Playing in Haarlem

Recently, while visiting the Netherlands, I had the opportunity to attend an organ concert at St.-Bavokerk in Haarlem and later ended up being able to play the organ.

This church is known for its famous organ. The organ was played by Handel in 1740 (he specifically traveled to Haarlem to play it), and by the 10-year-old Mozart in 1766. The organ was crafted by the German, Christiaan Müller, but has been restored radically several times. The most recent of these restorations was carried out by Marcussen and Søn (who built the organ I play on).

Our concert featured Sunkyung Noh who played a variety of styles including Bach, Widor, and Mendelssohn. This was an amazing experience and allowed me to hear the full range of this beautiful instrument. Before our trip I had contacted the church to see if I could practice on the organ, but unfortunately, the timing didn’t work out. However, when I got to the church, I saw the organist and went over to say hello and he ended up allowing me to play the organ for an hour or so. I didn’t have any of my music, so I chose two Bach pieces and one Mendelsohn to play. One of the Bach pieces was Piece D’orgue, and Mr. Pauw (the church organist) suggested a registration.

The organ was slightly different from the one I usually play with the major differences being the location of the pipes and the weight of the keys. This organ is much bigger than mine and has three manuals. Because of this there is a case of pipes behind the bench as well as in front. This was a little disorienting because the sound reaches you at different times and it can throw off the timing of your playing. The weight of the keys was also different on this organ because of its size. Since this organ has many more stops, when coupled, the weight of the keys increases which makes playing somewhat harder. Despite these changes, this organ was amazing to play and had the same clear sound I’m used to hearing at home while allowing me to experience the resonance of the beautiful church.

#organ #johannsebastianbach #music #church #bach