Landsberg's famous personality: the organ in the Assumption of the Virgin Mary

Created: 01/15/2022, 08:00

By: Susanne Greiner

Has accompanied the complete conversion of the organ: the Landsberg organist Johannes Skudlik in the Landsberg parish church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.

© Greiner

Landsberg – The Lechstadt has a famous personality in its midst: the organ of the parish church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.

It is one of the most important organs in Europe - since 2003, when it was completely rebuilt.

In fact, it was downsized.

But not in the sound: since the renovation, it has become far more diverse and almost unique.

One reason for this is the register 'Tuba mirablis', the 'wonderful tuba'.

Anyone who opens the inconspicuous door to the organ gallery in the parish church is greeted by a narrow spiral corridor.

You can only go up one at a time – it takes time for a whole choir to stand up, says the Landsberg organist Johannes Skudlik.

For concerts, however, one or the other double bass and harp have already overcome the tight windings.

If you go up there while the organ is being played, you will not only feel the sound on your own body: the thick stone walls also vibrate with the deep registers.

"But don't worry, it was tested twice to see if the statics hold up," assures Skudlik.

A whole orchestra

The word organ comes from the Greek word organon. That means, among other things, “instrument” – with which the organ becomes an instrument in itself. This is justified by the numerous registers that imitate a wide variety of instruments and make the organ almost the counterpart of an orchestra. But they also give the instrument a diverse and always different sound. That is why she is not only credited with having the longest breath in the world: in a letter to his father, Mozart even called her “the queen of instruments”.

Over the centuries, the Landsberg organ has been rebuilt again and again.

Today, however, behind the organ prospectus from 1688 with the figures from the Luidl workshop is a modern instrument: Gerhard Schmid from Kaufbeuren completely redesigned the existing instrument in 1983.

However, the second gallery had to be demolished for this.

Not an easy undertaking, as the places for dignitaries with name tags also disappeared.

"Before, the organ was really stuck directly under the ceiling," Skudlik recalls, pointing up to a small door that opens up into nothingness at a dizzy height: the former entrance to the organ gallery.

The former entrance to the organ gallery when the second gallery still existed.

It was demolished for the new organ in 1983.

© Greiner

However, the organ that was redesigned in the early 1980s did not meet the standards of the time, according to Skudlik. "When I started here in 1979, the organ had already been planned and commissioned." As early as the 1980s, the Landsberg organist was able to bring famous musicians to Landsberg for his organ concerts. And they also had some suggestions for improving the instrument. Before Skudlik could carry out the new conversion, he had to do some convincing. Only in 2001 did the complete reconstruction of the organ begin, and it was completed in 2003.

The Landsberg organist accompanied the conversion.

Traveled to England and Spain with the commissioned organ builder Siegfried Schmid from Immenstadt to engage in "factory espionage", as Skudlik ironically calls it: In both countries, special pipes were photographed and measured so that they could then be exactly rebuilt.

In London, the Willis tubas of St. Paul's Cathedral were the inspiration, but in Seville too, the measurements were taken from "Voix humaine pipes" in the Cavaillé-Coll organ in San Vincente.

The reproduction of the pipes was entrusted to none other than Georg Jann, the builder of the Munich Cathedral organ (who died in 2019), who had already settled in Portugal at the time.

The Landsberger 'Queen' is quite international.

And their sound has been softer since the conversion.

The »Wonderful Tuba«

This is how the Landsberg organ came to be part of the 'Tuba Mirabilis' – and for a long time was the only instrument in Germany that had this high-pressure register. Only recently has Cologne Cathedral followed suit, says Skudlik, and sits down at the console to demonstrate the 'wonderful tuba': the high pressure is right. The clear and quite loud sound of up to 120 decibels is reminiscent of Jerichow's trumpets. One of the reasons why Skudlik only pulls this register when the church is full. And also the reason why earplugs are the means of choice when tuning the organ.

"Since the conversion, the organ has left nothing to be desired," says Skudlik, summing up the new concept. It has been perfected over the years in many discussions with colleagues and famous guest organists. "Now the organ has everything you need" - even if, with its 68 registers, it has around 22 fewer than before. With each of the four manuals Skudlik can cover four and a half octaves, with the pedals two. The secret for loud and quiet lies, among other things, in the "box", as Skudlik calls the swell, the building under the pipes of the main organ in the middle. There are slat blinds that can be controlled with a pedal - and thus let more or less decibels into the open air.

Next to the main organ are the two positives, the 'outbuildings' equipped with smaller pipes. And in front of the back wall of the church, covered by a cloth, hides the 32-foot register with pipes up to eight meters long that reach almost to the ceiling. As with the smallest tubes, their sound can hardly be heard - but can be clearly felt.

Of course there are larger instruments, but "here in the parish church the unity of instrument, space and acoustics is almost perfect". Unlike in the Munich Cathedral. There is a reverberation of twelve seconds. “Bach becomes a soup. You can hear everything very clearly here.” Another advantage of the Landsberg organ: the console is not directly below the main organ, but a good three meters in front of it. “So the organist can hear the sound. In other churches it often flies over the player.” Skudlik is convinced that this harmony of space and instrument is certainly one of the reasons for the success of the organ concerts. Because every organist that Skudlik brings from the big world to the small organ town of Landsberg is blown away.

Next year, Skudlik will be celebrating his 50th anniversary as an organist in the service of the church, 43 of them in Landsberg. He gave Landsberg the name "Organ City" by initiating the international organ competition "Orgelstadt Landsberg" in cooperation with the BR in 2005, which included organ concerts throughout the city. Because there is also a rare instrument in the Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche, an original baroque organ from 1756. In the Ursulinenklosterkirche you will find a late-Romantic organ by Heinrich Koulen, according to Skudlik the best organ builder of the 19th and early 20th centuries. In the evangelical church there is a Jann organ - who copied the tuba mirabilis for the parish church - and in Heilig Engel there is an organ from the well-known organ building workshop Sandter. Skudlik hosts numerous major concert events,at which the Landsberg organ was always prominently represented, for example the Vienna Night 2004, at which two organists improvised in parallel in Vienna's St. Stephen's Cathedral and in the Assumption of the Virgin Mary via video transmission. And his Landsberg Organ Summers are popular all over the world.

The inauguration

Because Johannes Skudlik was closely involved in the conversion of the Landsberg organ, he was also able to test individual construction steps directly.

For him, there is no such thing as a “first play” on the completed organ, he has more or less “grown into it”.

But he still remembers the gala concert soirée for the inauguration of the instrument on September 20, 2003. Saint Saens, Kodály, Bruckner were played, and various soloists were also present, along with the Landsberg Vocal Ensemble and the Landsberg Oratorio Choir.

The title of the concert?

Of course "The Coronation of the Queen".