The Beckerath Organ “Opus 1”
in St. Elisabeth in Hamburg

“Anyone who wanted to hear something exceptional in the field of music came to Hamburg,” wrote Karl Franz Friedrich Chrysander, Handel’s first biographer. The mercantile city on the banks of the river Elbe was the first city in Germany to have its own public opera house, the “Opern-Theatrum” opened in 1678, and together with a wide range of musical concerts in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries must have seemed like a magnet both for musicians and for society as a whole. The organs of Hamburg’s main churches and the musical performances that took place in them played a hugely significant role in the status of Hamburg as a city and centre of music.

This remains the case to this day: with well over 300 organs of all sizes and eras, Hamburg is currently one of the leading organ cities in the world. The organ of the Catholic church of St. Elisabeth in the Hamburg district of Harvestehude holds a special place in this league: The instrument is the first one – hence the denomination as “Opus 1” – built by the Hamburg organ builder Rudolf von Beckerath, who in 1949 founded his own organ-building company and went on to establish a reputation for himself that went far beyond Hamburg, indeed became global. Originally planned with 27 stops, the specification of the “Opus 1” organ was reduced to save costs in 1951 to 11 stops and two manuals (Great and „Brustwerk“) with mechanical action. In 1956 the organ was then expanded to 18 stops and remained in that specification until 2019. By that time, a complete overhaul was overdue and there were some urgently needed repairs to be made, and so in 2020 the instrument underwent a programme of restoration and repair alongside a customisation to accommodate the growing demands on the organ. That said, the intention was to preserve the original “Opus 1” despite the enhancements made, and for it to be made playable as originally intended. This aim was achieved by installing a unique “double” console, the only one of its kind in the world: on one side there is the two-manual console of the original Opus 1, which enables the original instrument to be played in new splendour and in its original configuration of 1956 using the original keyboard. Directly opposite – integrated into a large joint console – is the console with four manuals, from which the Opus 1 can be controlled incorporating the expansions, as a sort of “new Opus 1”. This comprehensive solution therefore encompasses a restoration of the original instrument plus an innovative but sensitive enhancement that succeeds in achieving synergies between the traditional and the modern. The recommissioning of the instrument took place after a ceremony of organ consecration of December 13, 2020.