THE GRAND ORGAN OF THE PARISH NUESTRA SEÑORA DE LA ENCARNACION, MARBELLA (a historic outline)

The original organ of the parish Nuestra Señora de la Encarnación in Marbella was burnt in 1936 as a result of the unfortunate events occurred in this church during the Civil War. It was only after a period of 40 years without this instrument when a group of residents of the town of Marbella started to raise funds for the building of a new organ. The raising was headed by the parish priest, Father Rodrigo Bocanegra, the hotelier Mr. José Luque Manzano and the head of the Brotherhood Santa Marta, Mr. Agustín Picazo, who counted with the initiative and encouragement of the German music lover Mr. Michael Reckling, and commissioned the Blancafort-Capella organ factory the building of the parish’s current instrument. The order was officially signed on 29th December 1971.

The building of this new instrument was started in early 1972 and was completed by 1974, with the exception of the fitting of the last sets of pipes. Once finished, the results achieved by the master organ builders responsible for this construction were really extraordinary. Indeed, it is a historical fact that even today the organ built in this church of Marbella remains one of the largest organs in Spain with a mechanical keyboard whose sound is highly valued by lovers of good music. Because of this and other features the organ was named the Grand Marbella Organ or ‘Órgano del Sol Mayor’. Since then it has more than fulfilled its duties in spreading the Christian word and has been the protagonist of concerts that have contributed to the spread of classical music, the universal culture.   During the 70’s and 80’s, Michael Reckling was in charge of maintaining  the instrument and organising the concerts that were to lead the organ’s reputation  as a first-class reference within the Marbella cultural heritage. 
It was fulfilling all these duties that led to the inevitable process of deterioration, most notoriously evident over the last few years in the loss of a substantial part of its acoustic potential, its lack of tuning, an inadequate state of maintenance and the overall consequences of age on its mechanism. In view of these circumstances, new private initiatives arose in the year 2000 to restore the organ, until finally in 2006 Fundación El Fuerte decided to take charge of restoring all the  organ’s former qualities and signed the quotation from the organ specialist, Albert Blancafort, for two separate phases of work: the first aimed at repairing, cleaning and tuning the organ and the second designed to replace the bellow mechanism feeding the chambers with low voltage electric blowers, a voltage regulator and completing the other chambers required to obtain the final product. It was at this time that the current parish priest of the Encarnación church in Marbella, Father Francisco Echamendi, obtained the appropriate permits at the Bishopric of Málaga from the Regional Councillor for the Historic Heritage of the Diocese, Mr. Franciso García Mota, with the approval of the Bishop of Málaga, Monsignor Antonio Dorado Soto. 

The purpose behind implementing this initiative by Fundación El Fuerte is to commemorate Mr. José Luque Manzano, who founded Hotel El Fuerte in Marbella some 50 years ago and to sponsor the creation of the “Friends of the Grand Marbella Organ” association consisting of professional from the music world, businessmen, keen music technicians, persons interested in the ecclesiastic state, and so on. Similarly, in a gesture of gratitude to the town of Marbella, Fundación El Fuerte wishes to contribute to the town’s historic heritage and the spread of its culture. As a result of the latter and having completed the first phase of the restoration, Mr. Adalberto Martínez, undertook to offer this concert, in cooperation with Mr. Javier Villero, as part of the programme of events commemorating the 50th anniversary of Hotel El Fuerte in Marbella and as homage to the person responsible for founding this company that currently has several other hotels in different locations both in Andalusia and America.
Fundacion Fuerte is an initiative created in 2005 by the President of Grupo El Fuerte, Mrs. Isabel María García Bardón, who supported by her children and other people that work for the group, wishes to take on board and manage a desire to contribute to solving some of the problems within the group’s social environment.