For many decades, the organ gallery of the Petrikirche Cathedral stood empty after the building, closed in 1937, lost the historic organ that once stood there.
The Walker organ was installed in St. Peter’s Church in 1840. It had 63 stops, three manuals, and one pedal keyboard. After the church was closed, the instrument was gifted to Moscow, where it was installed on the stage of the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall. But then, at the end of the 1950s, the organ was dismantled. Part of its stops remained in Moscow, while another part, having traveled through Czechoslovakia, ended up in Donetsk — then the city of Stalino — in the organ of the concert hall of the Stalin Regional Philharmonic.
Since 1997, a small 10-stop organ was sounding in the Petrikirche, installed in the altar area. In 2013, the Petrikirche community received an enticing offer from Stockholm from the local Evangelical German community. The following year, church musicians Michael Dirks (St. Gertrude’s Church / Stockholm) and Sergey Silaevsky (Petrikirche / Saint Petersburg) met for the first time. It soon became clear that the Willi Peter organ from Stockholm was exactly the instrument suitable for the large St. Peter’s Church.
“Three years ago, the pastor of the St. Gertrude’s Church community in Stockholm asked me if the newest of the church’s three organs would be suitable for Petrikirche,” recounts Pastor Michael Schwarzkopf. “The old organ of St. Gertrude’s Church was to return to its place, and the Willi Peter organ, donated to the community in the 1970s, was to give way.”
In 2015, the Petrikirche community sought ways to properly convert the organ gallery. Good contacts within the community council proved to be an advantage. The St. Petersburg company “Beskid” donated the theoretical part of the reconstruction project. To be able to pay for the repair work, the Petrikirche community held various fundraising events. Among other things, cantor Sergey Silaevsky toured Hanover. At the same time, an organ expert authorized by the Northern Church of Germany traveled to Stockholm and Saint Petersburg to inspect the organ and the church hall in Petrikirche.
After becoming acquainted with the instrument and deciding to acquire it, fundraising activities began. Donations were made both by the parishioners themselves and by friends of the community. But above all, the project became possible thanks to the agreement of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany to contribute the main part of the funds. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany applied to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for support of the project, which became another financial source. A significant contribution was also made by the partner community of St. Michael’s in Hamburg.
In October 2016, the organ began to be dismantled in St. Gertrude’s Church in Stockholm for transportation. And in Petrikirche in Saint Petersburg, in January 2017, reconstruction of the organ gallery began, where the new instrument — a large Willi Peter organ (1972-73) with 43 stops and three manuals — was to be installed.
And on June 4, 2017, the parishioners of the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul (Petrikirche) heard the new organ for the first time during a service. Its tuning was completed just a few days before. The Willi Peter organ became a gift to the community of St. Anna and St. Peter in the year of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.
Now organ music concerts are held in the cathedral several times a week.
Sources:
https://www.elkras.ru/arhiv/arhiv_novostei/2017god/iiun/vpetrikirhezazvuchalnovyiorgan.jdx
https://petrikirche.ru/orgelprojekt/
