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night work:
removing the Great-chest

Bishop organ from Tokyo to Copenhagen

Because of stricter regulations for earthquake hazard, we dismantled  the Bishop organ that  we placed in Lalaport mall in Tokyo (Toyosu) in 2006, and shipped it back to Europe. It was purchased by the Musikhochschule in Copenhagen in July 2011 and will be built in an auditorium.

Unfortunately, herewith came an end to a rather unique situation: a shopping center containing an organ that is played several times daily. When we placed the instrument in 2006, we could not imagine that it would be for such a short period. We, therefore, dismantled it with sadness and loaded it into a number of containers. The planning was complicated by the recent earthquake of March 11, 2011. It caused some damage to the organ, and our containers with pipe-boxes and tools, which were already en route from Rotterdam, were seriously delayed. Because of the damage and severe dust contamination, the instrument will be fully checked in the workshop.

Of course we asked ourselves why in 2006 fully fiat was given, and why the situation after inspection was approved. We were told that the regulations for earthquake hazard has recently been seriously tightened, in a way that made it impossible to adapt the organ and organ gallery to the new rules . The rules concern the risk of collapse and fall down of (front-) pipes on shoppers. In Japan, these rules are implemented very rigid, and no exceptions for existing situations are made. After rejecting the situation by the authorities, the organ had therefore to be removed as soon as possible.

After mediation by Jacques van Oortmerssen, the instrument could quickly be resold to the Musikhochschule in Copenhagen.

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