Sonus Paradisi – Litomysl V.2, Vladimir Grygar 2001

Litomysl organ

Litomysl is a beautiful town in Eastern Bohemia, practically on the border with Moravia. It is widely known as the birthplace of one of the most outstanding Czech composers: Bedřich Smetana (1824-1884). Although he was celebrated as a pianist and composer of opera and orchestral music, he also left several smaller works for organ (6 preludes, 1 fugue, 1 chorale).

If we talk about more distant history, it is famous for its Renaissance castle, where the original Baroque theatre has been preserved and still functions. Every year, a summer festival called “Smetanová Litomyšl” takes place there.

Organ in the Church of the Holy Cross

Little is known about the organs in the Church of the Holy Cross in those early times. There was a late Baroque instrument by František Pavel Horák (1723-1822), built in 1780. It had two manuals and a pedal with a total of 22 registers.

Later it was completely rebuilt in 1902 by Josef Kobrle (1851-1919). The old organ, in its pure Baroque style, seemed out of step with the fashion of the early 20th century. Kobrle’s instrument bore the hallmarks of the “romantic” or symphonic organ that was in demand at the time.

It also had 2 manuals with 22 registers, like the previous instrument, but the brilliant aliquots and high mixtures were replaced by registers with lower sounds in a variety of colors: flute, strings, reeds.

A hundred years later, the way we evaluate the quality of an organ has changed again. We now admire the brilliance of the baroque sound, we like the logic of the WerkPrinzip hierarchy, but at the same time we do not want to lose the variety of romantic registers of color. Therefore, many organ manufacturers tend to prefer large organs with a large variety of registers to meet the needs of all musical styles. Well, the purity of style is lost, but the advantages of the “universal” organ seem to prevail.

With this in mind, Vladimir Grygar (whose company is well known in many countries around the world for its craftsmanship) built a completely new organ in the Church of the Holy Cross. The work was completed only in 2001. The new instrument has 4 manuals and 51 registers (not counting the couplings and other assistants).