Bruckner Organ at Stift St.Florian , Linz (Austria) by Franz Xaver Krismann 1774

Toccata furioso by Christian Springer played on the Bruckner Organ at Stift St.Florian (Austria)


Organs


From the nave of the basilica you see the majestic view of the mighty facade of the "Bruckner Organ" on the west gallery .

The instrument with 74 voices distributed on three manuals was built 1770 / 1774 Xaver Krismann by the Slovenian builder Franz Xaver Krismann (1726-95), who created a monumental work for its time. Until 1886, it was the largest organ of the Danube Monarchy. Numerous reports of traveling scholars at the beginning of the 19th century have drawn attention to the exceptional power of the sound, but also to the sweetness of the voices.

Because of early problems in the wind supply, there were several modifications of bellows (Since 1783 the bellows had received 17 releatherings!) At the time when Bruckner was a choirboy in the 1830s and 40s and later monastery organist, the organ was still in almost the same state of the Krismann organ-building.







Under Dean Ferdinand Moser the abbey, in 1873, chose for a rebuilding of the organ by the Salzburg organ builder Matthias Mauracher. He replaced not only about one third of Krismanns pipes by new ones, to meet a more romantic sound ideal, but also the disposition was extended to 78 registers and added a fourth manual. In addition, the central front of the facade has been transformed from 8'-16 'in length. Furthermore, several registers were revoiced. At Kollaudierungsfeier organist Joseph Seiberl and Anton Bruckner played on 18 October 1875 on the former monastery organ. The console of this organ is now on display in Ansfelden. Bruckner was born in Ansfelden too.

After World War I Technical defects as well as the innovations of organ-building were fundamental to modernization plans for the instrument. Spokesman in this respect was the Bruckner biographer Max Auer. Until the beginning of the work, six years of controversial clashes went by between supporters and opponents.
The organ builders Dreher and Flamm (Salzburg) and Gebr Mauracher (Linz) 1931/32 exchanged the sliderchest for Cone chests and supplied the instrument with an electro-pneumatic key action. At the same time the organ was again expanded and counted after the completion of the work 92 registers. The choir organs also were connected as a so-called "Augustine-organ" to the present "Bruckner Organ".




Due to the occupation of the Abbey by the Nazis, the organ again required renovation and expansion work. Following the proposal of the Leipzig cantor of St. Thomas Günther Ramin, who also was intended as organist for St. Florian, the organ should be fundamentally restructured. However, the concept enforced by Josef Mertin, who planned a stronger reference to the old Krismann organ.
The company Zika from Ottensheim / Upper Austria would do the renovation, but could not start work because of problems of lack of materials after the war until 1951 at the conversion.

The Krismann organ work should be largely restored, and the organ re-equipped with slider chests, and missing Krismann pipes were to be re-created. The contracts were electro-pneumatic, the registration number amounts to 103.
Under the proposal of Joseph Mertins a trumpet and a Auxiliarklavier werk as well as a swell (Labialwerk) were added.

After the restoration of Upper Austria, in 1994-96 Organ Institute Kögler installed a new electric action and a completely new console with electronic memories (4 x 640 combinations), and a disk storage unit and an automatic playback system via magnetic tape. The present organ has 7386 pipes, based on Positiv, Hauptwerk, Oberwerk, Labialwerk (schwellbar), Trompetenwerk, Regalwerk und Pedalwerk.











The choir organ
The Abbey St. Florian also has two organs standing on the two choir lofts choir organ (III/38), which are played from one console, originally dating back to the Viennese builder Joseph Remmer (1691/92). The original pipe work is no longer available.

The organ in the Lady Chapel
In the Lady Chapel is one of Anton Bruckner's brother Ignaz Josef Mauracher pneumatic organ donated from the year 1903 (II/10; Sub and Super.).