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The Friends of the Sol Mayor Organ Association

A brief history of the Sol Mayor Organ in the Parish Church of Nuestra Señora de la Encarnación in Marbella

The original organ in the Parish Church of Nuestra Señora de la Encarnación in Marbella was burnt in 1936 as a result of the unfortunate events that occurred in this church during the Civil War.

Organ Concert
Organ Concert

It was only after a period of 40 years without this instrument when a group of residents from the town of Marbella started a campaign to raise funds for the construction of a new organ.
The fundraising was headed by the parish priest, Father Rodrigo Bocanegra, the hotelier Mr. José Luque Manzano and the head of the Santa Marta Brotherhood, Mr. Agustín Picaso, who, together with the significant impulse given by the German music lover Mr. Michael Reckling, commissioned the building of the parish’s current instrument at the Blancafort-Capella organ factory. The order was officially signed on the 29th of December 1971.

The construction of this new instrument was started in early 1972 and completed by 1974, with the exception of the fitting of the last sets of pipes. Once finished, it turned out that the master organ builders responsible for its construction had achieved an extraordinarily high level of quality. Indeed, it is a historical fact that, even today, the organ built in this Marbellan Church remains one of the largest organs in Spain with a mechanical keyboard, and its sound is highly valued by lovers of good music. Because of this and other features the organ was named the ‘Sol Mayor Organ’. Since its construction, it has more than fulfilled its duties in spreading the Christian word and has been the featured instrument in concerts that have contributed to the spread of classical music and universal culture.

Then work was stopped due to a lack of public interest and donations and Michael Reckling found himself alone with his project. But he continued with his tireless efforts and eventually crossed paths with Baroness Terry von Pantz (R.I.P) through Maite Soto Domecq (R.I.P). Thanks to her generous contribution and the support of the then parish priest Father Francisco Echamendi, the work continued after having been interrupted for one long year. Finally, on the 29th of December 1975, four years after construction work was begun, Marbella and its numerous visitors experienced an unforgettable concert to inaugurate the great Sol Mayor Organ, an almost completely new construction.

During the 1970s and 80s, Michael Reckling was in charge of maintaining the instrument and organising these concerts. It should be mentioned that this organ is considered as a first-class point of reference that is part of the city of Marbella's cultural heritage.

Years of use led to an unavoidable process of deterioration, which manifested itself quite noticeably in recent years with the loss of a lot of the organ’s acoustic potential and the fact that it was out of tune. This inadequate state of conservation came as a consequence of the overall ageing of its mechanisms. Faced with these circumstances, new private initiatives to restore the organ materialised in the year 2000, and in 2006 the Fuerte Foundation decided to take charge of the recuperation of all of its attributes, setting aside funds so that the organ specialist Albert Blancafortcould carry out two phases of work. The first phase focussed on repairing, cleaning and tuning the organ and the second phase involved replacing the bellows with low voltage electric blowers to activate the stops, fitting the organ with a voltage rectifier and fitting the registers that were missing to complete the instrument. At the moment, the current parish priest at the Church of Encarnación in Marbella, Father Francisco Echamendi, is obtaining the relevant permits in the Malaga Diocese from the Delegate for Diocesan Historical Heritage Francisco García Mota. This process has been approved by the Bishop of Málaga Monsignor Antonio Dorado Soto.

Organ Concert
Organ Concert

When putting this decisive collaboration into action, the aim of the Fuerte Foundation was to honour the memory of Mr. José Luque Manzano who founded the El Fuerte Hotel in Marbella fifty years ago, as well as to sponsor the creation of the Friends of the Sol Mayor Organ association, made up of professionals from the world of music, businesspeople, music-loving technicians and anyone interested in the ecclesiastical estate, etc. Similarly, the Fuerte Foundation wanted to make a gesture to show its gratitude to the city of Marbella by contributing to the enhancement of its historical heritage and the propagation of culture. As a result of this, once the first phase had been completed, Mr Adalberto Martínez made a commitment to perform this concert together with Mr. Javier Villeros, as part of a programme of events to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the El Fuerte Hotel in Marbella and in homage to the person who founded this company that currently owns other hotel centres in different locations in Andalusia and America.

The Fuerte Foundation is an initiative that was created in 2005 by the President of the El Fuerte Group, Mrs Isabel María García Bardón, whose main aim, with the support of her children and the people who work for the group, is to focus and manage the desire to help find solutions to problems in its social environment.

Below can be found information about the Sol Mayor Organ concerts:

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