Michael Kestner's Organ in Cluj-Napoca

The Reformed wooden church, which once stood outside the medieval castle’s walls on the plot behind the Reformed Church with Two Towers, first received an organ in 1771, donated by Mrs János Farkas.

On December 9, 1771, the consistory celebrated and recorded Mrs János Farkas’s freely offered gift of an organ for the church outside the walls...

(Minutes of the Consistory of the Reformed Church Parish of Cluj)

In 1774, the parish signed a contract with organ builder Michael Kestner. In exchange for the old organ and 315 German forints, Kestner completed a mechanical, nine-stop, short-octave organ with a built-in console and a slider chest in 1775.

The nine stops were:

Principal 8’

Coppel 8’

Principal Octav 8’

Flauta minor 4’

Flauta amabile 4’

Quint 2 2/3’

Superoctav 2’

Sedecima 1’

Mixtur 2 ranks

The organ was adjusted by Márton Konnert in 1808, and in 1839 Bálint Szentgyörgyi carried out major repairs, gluing the wind chest, repairing the action, cleaning and tuning the pipes.

In 1851, the Baroque organ was moved to the newly built Church with Two Towers for its consecration. Although the presbytery had already noted that “the installation of a new, ornate organ is absolutely necessary,” the plan was not realised until ninety years later.

In 1878, the old keyboard was repositioned to a separate console, allowing the organist a better view of the liturgical space. Further repairs were carried out in 1892.

In 1909, an expert opinion criticised the instrument for being too small for the church and for having outdated mechanical action and high registers:

“Its action is the most primitive mechanism possible, which has become even harder to play after modification... The parish in Cluj cannot shame itself with a century-and-a-half-old shabby organ, which is neither aesthetically nor artistically up to standard, with its ear-splitting, screeching sound.”

(The Archives of the Reformed Diocese of Transylvania)

The parish subsequently commissioned a new organ, completed in 1941 by the Pécs-based organ-building company Josef Angster & Son. The now redundant Kestner organ was dismantled: the internal structure was removed, and the posts supporting the façade pipes were cut away from the wind chest. The remaining pipes and wind chest were purchased by the Transylvanian Historical Museum.

There is no precise record of what happened to the instrument after that. Although taken by the Historical Museum, it suffered severe neglect during the war. It was probably returned to the Church with Two Towers by some members of the congregation.

In 1983, an attempt was made to use pipes from the Kestner organ to replace the incomplete façade of the organ in the Reformed church in Beclean.

Later, the instrument was moved to Nimigea, where the pastor – formerly an apprentice to organ builder Wegenstein — attempted to rebuild it. The effort failed, as too many components were missing.

In 1991, what remained of the instrument was finally brought back to its original home by the congregation of the Reformed Church with Two Towers.

Drawings by Orsolya Láng