Chorale prelude on "Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr"

A third offering from "Seasonal Chorale Preludes for Manuals Only" - Book 1 - edited by C. H. Trevor.

Still on the theme of extracting the best sounds for earlier music from an instrument built much later, I have drawn here upon a trick I often used on the organ I first played back in the mid 1970's. Happily this problematic instrument has since been removed from its unsatisfactory stifled placement in the parish church. Following a much-needed restoration it now enjoys a free-standing placement in its new location.

https://www.ohta.org.au/organs/organs/NewcastleMuseum.html

The stoplist as I knew it from 1974 to 1976 is as shown as "present" on this website - except for an unfortunate error. The Pedal Double Diapason 16 is in fact a Bourdon 16. The pipes themselves, their sound and the stop label all testify to this.

The organ's backbone is the Swell division of 6 stops, one of which is a Bourdon 16 - independent of the pedal rank and terminating at Bottom G. Without much upperwork to balance, this rank is almost useless in chorus. However it possesses considerable potential when played up an octave - on its own, or combined with other stops either from the Swell or if coupled to the Great or Choir. For example, the combination of Swell Bourdon 16 coupled to Great Harmonic Flute 4 played an octave higher gave a virile flute combination of Flutes 8 + 2. Closing the swell box then coupling the Bourdon to the Choir Lieblich Flute 4 and playing up an octave delivers another 8 + 2 flute combination of an entirely different character - and so on.

The Swell here lacked a 4-foot flute, but the Bourdon 16 plus Stopped Diapason 8 played up an octave was a good substitute.

The recording at St Anne's is presented twice. First, I'm using the actual Swell flute chorus at 8 and 4 foot pitches. Second, it's the Bourdon 16 plus 8-foot flute an octave higher.

Which do you think is better suited to this Christmas chorale prelude?