The large Kuhn organ is the jewel of the Philharmonie. It was inaugurated on September 24, 2004, a few months after the opening of the building. The Swiss organ building company Kuhn wrote about the work of art with its 4502 pipes: "When building the new concert hall organ for the Essen Philharmonic, we had to meet many different demands: The work had to reflect the international, sophisticated character of the place without neglecting the convincing principles of traditional organ building. We also wanted to incorporate the musicians’ suggestions while remaining true to our own ideals. The symphonic instrument with mechanical action and 4502 pipes combines all these goals. As an excellent partner of the orchestra, this organ is capable of giving gravity and sonority to a wide range of musical styles.
Anyone seeing the Philharmonie Essen for the first time often perceives the building as "new and time-honored at the same time". These were the words the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" used in June 2004 to describe the newly opened concert hall. This refers to a decisive feature: It is precisely this successful synthesis of the musically historic hall building and the acoustically and aesthetically modern Philharmonic Hall that is a trademark. But what would a house, no matter how beautiful it is, with its "outstanding acoustics" ("Tagesspiegel") be without its great artists? Here, too, the Philharmonie continues a tradition of over 100 years. After all, it was nobody else than Richard Strauss who opened the Saalbau in 1904. And just two years later, Gustav Mahler was at the podium, conducting the premiere of his own Sixth Symphony. Largely destroyed in the Second World War, the Saalbau was rebuilt at the beginning of the 1950s, incorporating preserved elements. After a fundamental renovation of the listed building and the complete redesign of the concert hall, the building was ceremonially reopened on June 5, 2004. Since then, audiences in the acoustically outstanding Philharmonie have been able to enjoy wonderful music.
System requirements: Hauptwerk V advanced
4 channel 24bit Lossless Compression: 36627 MB (36.7 GB)4 channel 20bit Lossless Compression: 33675 MB (33.7 GB)4 channel 16bit Lossless Compression: 18908 MB (19.0 GB)
4 channel, Front 24bit Lossless Compression, Rear 20bit Lossless Compression: 35367 MB (35.4 GB)4 channel, Front 20bit Lossless Compression, Rear 16bit Lossless Compression: 26192 MB (26.2 GB)
2 channel, Front 24bit Lossless Compression: 18801 MB (18.9 GB)2 channel, Front 20bit Lossless Compression: 17109 MB (17.2 GB)2 channel, Front 16bit Lossless Compression: 9826 MB (9.9 GB)
4 channel 24bit Lossless Compression without sampled tremulants: 24059 MB (24.1 GB)4 channel 20bit Lossless Compression without sampled tremulants: 21829 MB (21.9 GB)4 channel 16bit Lossless Compression without sampled tremulants: 12515 MB (12.6 GB)
4 channel, Front 24bit Lossless Compression, Rear 20bit Lossless Compression without sampled tremulants: 23096 MB (23.1 GB)4 channel, Front 20bit Lossless Compression, Rear 16bit Lossless Compression without sampled tremulants: 17106 MB (17.2 GB)
2 channel, Front 24bit Lossless Compression without sampled tremulants: 12445 MB (12.5 GB)2 channel, Front 20bit Lossless Compression without sampled tremulants: 11179 MB (11.2 GB)2 channel, Front 16bit Lossless Compression without sampled tremulants: 6588 MB (6.6 GB)