Saturday, August 19, 2006

The Cahman Organ

This organ was built by Johan Niclas Cahman in 1728 and is located in Lövstabruk in northern Uppland. It is today in almost the same state as it was from the beginning, with it´s entire registry of 28 voices intact. The recent restauration, completed in 2006, has left it in a splendid condition and it is considered as one of Sweden´s finest historical organs.
I drove up to hear it in person, and it was well worth it. Tonight´s concert was held as part of "The Cahman Days", an annual celebration of the instrument. Remarkably, this event went down last year as well, despite the organ being unplayable due to it´s restauration.
On tonight´s program were composers like Buxtehude, Picchi, Reincken, Bach; not all well-known but worthy of sounding the pipes. The able musician was Magnus Kjellson.
The organ´s sound was like candy or cute puppies - impossible not to fall in love with. At the end we cheered "Come on, more Cahman!"... (nah, I just made that up)