Ever since I visited the Gerhard Grenzing organ factory in Papiol, just outside of Barcelona, I have been on a quest to play and hear Grenzing organs, which I consider outstanding instruments. I was able to play the organ destined for Prague Cathedral, as well as many other smaller instruments in the factory. And remember I played the fabulous Grenzing organ in Stockholm last year? I’ll never forget that instrument.

So, in planning this trip, I did a Google search to find out if there were any Grenzing organs near Zurich, our first stop. Indeed, I found one in Geneva but get this — I had already visited the organ at Temple des Eaux-Vives in 2018 while on the Historic Organ Study Tours to Switzerland! I just didn’t remember that the organ was built by Grenzing. If you remember, that was the day that I overslept and missed the bus. I had to take the train to Geneva from Lausanne, then a taxi to the church. That church was the one with 13 keyboard instruments in it! Continuo organs, harpsichords, clavichords, pianos — all kinds of early keyboard instruments, a veritable musical instrument museum. Unfortunately I was not able to play the instrument at that time.

I wrote to Natalie Grenzing who put me in touch with Norberto Broggini, organist of the church, who has held the position since the 90s. It took some time to hear back from him because he was in Argentina visiting family! I thought “Great, now I don’t have to try so hard to write him in French, I can write him in Spanish!” Unfortunately he was going to be in Germany this week, but he suggested that his assistant, Helen Kim, could meet me at the church and turn on the organ for me.

So, that’s what we did today. It took a little over three hours by train from Zürich, and we saw the Grenzing organ from 2001. I was able to play for an hour, and played some of my favorite music by J. S. Bach, David Blackwell, Dan Locklair, and others. Seven years ago, I commented that the organ is very colorful, with gutsy reeds, but today I discovered what a joy it is to play! I especially loved the Cornet décomposé!

And yes, there were still a lot of keyboard instruments in the church, but not so many — maybe 9 altogether, including the big organ. Apparently there were complaints that the church was getting to be a musical instrument museum so Norberto sold some of the instruments. I took a few pictures of the ones which were left.

After our visit to Eaux-Vives, we took an Uber to the Cathedral of St. Pierre, which formerly was a Catholic cathedral but was changed to Protestant during the Reformation. They do have an organ by Metzler.

What really impressed me, though, was the Chapel of the Maccabees adjacent to the Cathedral, built in 1400 and 1405 in a flamboyant Gothic style for Cardinal Jean de Brogny to house his tomb and members of his family. It was restored in the 19th century. Helen Kim had suggested what impressed her was that there was a window for the organist to show his face instead of having his back to the congregation! The organ is by Walcker and was built in 1899.