Norway tour 2019
NHOA’s overseas ‘organ crawls’ are always wonderful experiences and this year’s trip to Norway lived up to our expectations and some! My grateful thanks go to the Lloyd family for all their exceptional work creating the visit and to the team of organists (and non organists) whose com- pany I enjoyed greatly.
The trip started in beautiful Stavanger, the oil capital of Norway, founded in 1125, which being the date the building of Stavanger Cathedral was completed. The city is regularly listed as being one of the world’s most expensive (and Norway generally has a reputation of being a costly place to visit), but the city is litter free, the local population very friendly and if you avoid alcohol (!) the costs, which really aren’t that great, pale into insignificance when you appreciate the beauty surrounding you. We were all staying in the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel (now the Scandic Royal) apart from John, who had booked himself into the Radisson Blu Atlantic by mistake, but found it very convenient, being close to the railway and bus stations and having a beautiful view of Stavanger’s lake.
Old Stavanger is home to Europe’s best pre- served wooden house settlement with around 170 mainly small, white cottages dating back to the 18th century. The small size of the properties in Old Stavanger meant that they could be easily dismantled and moved should the owner want to relocate! With so much wood around, (there are over 8,000 wooden structures in Stavanger) fire was always a threat so the Valberg tower was constructed and completed by 1853. From here a watchman could alert the population of any incidents so that they could be quickly extinguished.
On the first morning we walked a mere 11 minutes to the red brick St Petri Church. This morning then saw us waiting, in very mixed weather, outside St Petri until the church was finally opened up for us. The building of this church was commenced in 1864 and is the only brick church designed by Fredrik von der Lippe. There was no organist on hand so ‘the team’ was given free rein to discover the stops for themselves. This is the 3rd organ in this church and dates back to 1977. Built by Jehmlich Orgel- bau Dresden it has 40 ranks divided between 3 manuals and pedals.
If you are a believer in the suggestion that bad dress rehearsals are a pre- requisite for a successful run, then today would have given you some fuel. We all arrived at the Domkirke and waited. And waited. This time was usefully and happily spent wandering around and admiring this glorious- building. Finished, as previously stated, in 1125, the building whose pa- tron saint is St Swithun, was the responsibility of Bishop Reinald of Win- chester and built in Anglo-Norman style. This building is the only cathe- dral from the middle ages that has kept its original architecture and also the only one in Norway in continuous use since being built. The pulpit dates back to 1658 and is a significant work by Scottish craftsman Andrew Lawrenceson Smith as are the 5 ‘epitaphs’ to be found in the nave and aisle.
After around 40 minutes, a small Mander organ near the pulpit was opened up for us to play and finally the main organ was available. The apologetic organist Ivan Sarajishvili finally appeared, having been unaware that we were coming, and even he said the acoustic was very ‘dry’. he was charming and most apologetic and revelled in his wonderfully lit and beautiful sounding main organ.
Wednesday dawned very wet, but the forecast was for sunshine. For one group that meant a trip along a fjord. This was spectacular. We knew it would be, but it still managed to exceed our expecta- tions. Lyesfjord is 42 kilometres long and is 422 metres deep, brim full of wildlife and ridiculously impressive scenery including Pulpit Rock some 600 metres above us.
The other group made the complicated journey to Stokka Kirke using various modes of transport and with different arrival times. This was the first ‘WhatsApp’ tour for NHOA, a unifying device providing happy ex- changes of photos and anecdotes and also warnings of trouble with transport and venues. Some of the group arrived early to find the church organist in full flow with a Bach praeludium, singing lustily, coffee cup on the side, who then said, “Now for the crazy fugue”. Such hosts are one of the great joys of our trips. In near perfect English he asked us, “What is the meaning of enthusiasm?” Well, he embodied it! He still chatted to us outside in the rain as we left the church.
That afternoon, the whole group reassembled for a visit to St Johannes Kirke, hosted by Edgar Hansen, who plied us all with coffee. The white plastered brick church dates from 1909 and is in an area that was involved in the old canning and ship building industries. At that time, a small organ with some 19 stops was fitted, but the current organ in this building was finally completed in 2010. 10 stops were preserved from the old cathedral organ and were fitted to this instrument.
Stavanger is a compact city with almost everywhere within a reasonable walk, so we wandered, in lovely sunny weather, to the Konserthus. We were met by organist Nils Henrik Asheim who explained that this building was officially opened in 2012. There are 2 concert halls here one being an orchestra hall and the other a 1700 seat multi purpose hall both being totally separated from one another, so no sound can travel between the 2 should both be in use at the same time. We headed for the wonderful 1500 seat maple wood concert hall, where even the balconies are free mounted to assist the acoustics. There are 2 consoles in this hall, one being on the stage and moveable if required and 1 above.
On Thursday morning it poured with rain as we made the trip to Sandnes, which is immediately to the south of Stavanger. The train journey to Sandnes takes around 20 minutes and thanks to Rob and his sat nav some 8 of us had a seamless journey to Sandnes central and then on to Bus route 42 followed by a short walk to Lura Kirke. The same cannot be said for others in our party and the rain certainly did not make life any easier for them. We were welcomed warmly by Viggo Fagerjord, the organist who luckily was already at the church, thus saving us having to find somewhere to wait as we were 45 minutes early.
Lura church looks and feels incredibly modern and indeed it is, having been built in 1987 using locally made Sandnes bricks The early arrivals thoroughly enjoyed taking the organ through its paces whilst the non organists sent WhatsApp messages to help the absentees locate us.
The following day, some of us flew and others went by train to enjoy the scenery (and I do mean enjoy) to Oslo.
Oslo, Norway’s capital is close to the country’s southern coast and lies at the head of the Oslofjord. Founded in 1049 by King Harald Hardrade, but recent archaeological research has discovered Christian burials dating back before 1000. Hakon V was the first king to live in the city and he commenced the building of the Akershus Fortress and renamed the city Christiana. Having spent a while re-spelt as Kristiana, the city was re- establised as Oslo in 1925. It’s a small city with a population of around 1 million (London is estimated at 9 million) so Rob and I managed to navi- gate our way around it mostly without using the very clean public trans- port system and with grateful thanks to the previously mentioned Mr Google.
The walk to Paulus Kirke was one filled with the smell of new tarmac and roadworks everywhere. The local bus service was diverted almost beyond comprehension, but those catching public transport somehow made it to this 1892 church with a pretty square in front of it, where the early arrivals were able to soak up the sun on this lovely day. Designed by a 23 year old from Berlin, who won a competition to design it, it has the unusual feature of the altar in the West and the porch in the East. It was designed thus to enable it to open out onto the aforementioned park. A total renovation was carried out on this church in 2014-17 and much has been reconstructed by using old photographs. The organ was built by Albert Hollenbach in 1892, expanded in 1922 and again extended in 1943 by Josef Hilmar Jorgensen. It was restored in 2010 by Karl Schuke Berliner Orgelhauen and a wrougth iron organ screen designed by Jorgensen was finally put in place having been a ‘cost too far’ in 1943. This organ proved verypopular to play amongst our group and it sounded wonderful too.
Frogner church built in 1907, was designed by Ivar Naess who also carved the pulpit and altar out of clay stone. This church is integrated into the surrounding row of buildings, but stands out from them thanks to tits granite facade. We feared we might have had to leave Richard here for the rest of our trip as the sound from the organ in this building was the finest of the trip thus far (luckily, he remained with the group or he would have missed Tronheim cathedral). Paul Whewell drew my attention to a quite extraordinary discovery. There were heaters underneath the wooden seats and the heating was on! Suddenly, I realised Richard’s wisdom of wishing to wtay here, but as the wather was still being exceptionally kind to us,. there was no huge reason to remain on this day.
We then visited Gamle Aker Kirke built in between 1150 -1170, (and Oslo’s oldest remaining building) which allegedly sits over the former Akerberg silver mines. Wonderful legends abound about the church hav- ing hidden silver treasures and dungeons containing dragons. We looked for both and found nothing, the former being a sad loss, the latter a relief.
The church has a sad history of fires and of being pillaged. It was a ruin in the 1850’s and was almost taken down, when it was restored by Schirmer and Von Hanno in 1861. It was restored again in 1950-55 and all the interior plaster was removed from the walls thus creating the dark grey church we see today (see page 12). Now the thinking is that the removal of the white plaster did not take the interior back to its original form. The floor is now made of slate and replaces an older wooden floor which in turn replaced an ‘asphalt’ floor. (I was reminded of Mr Tipple, who we had the great fortune to meet whilst on our Gloucester trip. No carpets here!) One odd, but interesting snippet the organist told us was that Queen Maud’s (the English queen of King Haakon VII) sarcophagus was hidden from the Nazis here, in this church during WW2.
Monday morning saw us at St Edmund’s Anglican Church where some 33 nations are represented in the congregation. Anglican services have been held in Oslo since the 1850s. The foundation stone for this church was laid in 1883 by the British Minister from Stockholm with the church opening in 1884. Queen Maud (see above) was a member of the congrega- tion here until her death in 1937. The church closed in 1940 as a result of the Nazi invasion, but was re-opened as soon Norway was liberated in May 1945. A replacement organ is being considered for the church and Harrison and Harrison have been over to look at the current instrument with a view possibly to relict some of the pipes in amongst a number of ideas. Rob and Geoff played Nola and one has to ask whether this is the first time a duet has been played on one of our overseas trips! Some singing followed: we all (or most of us) sang Ubi Caritas by Duruflé and some hymns.
That afternoon we visited Sweden or at least the Svenska Margaret- kyrkan. This was completed in 1925 and named after Swedish crown princess Margareta, married to the crown prince who became King Gustav VI Adolf of Sweden in 1950. The church stands close to a government building which in 2011 was attacked by a person whose name I refuse to see in print. I believe that remembering the names of terrorists gives them a per- verse immortality and the sooner their names perish, the better. Only one of the church windows is original, the others having been destroyed by the bombing attack, but the new windows are based on the originals.
Hanging from the ceiling is a very fine model ship which took me back to another fabulous trip with NHOA, that being to Copenhagen and Sweden, where most churches had this lovely feature.
Equally lofted is one of this church’s two organs, rather hidden in the western gallery, built by E.A. Setterquist and Son, Orebo, in 1925. The second organ, which is baroque rather than romantic, was built in 2016 by Tomaz Mocnik from Slovenia.
Our final morning in Oslo was spent at Valerenga Kirke which was a very pleasant uphill walk away from the city centre. Seven of us made the trip either on foot or by public transport, the remaining four opting to fit in a few of the Oslo sights before we all caught the train either to the airport or to Trond-heim. Standing prettily on a hill, Valerenga Kirke was rebuilt in 1979 after the 100 year old building was almost totally destroyed thanks to a fire with only the stone outer walls remaining. We went into the large organ ‘loft’ and not into the main body of the church and the building can be remembered by using one word. Pink. The pews are pink as is the organ.
We said goodbye to Frances and Paul Whewell who were returning home while the rest of us set off to catch a train to Trondheim. This journey causes one to run out of superlatives. On a sunny day such as we enjoyed on Tuesday 27th August 2019, this was a journey to savour and remember and I believe I had to be peeled away from the window when we reached Trondheim!
Wednesday morning was spent at Var Frue Kirke, the oldest part of which dates back to the 12th Century and endured fires in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. It was restored in 1739, the tower was built in 1742 and the spire added in 1779. The 1740’s altarpiece was originally carved for the nearby Nidaros cathedral and transferred here in 1837.
Strinda Kirke is a lovely, if lengthy, walk away from central Trondheim and on yet another beautiful sunny day, the views became better and better the further/ higher we walked. The white, wooden church was built in 1900 and seats about 500 people. Inside the walls are all wooden and another lovely ship hangs from the ceiling. An older organ once stood in the northern transept, but this proved unpopular. The contract for this instrument was signed in 1929 and it was used for the big St Olaf celebrations in 1930.
That evening we made it into Nidarosdomen or Trondheim cathedral. This visit had not been finalised before we left the UK and had been written in as “a visit to Nidarosdomen will be possible one evening during our stay”. Well, here we were and this was my first organ ‘lock-in’. And so began a truly extraordinary experience.
Trondheim cathedral is built over the burial site of king Olav II, the patron saint of Norway and is the northernmost mediaeval cathedral in the world. It was almost totally destroyed in 1708 and struck by lightening in 1719 and both times only the stone walls remained standing. Major rebuilding took place in 1869 and this was only officially completed in 2001 with more works still ongoing. The gorgeous west front was entirely restored between 1905 and 1983, the largest art project in Norway’s history and only five of the statues date from the middle ages (not that you can tell when gazing at the front so good is the restoration).
There are two organs in this building one being a beautiful and somewhat anomalous Joachim Wagner old baroque organ situated in the gallery in the north transept.
The second organ is a truly extraordinary monster. It is one of the largest cathedral organs in Europe and recently substantially rebuilt by Kuhn Organ builders ltd. It had suffered over the years after a series of moves within the building, a reduction in the number of stops and from the damp. In 2012, Kuhn sent a significant portion of the instrument to their workshop in Switzerland and by 2014 the organ was repaired and ready for use again. With pipes all the way down the nave, the sound from this organ is all embracing and this evening of music is one I shall never forget. We finally left the building after 9pm, the sun had recently set and our host said that it wouldn’t be long until there were only about 5 hours of daylight each day.
Indeed, one could feel Autumn approaching as was the end of this glorious trip to Norway. Pathos indeed.
On Thursday afternoon we went to the NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) Department of Music. In 2002, the Trondheim Conservatory of Music (established as a private music school in 1911) and the Department of Musicology (which was founded in 1962) were merged into a single department. Nor- way follows the international trend of not having enough organists and the department currently has 5 bachelor students and 1 masters student, these figures down from 10 – 15 people studying the organ. The building we were greeted in is a mock-up church, not good for speech acoustics, using two floors of the building to give it the height required. The main organ used is a Cavaille-Coll copy built by Swedish organ builders Lund with the 3 manuals students need and fits within the organs available generally in Trondheim.
On our final morning we met at Ilen Kirke to see and hear the organ there. I noticed again the heaters under the seats and wished that I had made a note of all the churches with this feature that we had visited. The instrument is one of the most historic organs in Norway and recently restored (2017) to its original state. The church and its organ date from 1889. The building seats some 550 people, down from its original 900, reduced to meet fire regulations.
During our visit to the NTNU the Ilen Kirke organ had been referred to as a ‘gem’, which it certainly was. It made a fitting conclusion to our Norwegian visit.
Notes by Jane Jacobs and organists who played the instruments
