The Russian violinist and orchestra conductor Vladimir Spivakov, who heads Moscow's House of Music, said in an interview with the Novye Izvestia daily that he regarded the organ's inauguration, to take place tonight, as an event of national significance.
The organ, as large as a five-story apartment block (14 meters high, 10 meters wide, 3.5 meters deep, and weighing 30 tons), took several years for German masters to build. The instrument was dismantled and loaded on sea trawlers to get to Moscow and then reassembled at the Music House's Svetlanov Hall. "The king of instruments" has cost the city 2,200,000 euros in total.
Until now, Muscovites could hear live organ music only at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall. Almost all other of the city's organs are presently in desperate need of repairs. Highlighting what he sees as an event of nationwide importance, Spivakov said: "All this is being done for Russia and will remain in Russia. Suffice it to say that Jean Guillou, whose art is today recognized as the benchmark of organ music performance, has promised to come along to our first organ music festival."
A couple of weeks ago, the wonder instrument was assessed by musicians from Russia, Lithuania and the United Kingdom, including by Professor Gillian Weir of the Royal Academy of Music.
Admittedly, though, the new organ is not the world's largest. A counterpart in Atlantic City has 30,000 pipes, against the Russian giant's 6,000. But this latter boasts 84 registers, including such exotic ones as Rossignol (the French word for "nightingale") and Clochette (or "small bell").
