftsmen in the same way their fathers did.

But tradition should never stand in the way of progress. Employees attend workshops across Europe to learn new skills and technologies. Engineers, voicers, architects and musicians are part of the team. The organs go to all parts of the world.
Europe, especially Italy, is also a treasure trove of historic organs. Mascioni researches in all countries to build skills on the historical sounds and can recreate voices from the past.

Mascioni is also a recognized authority on responsible restoration. With the restoration of historic organs, craftsmanship is applied in new organs.

I didn't know the organ in Alessandria yet, but I did know some other organs made  by Mascioni. I played the organ in Giubiasco in Switzerland and enjoyed the baroque timbres. The sounds of the Northern European organs differ greatly from the organs in Southern Europe. The Italian organ builders always make the organs for churches with magnificent acoustics. That is why the sounds do not have to be powerful and the wind pressure can remain low, often less than 50 mmWK. A low wind pressure means that the pipes are low cut up, which has a favorable effect on the sounds. A rich overtone development is created that fills the room with clear singing tones. The pedal tones of the sample set are also not loud, but sound with a deep gravity in my living room. A beautiful basis for the entire organ.

Home organs always work at a low wind pressure and produce pleasant sounds. I have built several house organs with an Italian scale for the pipes. The timbres are clear and lovely. This is how this Mascioni organ sounds, but now with the acoustics of the church.

In addition to their own ideas about organ sounds, the designers of Mascioni have always shown great interest in the sounds and scales of the Northern European organ builders. They have visited their workshops and constructed pipes in the same scale to understand the beauty of sound. Mascioni's motto is to learn about other styles and apply the good qualities in their own way.

Everywhere in Europe, organ builders made the best pipes until the end of the 18th century. A pipe tone that always started with a precursor note as an accent on the beginning of the note (chiff). Corresponding to an orchestra wind instrument; there the tone also sounds with an accent on the beginning.

From the 19th century, organ builders no longer considered the accent on the beginning of the tone important. The languids of the pipes were provided with many stitches, so that the tone started without an accent, but also without character. The wind pressure was increased considerably to develop powerful tones.

Organs from Bätz-Witte, Maarschalkerweerd and Adema set the degeneration process of the organ pipes in motion here. In response to this, the Orgelbewegung was created at the beginning of the 20th century, but there were no professionals who still knew the old construction method; the profession of organ building had to be rediscovered. In the second half of the 20th century, this slowly grew again. Nowadays every organ builder makes the pipes again, as was done in the old days. Mascioni has played a leading role in this process.

The organs as they have been built at Mascioni through six generations from 1829 were well documented. In the developments that went back to the old way of building, they knew how to make pipes with a baroque sound or something of later styles. They could quickly apply this way of making pipes, again as usual with a minimum of languid stitches. Stitches in the languid are sometimes necessary to promote rapid response, but it is always at the expense of brightness of the sound.

When voicing the samples of this Mascioni organ, I noticed the perfect quality of the organ pipes. I played the Mascioni organ by Giubiasco (near Bellinzola) in Switzerland. These were baroque sounds of high quality and yet the character differed from the baroque organs in the northern countries. This Mascioni organ in Alessandria also has its own style, it is more romantic-symphonic, but also suitable for stylishly playing Bach's music.
A compliment to Mascioni and also to Piotr Grabowski who has stored the sounds excellently in the samples.