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Montserrat Torrent Organ

 

 

The organ of Sant Felip Neri is the project of a great Baroque-inspired instrument for Barcelona where the Iberian and Baroque repertoire can be taught and interpreted.

It was started in 1967 by the organ builders Gabriel Blancafort and Georges Lhôte under the supervision of Montserrat Torrent. Of that project, only the Positive and the pedal towers were built, with construction halted due to lack of funding.

Fifty years later construction has been reactivated and the Blancafort workshop has resumed the project with the advice of the organists of the Fundació Bernat Bailbé and Juan de la Rubia, and again under the supervision of Montserrat Torrent herself.

The experience of this year has invited us to make some adjustments to the original project such as the design of the facade, the placement of the console which is now a window position, the reduction of the number of split registers, the location of the third keyboard at the back the major organ and some changes to the arrangement of registers.

In tribute to our illustrious organist, the instrument has been renamed the Montserrat Torrent Organ, and will be used to deploy a wide educational and cultural program.

The execution of the project has been divided into two phases:
With the first phase, the organ will have the 1st keyboards. 1st Positive, 2nd Major organ with a total of 15 registers and 1,107 pipes.
In the second phase, the entire projected organ with 49 registers and 3,481 pipes will be completed, completing the 11 registers of the Major Organ, 2 in the Positive, the 11 in Pedal, building the entire third manual “Ecos” and incorporating a combiner of stops.

 

The first phase of the organ was inaugurated on December 3, 2021 by Montserrat Torrent herself, in an act in which the organ was blessed by Cardinal Juan José Omella and attended by Miquel Iceta, Minister of Culture of the Government of Spain, and Mrs. Natalia Garriga, Minister of Culture of the Generalitat de Catalunya.