The celebrated organ builders, Marcussen & Son, began the design work on The Bridgewater Hall's recital organ in 1992, and construction began in Denmark in January, 1995 - ten months before it was due to be assembled in Manchester and long before its first scheduled concert appearance.

The specification was devised to suit the widest possible range of organ repertory and The Bridgewater Hall organ is a major work of art and technology. It weighs 22 tons, has over 5,500 pipes ranging in length from 32 feet to a fraction of an inch, and stands more than 42 feet high and 45 feet wide. It is divided into five divisions (great, swell, positiv, solo and pedal), each of which is a characterful and substantial instrument in its own right, and with a frequency range covering almost the whole audible spectrum.

This £1.2 million instrument was hand-made by Marcussen’s craftsmen whose skills and working methods have changed surprisingly little since the company’s foundation in 1806. In their Åbenrå workshop, each new instrument is constructed in its entirety before being carefully dismantled and shipped off to its permanent location for installation, voicing and tuning.

In November 1995, the organ arrived in Manchester in many thousands of pieces, and a team of Danish organ-builders took up residence in the city to install it. By March 1996, it had been painstakingly reassembled, and Marcussen's experts began the lengthy and delicate process of balancing the wind pressures and voicing each rank of pipes. The final stages of voicing were completed by Friday, 22 November 1996 when the Hallé Orchestra, conducted by Daniel Harding, joined The Bridgewater Hall's organist-in-residence, Wayne Marshall, for the organ's inaugural performance. The programme consisted of works by Messiaen, Dupré, J S Bach, Saint-Saëns, Widor and Joseph Jongen, and received a standing ovation from the sold-out house.