Pipe organ crawl

Saturday the “organ crawl” took place in Leyden, an annual event. It is for diehards and fanatics, mainly grey haired men. We were lucky with the weather: after a tropical half day followed by a thunderstorm and rain, it had cooled down, but it was dry and very bright and sunny. Ideal weather to walk into Leyden and from one church to another. The cycle started at 10 am with a concert on the stunning organ in the Pieterskerk. 

 The organ in the Pieterskerk

 The side aisles with the organ just partly visible

 Around the Pieterskerk. Houses are built around to the church and some are attached to it

The next concert took place in the Lokhorstkerk, originally a conventicle, now used by both a Dutch version of the Mennonites and the “Armenians”. All in all there were 6 concerts in 6 different churches by 6 different and well-known organists. This may sound utterly boring, but each organ has a different sound and a different disposition. Some are baroque organs, perfect for Bach, Buxtehude and Walther, to mention just a few composers. 

The modest organ of the Lokhorstkerk

The pump in the alsmhouses opposite the Lokhorstkerk

Others, especially the organ in the Roman Catholic Church, the Hartebrugkerk, are well suited for French romantic organ music, Vierne, Franck, Saint-Saëns. That made the whole experience very interesting. 

Hartebrugkerk, the French organ

The six churches are within walking distance in the heart of Leyden, where everything is within walking distance. On the hour there was a 30-minute concert, which allowed for some 20 minutes to get from one church to another if one wished to take pictures in each church as well. A few churches offered coffee and tea. It took some effort and perseverance to make one’s way along the weekly market, which was crowded with people enjoying the sun and drinks on the floating terraces in the Nieuwe Rijn. There was a break of an extra hour at lunchtime. Fortunately I knew a quiet place to get lunch, not easy on such a busy day, and a very good one too with local and biological ingredients.

 The beaytiful organ of the Marekerk, and octagonla church which was built as a protestant church. So it has no altar and no choir.

Old collection bags attached to long poles so that everybody in the pews could be easily reached from one end of the pew. It took some time to become an expert!

After the 5^th concert I gave up and instead saw a friend in his museum, the Leiden American Pilgrim Museum. As we started chatting, I missed the last concert in the Hooglandse Kerk, but since I go there regularly it didn’t really matter. After 5 sessions I was very aware of the fact that wooden church pews are not made for long sit down sessions. Especially those in the Roman Catholic churches are a real pain, and not in the neck!

The organ of the Lodewijkskerk, another Roman Catholic Church

As an antidote I did some shopping in interesting and small boutiques on my walk back, with the excuse of needing a few presents for friends.

Sunday morning I sang in the church choir as usual, with this time two very strong male sections! What a joy to have so much support. A peculiar liturgy though. It seemed the individual parts of the liturgy had been put into a shaker and came out in a different order, the choir starting with the anthem. As if whoever put the liturgy together had pressed the shuffle button!

In the afternoon I attended a special recital, organised by the NMF, the National Foundation for Musical instruments. It is an institute which provides young and promising musicians with suitable instruments which they can’t afford otherwise. The instruments are given on loan, for as long as needed. This weekend there was a special two day event with recitals in historic houses and unusual buildings all over the country, places which are often closed to the public. It is on the one hand a “thank you” for those who contribute to these funds, but also a way to get more people interested in supporting financially by becoming a “friend”. The musicians present themselves and apart from giving a recital also tell the audience something about their instruments and why they are so important to them. I went to Leyduin near Haarlem, one of the many country homes built in the wooded area between the dunes and the agricultural land, here the bulb fields.

 Leyduin

Drinks after the recital

 Those mansions were owned by rich merchants living in Amsterdam and used as summer retreats. Now only a few are still lived in privately. Many are used as museums or for special events such as weddings, dinner parties etc. They are usually in beautiful grounds, and may have an ice cellar and a viewing tower and interesting small buildings like that.  I went to hear a cellist, Genevieve Verhage who played the most unusual and difficult pieces I had ever heard, of Sept Papillon by Kaija Saariaho nr 1, imitating the flight of a butterfly. The cellist, a young woman, explained the different ways of playing the cello and how to achieve those particular sounds, a revelation! The recital was most fascinating and the audience was spellbound.  It was a real joy, and an eye opener for me.

Apart from a Sarabande by J. S. Bach, she played

   Peteris Vasks, Fragment from Das Buch

   Tan Dun, Intercourse of Fire and Water

 The room in Leyduin where the concert took place

To the right the cellist talking to a member of the audience after the recital

This is a Chinese musician playing Sept Papillon, very different from the performance by Genevieve

When I came back home late in the afternoon, I noticed that not just one but three water lilies had opened to the sun! And the abundance of roses this year is also unusual. That is happiness!

A wonderful display of roses