DESCRIPTION:
Presentation of Interesting Great Organs of Malmö, Sweden
Guide and Organist: Robert Bennesh

Page-turner and Register assistant: Maja Malmström

Filmed and edited by: Marcus Thernström Florin, Mattias Thernström Florin

Passacaglia in d minor, BuxWV 161
Chorale variations on Vater unser im Himmelreich, BuxWV 207
by Dietrich Buxtehude (c. 1637-1707)

Recorded in August 2012

The history of the organ:

After the review of archive documents by Ingrid Larsson Hultkvist in 1995 and 2007 we know:

* that there was an organist in the Church of St Peter in 1532;
* that maintenance work was done on the organ's bellows in 1555;
* that Master Jøren (from Pommern, Germany) maid a bigger effort on the organ in 1579 (was the rückpositif added? -- it is mentioned in some sources by this time);
* that the organ often was maintained until Hans organmaker 1596-98 made an extensive
repair(?). Probably the organbuilders name is Hans Brebos;
* that the contract of maintenance signed the 7th of April 1639 by Baltzer Scheuper orgelbauer (who in some way had been subordinate of Johann Lorenz, the priviliged organ builder to the Danish king) refer to the work done in 1597, but mostly is about the six new bellows, a new tremulant and a new stop in the positif, a Skalmeja;
* that Frietzschs reconstruction in 1660-61 although meant a new instrument both in terms of timbre and technique, but with use of almost the same disposition as before, parts of the old pipework and continued use of the gothic case;
* that the organ then was repaired in 1682 (Nette), 1726 (Botzen) and several further occasions before it was sold.

We already knew that:

* the Great and Pedal divisions of the instrument were sold to the Parish of Genarp in 1800 and that the Rückpositif was sold at the same time to the Parish of Drängsered in Halland;
* we have not heard anything about the original Rückpositif since 1867 when the Parish of Drängsered bought a new organ;
* Axel Boberg, the organist in St Peter's Church rediscovered the old organ in Genarp some time during the 1910s;
* the City of Malmö bought the organ from the Parish of Genarp in 1937 to place it in the
newbuilt museum adjacent to the old castle, Malmöhus;
* the Danish organ builder Theodor Frobenius got the assignment to renovate the instrument at it's new location, which was done in 1941.

The organ builder Mads Kjersgaard raised the air pressure from 45 to 60 mm VP, tuned the organ in mean-tone and replaced the mixture from Frobenius in the great with a newmade in the end of the 1990s.