Alkmaar: The Organs of the Laurenskerk

Alkmaar: The Organs of the Laurenskerk

Throughout the film, the resident organists of the Laurenskerk, Pieter van Dijk and Frank van Wijk, provide in-depth commentary and also perform many suitable pieces of music from Sweelinck to Bach. They are joined by Paul Binski, Professor of Art History at Cambridge University, who explains the history and meaning of the spectacular case of the organ, designed by Palladian architect van Campen with magnificent shutter paintings by Caesar van Everdingen.

There is also footage and music from the Pieterskerk in Leiden and the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam. These two organs, much more rarely heard than the famous Alkmaar ones but built by many of the same people, allow us to get a sense of what the Alkmaar organ was like in the 1600s, before Frans Caspar Schnitger rebuilt it in a North German style.