On Friday night, award-winning organist Zsigmond Szathmáry brings a unique musical series to a close at the Reformed Church on Hold utca. Since July, the church has hosted 13 concerts, each comprised solely of works by Johann Sebastian Bach. At the centrepiece has been the organ itself, commissioned in 2017 by the Budapest German Reformed Church community and painstakingly crafted by Hungarian master Attila Faragó and Fót-based Aeris Orgona according to original specifications.

With eight pieces from Bach’s 1,000-strong canon, Zsigmond Szathmáry will be putting the Bach Organ though its paces once more for Friday’s concert, taking place just behind Szabadság tér in central Budapest. In order to combine the sounds of instruments Bach would have used around his native Thuringia in the early 1700s with the Baroque look of a church organ from the same era, Attila Faragó and Aeris Orgona first made studies of some 30 surviving examples from across Germany.

Each element of the organ is made from natural materials, wrought iron, pine and sheepskin, and its 1,130 pipes were created with modern-day technology but according to historical examples.

The result is both historically accurate, aesthetically pleasing and suits the space perfectly. The Reformed Church served generations of German-speaking Protestants from the 1850s onwards, including members of the later prominent Dreher and Ganz families.

The concert series both promotes the musical heritage of Budapest and establishes the Reformed Church as a classical music venue of note. Flourishing in the late 1800s, moribund after World War II when the building was used as a costume warehouse for Hungarian State TV based on Szabadság tér, this Neo-Gothic landmark was completely renovated in the early 2000s. The Bach Organ now forms part of its impressive interior layout, a space set aside for it in the gallery, by the choir.

The Complete Organ Works of JS Bach

Part 14 with Zsigmond Szathmáry Hold utca Reformed Church District V. Hold utca 18-20 Friday 14 December, 6pm

Tickets 1,000 forints/discounted 500 forints. Available here and from the church shortly before the event.