Witweg: St. Bavo Church Haarlem

The pipe organ of the Grote or St. BAVO Church in Haarlem:

Haarlem has a most beautiful and famous pipe organ. It is very impressive to see, filling a complete wall of the church, but hearing it is of course what it is all about.

The pipe organ, although in a big church, is owned by the city of Haarlem, and not by the church. They appoint a “city organist” who plays the organ regularly. This week Jos van der Kooij celebrated his 25^th anniversary as “city organist”. This is just one of his jobs, as he is also the regular organist of a church in Amsterdam, the well known Westerkerk near the Anne Franck House. I went to Haarlem for the celebratory concert, a combination of well known classical organ repertoire, and very modern music, one piece especially written by Daan Manneke, a Dutch composer, for this organist and this particular organ.

The church was packed.

Not my favourite organist whoever he is, but my favourite composition

This is the programme:

Johann Sebastian Bach 1685 - 1750	Toccata et Fuga d moll BWV 565
Georg Friedrich Händel 1685 - 1759	Voluntary VI C major, Adagio - Allegro from Twelve Voluntaries and Fugues, 1776
Daan Manneke 1939 -	Ligatura, 2015 The composer claims that this composition aims to link very diverse disciplines in very different ways, eg, different tempi, different tonal systems, very diverse genres and timbres. It was written for the organist and for this particular organ.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1756 - 1791	Andante für eine Walze in eine kleine Orgel F dur KV 616, 1791
Piet Kee 1927 -	Magic Pipes for panflute and organ, 2012
Max Reger 1873 - 1916	Intermezzo f moll from Neun Stücke für die Orgel opus 129, 1913
Olivier Messiaen 1908 - 1992	Dieu parmi nous from La Nativité du Seigneur, 1935

Just on of the many pictures of the famous Muller organ in the Bavo in Haarlem

I must admit that I enjoyed Bach, Händel, Mozart and Reger. Daan Manneke’s composition was totally alien to me. It must be utterly difficult for the organist to play, and I admire Jos for that. It certainly showed all the possibilities of the organ, the many different sounds and effects, so different from what one normally associates with a pipe organ or hears during a concert or a church service. However, I could not make head or tail of the sounds, the dissonants the whisperings and the loud noises. Perhaps I am not ready for modern music and far too conservative, but I have to be able to hear a theme, a melody, a line. It seems the most difficult composition to play, but I could not relate to it. The composer was in the audience and had given a short introduction beforehand about this new piece and what his aim was. Jos had also given an introduction to the music of this concert. However, Manneke was beyond me.

“Magic Pipes” by Piet Kee for panflute and organ I did enjoy. Especially the panflute was surprisingly clear and I loved the sound which wasn’t at all “throaty” as it usually is. And it was amazing that the panflute could compete with the organ, and wasn’t drowned by it. Such huge pipes and such small pipes in the panflute.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of hearing and seeing the organ again. The annual Choral Festival of European Anglican choirs took place in Haarlem this year. So fortunately no travel to Antwerp, Brussels or Luxemburg for us this year. Gordon Appleton from the RSCM showed remarkable patience while practising a few rather modern compositions with us. Fortunately I had attended extra practices for the festival with the Haarlem choir, so I wasn’t totally unprepared. The practice was not just in the beautiful BAVO, a church which apparently hosts many other activities and groups on a Saturday, but also in another church in Haarlem, the Nieuwe Kerk, a church which was originally built as a protestant church and not as a catholic one. The walk through busy but picturesque Haarlem was a pleasure, and we even had some sun although the churches were extremely chilling. Almost the longest day, and still cold.

The organ in the Nieuwe Kerk, Haarlem

Choral Evensong started a bit late as a wedding party was reluctant to leave! The church was quite full, and in spite of the failure of modern technology so that there was hardly any communication possible between the organist high up behind the organ console and the conductor down below, we sang a wonderful service. Especially the psalm was a joy to sing.

On the site of the Anglican Church in Haarlem are a few pictures somebody took with a mobile phone. I am hardly visible as I am standing behind a rather tall soprano.

The socializing afterwards was no less enjoyable, with many of the participants sharing drinks in an establishment opposite the church, and some nine of us staying for a nice and well deserved meal in the company of choirmaster and festival director, now both relaxed and relieved.

This was only the first Evensong this weekend. On Sunday our choir from The Hague was invited to sing Evensong in the beautiful Old Catholic Church in The Hague. A totally different experience, but for me a meaningful service of worship. The acoustics in that church are wonderful, and so the choir sounded well in spite of the fact that we all felt we were singing alone as we could not hear any of the other singers, except for the men behind us. Nevertheless we managed. A pity there were so few people in the congregation. Perhaps too many things were happening in and around The Hague, June being a time for festivals and cultural events.