The Pipe Organs of Vilnius

The present organ in Vilnius Cathedral dates back to 1859 when it was moved here from the closed Church of the Virgin Mary, the Comforter. A few decades later, the organ underwent several major rebuilds. Parts of it were also used in the 49-voice organ rebuilt in 1969 at the Cathedral (which was the Picture Gallery at that time).  

Organ concerts at the Picture Gallery on Sundays attracted crowds of listeners. Prof. Leopoldas Digrys, the initiator of the construction of the organ, said that the organ music played in this sacred place, which the Soviets had turned into a museum, was a kind of spiritual resistance to their ideology. People attending the concerts could concentrate or pray without fear of being photographed by the secret police or authorities.

There is another organ in the Cathedral Basilica; a small five-voice positive organ is located in the Chapel of St Casimir. In the 1960s, this portable organ, which could be carried from place to place without being taken to pieces, was loaded onto a truck and travelled all around Lithuania with Prof. Digrys and the ‘concert brigade’. Before the arrival of the great organ, this organ was also used in the organ music classes organised by L. Digrys at the then Picture Gallery. 

The magnificent organ at Vilnius University in the Church of St John the Baptist and St John the Apostle and Evangelist, to give it its full name, is said to be the largest in Lithuania. The 64-register or 64-stop instrument consists of about 4,000 metal and wooden pipes arranged over three levels. 

The Baroque instrument came to Vilnius in 1836 from the Jesuit church in Polotsk, which had been closed. Scholars disagree on who was the creator of the organ in Polotsk; it is possible that it was built by the famous organ builder Adam Gottlieb Casparini from Königsberg or Nicolaus Jantzon from Vilnius. 

Dr Vidas Pinkevičius and Dr Aušra Motūzaitė-Pinkevičienė, organists of the VU Culture Centre, tell us that the instrument was first played in St Johns’ Church in 1840 by the famous Polish composer Stanisław Moniuszko. The bust of the composer looking into the church from the choir loft bears witness to this. 

At the end of the 19th century, the organ was rebuilt again by the famous organ builder Juozapas Radavičius (Józef Rodowicz). ‘This instrument became famous throughout the region,’ says Pinkevičius. However, World War II silenced its sound. In 1948, the church was destroyed and closed. ‘The soldiers looted everything and took away all the valuables. The organ’s façade was left without the main pipes, and the inside of the organ was broken with soldiers’ boots,’ says A. Motūzaitė-Pinkevičienė about the damage caused by the invaders. 

The condition of the organ at St. John’s Church was only brought to the fore as the university’s 400th anniversary approached. 

On that occasion, the church, which belongs to the University, was renovated, and the VU Museum was established there. The first step was to restore the instrument in the Oginski Chapel. 

The façade of the great organ, completed in 1974, has been restored to its pre-war green colour and baroque splendour. The restoration of the instrument itself took 17 years (1983–2000). Some of the old pipes were used in its construction, and two of the old acoustic drum pipes were retained; everything else was built from scratch. 

The organ’s wide repertoire is enhanced by the church’s exceptional acoustics. The performers say that the sound reverberates in the room for 6 seconds. At night, when there is no street noise, the sound lasts even longer. For this reason, the organ music is recorded at night, when the city is silent.  

The small, modestly shaped Church of the Holy Cross was known as a cultural space during the Soviet era, with the establishment of the Small Baroque Hall in 1976. The 130-seat hall used to host organ and chamber music concerts. The Czechoslovakian firm ‘Rieger-Kloss’ made a small concert organ, specially for this space, which was transported to Vilnius Town Hall when the church was returned to the faithful.  

The organ on the church organ loft balcony dates back to the 19th century, but it has been extensively refurbished; the Vilnius Organ Workshop rebuilt it in 1988. 

According to historians, the organ in Vilnius Evangelical Lutheran Church was already in use at the beginning of the 17th century, but the organ has changed several times in the church, which burnt down and was rebuilt again. The church was restored in the middle of the 18th century by the renowned architect Johan Christoph Glaubitz. In 1888, the master craftsman Juozapas Radavičius (Józef Rodowicz) built a new organ in the church, but the instrument was destroyed by World War II and the Soviet era. In 1944, the building went up in flames again, and later, a sports hall for basketball and a sculptors’ workshop were built. 

After the restoration of independence, the church was returned to the congregation, restored, and in 2008, a new 29-voice German organ from ‘Orgelbau Klais Bonn’ was consecrated. v

The organ at St Casimir’s is said to have the longest-lasting resonance: in an empty church, the echo lasts for 8 seconds, and the sound is very even.

Built by the Jesuits in the 17th century, St Casimir’s has survived centuries of fires, wars, and pillaging. It has been home to Orthodox, Evangelical Lutherans, and atheists (the Soviets installed the Museum of Atheism here in 1966). When this sacred space was returned to the Jesuits in 1990, thanks to the efforts of Father Antanas Saulaitis, a computer organ obtained from the Lithuanian Jesuits in the USA was installed in the church. For some time, the Centre for Religious Music, founded by the organist Leopoldas Digrys, used it to hold weekly sacred music classes. 

In 2003, an ‘Oberlinger’ organ from an Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany was installed on the organ loft balcony of the church. The concert organ has 45 registers (voices). According to the organist, Professor Renata Marcinkutė-Lesieur, the organ is made up of approximately 3,200 pipes and tubes. They have over a thousand computer combinations to capture the desired register – the ‘Setzer’ system – which greatly enhances the performer’s preparation for the concert. ‘There is no need to write tens and hundreds of numbers in pencil. The computer system does that,’ says the organist. 

The space of St Casimir’s Church is characterised by its special acoustics. ‘Apparently, the architect of the church was particularly good. It is modelled on the church of Il Gesu in Rome. And the organ is very good. According to Professor Ton Koopman, an expert in organ music, it is the best ‘Oberlinger’ concert organ he has played anywhere in the world. This is a great compliment to our instrument,’ says the professor.  

Here, there is an organ that you can listen to on the street. Commonly referred to as being in the Chapel of the Gates of Dawn, this small instrument actually stands in the gallery connecting the chapel and the Church of St Teresa. The instrument was made in 1932 by the renowned Vilna craftsman Wacław Biernacki. The organ was intended for the Church of the Gate of Dawn, which was used for the feast of the Virgin Mary when pilgrims gathered in large numbers to pray in the street. The instrument, forgotten during the Soviet era, was restored a few years ago, and last summer, on the initiative of the National Association of Organists, the inter-war tradition of opening the windows of the gallery and letting the music of the organ ‘out’ into the street was revived. 

The organ of St Teresa’s Church, which dates back to the 18th century but has been reconstructed and enlarged several times, is currently undergoing repairs. 

The history of the organ in the Great Hall of the Lithuanian National Philharmonic began after the Second World War when the organ was moved here from a closed church in Vilnius. When the organ broke down, the organist Leopoldas Digrys initiated the construction of a new organ, and the East German organ manufacturer ‘Alexander Schuke Orgelbau Potsdam’ was commissioned to build it. At the beginning of November 1963, a neo-Baroque organ with 52 stops rang out in the Great Hall of the Philharmonic. For some time, the Philharmonic Hall was the only place in Vilnius where organ music could be heard. 

The Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre (LAMT) is the place where you will find the most organs – there are as many as six instruments on the premises of the Academy. Most of them are small and designed for learning. The larger concert organ is located in the J. Karosas Hall; this late-20th-century instrument was made by the Austrian firm ‘Pirchner’ and came to Vilnius in 2008 from the Mozarteum University of Salzburg. Although the organ looks quite solid, Associate Professor Jarūnė Barkauskaitė from the Organ and Harpsichord Department says that it is more of a working instrument, unsuitable for complex solo music due to the lack of certain registers, and it is mainly used for accompaniments. ‘Many pieces of music were written for much larger instruments, the so-called symphonic organ,’ explains the organ professor.     

Another historically important instrument stands in Room 316, known as the Organ Hall. This small organ came into being shortly after the establishment of Organ Studies at the then-Conservatoire in 1962 under the direction of Prof. Leopoldas Digrys, who had just returned from his studies at the Moscow Conservatoire. According to J. Barkauskaitė, the instrument made in East Germany is of good quality but rather small – only 12 voices (registers). 

The organ in the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania is probably the smallest in Vilnius. The large chest-like instrument has one keyboard (manual) and five voices (registers). 

Following the tradition of 15–17th-century masters, the instrument was made for the Palace in 2010 by the organ workshop in Ugāle, Latvia. ‘The instrument was commissioned for the purpose of performing early music programmes and for use in educational programmes,’ says Vytautas Gailevičius, Chief Coordinator for Cultural Events. Interestingly, by moving the keyboard to one side or the other, the notes can be transposed and played a semitone higher or lower. The pipes of this organ are also unconventional as they are not made of metal but of wood.

The Baroque-style organ in Vilnius University’s Small Assembly Hall is a true traveller. Restored in 1975–1979 by the organ restorer Rimantas Gučas and the National Trust for the Restoration of Cultural Monuments (later Vilnius Organ Workshop), the organ was moved from the chapel of St. Mary the Comforter of St Johns’ Church. It is believed that the instrument came to this chapel in the middle of the 19th century from the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary (Franciscan), which had been closed by order of the Tsar. 

The restorers worked on the bottom of the organ, restoring the grate and adding pedals; they also filled the holes where the ten registers had once been and added an extra register. The original white organ façade, decorated with gold and blue details, was listed as a Cultural Monument in 1971.  

The organ loft of the Column Hall of the Town Hall does not boast an organ with a large ornate façade, so it can sometimes go unnoticed. The 18-voice Czech instrument arrived here almost three decades ago when it was moved from the Bonifratras Church, which was returned to the faithful. During the Soviet era, the church was converted into a Small Baroque Hall, and the instrument was specially designed for this space by the Czechoslovak firm ‘Rieger-Kloss’ in 1976. 

Perlis Vaisieta, the Head of Vilnius Town Hall, says that the recently reconstructed organ is not only used for classical music concerts but also for unconventional projects. ‘A couple of years ago, we hosted a silent movie night, presenting one of the first Italian films, ‘Inferno’. The organ and flute created a wonderful musical background,’ says the manager. The organ can also be heard during weddings conducted at the Town Hall. 

Together with Renata Marcinkutė-Lesieur, who enjoys playing the organ at the Town Hall, P. Vaisieta says that the possibility of organising concerts of contemporary music is under consideration, where the organ could be accompanied by synthesisers and other modern instruments. ‘The Town Hall has a large pool of musical instruments: a top-class grand piano, a harpsichord, and RGB lighting equipment. I would like to send the message to artists that they are welcome at the Town Hall with their ideas and suggestions,’ says Vaisieta, inviting musicians to collaborate. 

The organ in the Church Heritage Museum (formerly St Michael the Archangel Church) was dismantled during the Soviet era and taken to Tauragė. On the organ loft of the museum now stands a small organ dating from the 17th century. Violeta Indriūnienė, Head of Educational Programmes at the Museum, says that in 2014, the Archdiocese of Cologne donated the Italian instrument.  

‘In the past, before electricity or electric motors, the organist had to be assisted by another person – to physically pump the bellows and to pull the drive belt to control the airflow. Although the organ has been modernised and motorised, when the motor broke down during a concert, the crank handle was tested. It turned and the bellows worked perfectly!’ Violeta Indriūnienė recalls. 

The pedals on the organ are rather small and narrow because they were very rarely used in early Italian music and had no independent parts, so their range is rather narrow. 

‘Interestingly, the action is made of metal rod sliders, not wooden trackers like in German instruments. The principal voices in Italian organs are the Principale choir. The principal pipes are cast from heavy tin metal with a small admixture of lead, so they sound quite tuneful and noble. The Germans combine the highest registers, the most luminous, into a single chorus of several ranks, while the Italians leave it up to the players to compose the blended mix. If we want to hear the organ glowing in all its glory with all the voices at once, we can pull the stop tira tutti (‘pull out all the stops’). This combination of voices is called a ripieno,’ says V. Indriūnienė. 

Dating back to the 14th century, this church houses the city’s newest organ. Before Vilnius was part of the Russian Empire, the Franciscan monastery church had two organs. When the church closed, the instruments were separated as their fate took them in different directions. The smaller organ was moved to St Johns’ Church, then to the ‘Mažoji Aula’ or Small Assembly Hall of Vilnius University, where it has been reconstructed and still stands today. After the Uprising of 1863, the larger Baroque instrument was taken to Daugai Church in Alytus District. 

During the renovation of the Vilnius church, the Franciscan Friars decided to restore the sound of the organ. As it was not possible to recover the original organ from Daugai due to monument protection requirements, it was decided to create a copy of the former façade and to add baroque voices. 

Prof. Andrzej Szadejko, who conceived the concept of the organ, aimed to recreate as closely as possible the original 18-century shape of the organ’s façade, in keeping with the character and style of the time. 

Inaugurated in 2022, the organ is an eye-catcher with its splendour and rich blue colour. According to Regina Karpovič, Director of the Vilnius Centre for Culture and Spirituality, the colour corresponds to the historical colour of the instrument in Daugai. The new instrument has been restored with authentic decorations on the façade, such as the figures of King David and angels.       

The organ, built in the Baroque tradition, is distinguished by its original voices. Listeners can also hear the rotating star on the façade, the bells, and the stops for birdsong voices. The organ builders have even built into the instrument a joke with a centuries-old tradition: the stop ‘In vino veritas’. When this stop in the form of a key is pulled out, a functional corkscrew remains in one’s hand. ‘At the organ reception, we used this stop for its intended purpose – to uncork a bottle of celebratory tipple. We are happy that our craftsmen did everything on time, very responsibly, and with a good sense of humour,’ smiles R. Karpovič.   

Built in the early 18th century at the initiative of Kazimierz Sapieha, the Hetman of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Governor of Vilnius, this small church in Antakalnis built for the Trinitarian brothers was not inferior to the neighbouring Church of St Peter and St Paul in terms of splendour. It is known that until the 1863 Uprising, the Church of the Saviour had a six-register (voice) organ, which is said to have been played by Stanisław Moniuszko himself. After the uprising, the church was converted into an Orthodox church, and the organ disappeared. Between the wars, the monastery buildings were used as a hospital and, during the Soviet era, as an army depot. Since 2000, it has been cared for by the monastery’s Brothers of St John, who have been there since 2000.  

Brother Jurgis, the Rector of the church, tells us that during the restoration of the church, the idea was born to build an organ. The quest for a quality instrument that would be suitable for a small church ended in the Netherlands when, in 2018, the Brothers bought an instrument from an Evangelical Lutheran church that was being closed. Built in 1982 by the Dutch ‘Van Vulpen’ family, the 2-manual, 15-stop organ was installed by French craftsmen on the organ loft of the Joanite Church. 

The organ in Vilnius Church of the Holy Spirit (Dominican) is the largest Baroque instrument in Lithuania. Built in 1776, the organ is the only almost completely preserved work of Adam Gottlieb Casparini, the famous organ builder from Königsberg. The date and author of the organ are evidenced by an inscription on the façade. The organ’s impressive carved-wood façade is crowned with sculptures of King David and seven angels and a preserved carillon of bells. The Baroque organ of the Dominican Church inspired two new instruments in the USA and Japan. Together with colleagues from the USA, ‘GOArt’ – the Swedish Gothenburg Organ Art Centre that has carried out extensive research on the organ – built an exact replica of the organ of the Church of the Holy Spirit (with one additional register) 16 years ago at the University of Rochester in New York State. An instrument inspired by the Vilnius organ is currently being completed in Japan. 

Restoration work on the organ, which began three decades ago, is ongoing. It is expected to be completed next year.