The deed of Montserrat Torrent: the organ of Sant Felip Neri debuts at the age of 95

In 1968 the organist Montserrat Torrent (Barcelona, ​​1926), a real reference, set out to raise money to pay for the construction of a baroque organ for Sant Felip Neri with which to offer concerts and teach his students at the Conservatori de Música de Barcelona the rich Iberian heritage. Like so many others, the original instrument perished during the Civil War. He never imagined that it would take 53 years, more than half a century, to see his dream come true. This Friday, at last, the new instrument will be blessed, baptized with the name of this impressive performer and teacher, dean of organists. At 95 years old, this Friday she will be one of the protagonists along with some of her disciples.

“I have a certain reservation because, although we inaugurated it, the organ is not finished. It is a utopia. But I hope that we will finish it because there are donations and enthusiasm,” says the dean of organists, who, despite being deaf, maintains a agile speech after reading what is asked through an app. Regrets that most of the promoters of this initiative have passed away. She and Father Antoni Serramona, head of the Parish of Sant Felip Neri, are almost the only ones left from the initial stage.

The Montserrat Torrent organ – its name is engraved on the front wood – is the last of a series of instruments that accompanied the liturgy in this neighboring parish of the Cathedral. This Baroque church, built between 1721 and 1752, has had different organs. Where the new one has been installed, before there was one of Pau Xuclà that the Civil War destroyed, like 90% of the organs of the city.

Albert Blancafort, builder of the new Sant Felip Neri instrument, has continued the project started by his father, Gabriel Blancafort (1929-2001). He has worked closely with Torrent on a project that is missing the last phase. The first was made half a century ago, when the cadereta was made, the smallest body of the organ located just behind where the organist sits. It was built with the money Torrent raised by doing concerts and looking for donations. For her it was vital to have an instrument where she could teach her students after the organ of the Palau Nacional ceased to function in 1974. “For many years the organ has only had the cadereta and I was already resigned to never seeing it finished,” she confesses. “It has been an adventure to get here, but also being a woman organist has been.”

The second stage, carried out this year in record time, has made it possible to create the main organ where the console with the three keyboards and the pedals are located. “There are three meters deep,” says the organ builder. Inside the instrument are thousands of tubes. When the organ is finished it will have 3,600 and 50 records. Now it opens with 1,500 tubes and 15 registers. Once finished there will be no gap in the sides of the instrument, the pedal towers whose tubes are operated with the feet. All the trumpets will also be placed, the horizontal tubes that have to connect with the holes that are observed in the front part.

“Everything will be ready when the third phase ends next year; if there is financing, of course,” explains Blancafort, a master organ builder in whose workshop the impressive was built. “Now, at the instrument level, we are at 50%, but at the tube level, at a third.” There is a lot of work done considering that the contract was signed on November 26 of last year. “It’s like asking a builder to build you a tower in a year. It’s not easy.. You have to work very well and in coordination to achieve it in such a short time, “he says, satisfied with the work of his team, made up of seven people.

A world of sound

Each organ is a world. It is built taking into account the space where it will be placed, the sound of the space for which it is designed and the type of repertoire. The organ builders have been tuning the new Montserrat Torrent organ for a month, a ‘beast’ of wood, lead and tin, originally designed by the Swiss Georges Lhôte and Gabriel Blancafort, father of this organ builder. “It was designed to interpret the baroque and Iberian repertoire. But in these 50 years some things have been learned and some technical modifications have been made with a commission of experts, consulting everything with Montserrat. Even the façade has changed a little with respect to the project original “, explains Blancafort.

From the Montserrat Torrent Foundation they calculate that its total cost will be around 700,000 euros. For now, 345,000 euros have been raised through private contributions, the La Caixa Foundation, administrations and the Torrent itself, which, beyond all that has been done so far, plans to allocate a part of the money awarded together with the 2021 National Music Prize. The book ‘Montserrat Torrent. La dama del orgue ‘(Ficta), by Albert Torrens, will also help raise funds with the sale of its edition in Spanish.

The Montserrat Torrent organ has a console with three manual keyboards plus the pedal that is played with the feet. Inside there are many tubes grouped by registers, families of different sounds because the bodies of the tubes have different shapes. The records allow one or the other climate to be given. “It is as if it were a painter’s palette. Each register is a color and with them different combinations can be obtained”, says Blancafort.

The first keyboard controls the cadereta, the part of the organ that remains behind the organist when he plays. The second keyboard, the middle one, controls the major organ, the main body above the organist. It is the one with the most records. “This body is different from the rest because it has split games,” says Torrent. “In the same keyboard the recording is different in the left hand and in the right, something that Iberian old music requires. Our duty is to preserve our heritage. Abroad they appreciate it, here we tend to despise what is ours”, criticizes Torrent, who has prepared a work by Correa and another by Bach for the inauguration. “I will make the most of the games out there now. A responsibility.”

This baroque organ from Sant Felip Neri is very different from the Cathedral’s universal organ, with four keyboards that Albert Blancafort’s father rebuilt in 1994, keeping the box from 1538. But you don’t have to look at the number of pipes, or the size of an organ. “What matters is the quality of the sound because there are very special and interesting small organs”, explains Blancafort.

One month tuning

The Sant Felip Neri organ has a baroque sound due to the type of registers, the measurements and its style or harmonization. “Each organ is unique and different. It is made to fulfill a function and adapts to different acoustics. If we took it to the church of Pi, it would sound different. We have spent more than a month adapting the sound to the acoustics of this place, which it is very good for the sound of the baroque organ. The wooden floor helps because it absorbs the reverberation “, points out Blancafort.

Although he has slowed down the rhythm of performances to take care of himself, Torrent, who has performed more than 1,600 concerts around the world, recognizes that Sant Felip Neri’s will be different from all of them. “It’s already heroic for me to climb the stairs to get to the organ, but this concert is also special. I’m nervous. I keep asking myself: what if I don’t live up to expectations? Should I have left it to a younger one? I stake all my prestige if I play badly and I don’t want to disappoint, “he confesses.

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She, who has dedicated her entire life to music, will continue at the foot of the canyon as long as her health allows. On December 17th he will perform at the Basilica of San Miguel in Madrid. “It is a strong program. They have been horrified to think that I am going to see them with difficult programs of Bach and Mendelssohn”.

But the concert that makes him most excited is the one that awaits him in Santa Coloma de Farners on January 2. “There I began to discover organ music, it all began there”. He started a passion that he still feeds on a daily basis by rehearsing on the small instrument he has at home. Talking to her, it is hard to believe that she is 95 years old. “Music keeps me young on the inside. On the outside I look like a scouring pad. That is why it is strange for me when they speak to me with a certain reverence. Music gives me youth and fills me. It comforts when you have problems and in moments of joy, you she gives even more. She always keeps you company, she is never a traitor. She is always by your side and gives you what you need. “