Restoration of St. Stephen’s Basilica Pipe Organ Underway

Organ builder István Süveges and his team of five have been working on the renovation of the organ at Budapest’s St. Stephen Basilica since November last year. The instrument, built almost 120 years ago, has undergone several rebuilds, but previous changes have never been fully integrated, writes kultura.hu.

The organ was originally built in 1905 by the renowned Hugarian organ builder, József Angster, who had his training in France, under Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, the pioneer of the romantic era French organ building. At the time, the original 65-register, three-manual organ was the largest in Hungary. Later, Angster added a fourth manual. In 1938, the Rieger organ factory rebuilt the entire instrument.

Mr. Süveges notes that the organ shows signs of water damage, possibly from World War II when the window above it was likely broken. Glass fragments are still being vacuumed out, and the wood bears traces of water damage. It was around this time that electricity was introduced to the instrument, replacing the original pneumatic mechanism.

“The pneumatic system had a significant flaw,” Süveges explains. “When an organist pressed a key, it would take a few tenths of a second for the sound to be produced, causing a noticeable delay. The conversion to an electrically controlled organ in the 1930s eliminated this delay.”

Although the instrument was repaired during the basilica’s almost 20-year restoration that ended in 2003, it has not gone under significant work since. The last major restoration was nearly 30 years ago.

Currently, the team is addressing several issues: cleaning parts that haven’t been accessed for 125 years, replacing disintegrated leather components due to a tanning error, updating the entire internal electrical system, replacing outdated textile-insulated wires, restoring mechanical parts, conducting complete intonation and tuning of the pipes.

István Süveges and his team are in constant consultation with András Gábor Virágh, the basilica’s chief organist. So far, the work appears to be progressing well. The restoration is expected to take another year to complete.

Via kultura.hu; Featured Image: Wikipedia