A.G.Ritter - Sonata in D Minor no.1

Ádám Kiss plays the 2 manual 20 stop organ in Hammarland´s church (Åland Islands) built by Frans Andersson (1862/1865) and Paschen Kiel Orgelbau (2023)
I quote the description of the organ from the Finnish journal "Organum". The author of the article is Helmuth Gripentrog who was together with Kalevi Mäkinen the voicer and sound-designer of the current organ.


"The new organ was inaugurated in Hammarland's church on October 7th, 2023. Thus ended an impressive project in Finnish and Swedish organ history. The project is about two historic organs that were united in an exciting way and resulted in the revival of a lost tonal world.

In 1862, the organ builder Frans Andersson from Stockholm (son of the well-known Swedish organ builder Gustaf Andersson) built a new two-manual organ with 20 stops for Vörå church in Ostrobothnia. This instrument was rebuilt and pneumatized in 1909, but without being much revoiced. In 1966 the organ was replaced by a new instrument, built by Grönlund's organ workshop in Sweden. Contrary to common practice, the pipework from the old organ was not scrapped, but stored in the former peasant's cottage of the rectory.

In 1865, the same Frans Andersson built a new one-manual organ with 12 stops for the church in Hammarland on the Finnish Island of Åland/Ahvenanmaa. In 1977 organ builder Hans Heinrich built a new organ where he used the historic organ case incl. façade and (mute) front pipes. When the congregation in Hammarland decided to once again invest in a new instrument, organ consultant Stefan Lönnquist was called in as an organ expert. He knew about the Vörå organ's stored Frans Andersson pipes and came up with the idea of using the historical pipes from Vörå for the new organ in Hammarland.

After a careful examination of the pipes in Vörå, it was decided that the parish of Hammarland will buy the historic pipes. The organ builder workshop Paschen Kiel from Germany was commissioned to build the new organ based on Andersson's style of building organs. Andersson's stored stops in Vörå were fairly complete. Only the Trumpet 8’ was missing (it had been replaced already in 1909), as well as a few individual pipes from other stops. Since the Vörå organ was significantly larger than the instrument in Hammarland, Paschen organ builders had to enlarge the back part of the case in length and width. The 24 largest wooden pipes of Borduna 16’ did not fit and were replaced with new pipes of smaller measures. Thus, the new two-manual organ with pedal is almost complete with Andersson's pipework, except for the mentioned 24 pipes in Borduna 16’, a new Trumpet 8’ and a new Oboe 8’, as well as two supplementary pipes for each manual stop and five supplementary pipes for the pedal stops, because Hammarland’s manual- and the pedal compass exceeds the Vörå organ compass.

The church in Vörå is much larger than the church in Hammarland and there was a slight fear that Andersson's original sound might be too loud. But the acoustics in Hammarland's church were perfectly suited for the Vörå pipes and no major revoicing was required during the tonal work in the church.

Thus, the organ represents an authentic historical sound and is the only existing two-manual organ by Frans Andersson. Of particular interest is the pedal stop Tuba 16', which has free reeds, resulting in a softer sound."

Specification

I. Manual C-g'''

1 Borduna 16' C-h° new, treble Frans Andersson

2 Principal 8' F. A.

3 Gedackt 8' F. A.

4 Gamba 8' F. A.

5 Octav 4' F. A.

6 Quinta 3' F. A.

7 Octava 2' F. A.

8 Cornet III F. A.

9 Trumpet 8' new

II. Manual Swell C-g'''

10 Basetthorn 8' F.A.

11 Tvärnflöjt 8' F.A.

12 Fugara 8' F. A.

13 Fleut 4' F.A.

14 Spetsfleut 2' F.A., with some new complementary pipes

15 Oboe 8' new

Pedal C-f'

16 Subbas 16' F. A.

17 Cello 8' F. A.

18 Gedackt 8' F. A.

19 Octav 4' F. A.

20 Tuba 16' F.A. (free reed)

Couplers: II/I; I/P; II/P; I/4'; II/4'