Orgelbau Th. Kuhn AG, 1998
Restoration
www.orgelbau.ch/ope=801080
II/P/19
Austria, Lower Austria
Piaristenkirche
The organ of the Piarist Church - a true restoration
A good century after the organ builder Capek from Krems built a new organ in the old case in the Piarist Church, a very sad picture faced those who saw the instrument. That the health of the organ no longer that what it once was had certainly been evident to the listener for some time. The German idiom «es pfeife etwas aus dem letzen Loch» («it's piping something from the last hole») certainly sounds very disrespectful, but when applied to an organ could be quite fitting. Perhaps this saying even originates from the organ scene, just as does «pulling out all the stops» or «standing there like organ pipes».
Taken literally, this saying was, however, not strictly applicable to the condition of our organ here in the Piarist Church. It piped something out of many holes, but mostly not out of those which it actually should! On top of this the holes had multiplied, which was attributed to the woodworm.
Pulling out all the stops was certainly not to be recommended as the wind was no longer sufficient and the sound was accordingly woeful.
Even the organ pipes no longer stood as one would imagine. Many were slanting because they hadn't been secured properly, some were bent or had even fallen over.
Beside these «proverbial» forms of damage, the technical condition of many components was the greatest cause for concern. The keyboards and stop shanks were very worn, also in the bearings. The playability of the organ was very limited due to the poor condition of its mechanical systems (wear of the materials, corrosion and irregularity of many components, lack of maintenance). On top of this came problems with the windchests caused by poor construction and materials. The state of the case was also very questionable. In the middle section the front had sunk backwards by a considerable amount. The stability of the back wall was here too weak and the sinking led to tears in the wooden connectors.
This appears to be a very negative image of an organ. One would perhaps even ask whether it was actually worth restoring such an instrument. «Why certainly!» we organ restorers would reply. Capek's organ was, in fact, practically original. A stroke of luck, when compared with many other instruments. With numerous modified instruments which have undergone many alterations often the only possible solution is a reconstruction. Objectively seen, this is often closer to the construction of a completely new instrument than a restoration of the old organ. Here in Krems, however, it meant re-using all the old components and making them functional once again.
The only compromise we had to make was the inclusion of new tin pipes in the façade as the original ones had to be given up in 1917 (as was the case practically everywhere in Austria during the First World War). Afterwards they had been replaced by zinc pipes. Luckily, though, the smaller old pipes in the façade had been preserved, so we had examples on which we could base the new pipes. A second missing rank was the Flöte 4 ' in Manual II. After we had received a catalogue of all Capek's organs from Prof. Karl Schütz of Vienna, we were able to find existing and appropriate Flöte 4 ' stops and ascertain the correct scale for the organ in Krems. It was certainly more than a lucky stroke that an original Flöte 4 ' from Capek would actually be available to be incorporated into the Krems organ. Due to the planned construction of a new organ in Loiben the following year, we were able to obtain its Flöte 4 ' rank.
It can certainly be said that after the restoration we can now experience the organ exactly as it was when Capek first built it in 1893. Through this it has become a true document and cultural artefact of the region. Special thanks is due to the Piarist community and all those who helped preserve the instrument, since the restoration involved considerable material expense.