A Dundee church organ facing the scrapheap has found a match made in Heaven 4,000 miles away in Kazakhstan.
Craigiebank Church’s 114-year-old pipe organ had an uncertain future as the church is scheduled to be demolished before being redeveloped into a community project called the Circle.
Moved to Dundee in 1949 and made up of 1,446 pipes, there was no space for the huge organ in the church’s redevelopment plans.
A lifeline was provided in the form of Italian organ construction and restoration firm Alessandro Giacobazzi, who offered to dismantle the organ and find it a new home.
The Italian company has sourced a church in need of a pipe organ in Kazakhstan, where the huge instrument will continue its use.
Organ consultant Robert Lightband said: “The match between Italy could and might have been, made in Heaven.
“The builders are fanatical about good British organs and regard the voicing of the Craigiebank instrument as quite outstanding.
“They immediately fell in love with it and the rest is now in the bowels of history. The organ will eventually end up in a Catholic mission church in Kazakhstan.
“It will have two consoles, the original one and a new one at floor level, which will be modern, though British, in style.”
The organ came to Dundee from a London Baptist church bombed during the Blitz and is thought to date from around 1890, although the original maker is not known.
The pipes were very fragile and each one needed to be carefully wrapped, except the larger ones.
Robert added: “Many of us learned about the impending demolition of Craigiebank Church with something approaching horror due to the remarkably good organ.
“Every effort has been made to discover the builder of this remarkable instrument but in vain, even after inspection by some of the most knowledgeable people in the land. The church and its congregation realised the value and enormous steps were taken to find it a new home.”
The Italian firm plans to rebuild the organ in its workshops, replacing two missing stops with new pieces to be made and voiced in Britain.
Robert added: “They are very highly skilled in their work and everybody who came into contact with them were mightily impressed. It is always good to work with experts from another country.”