Unless you happen to be Dutch, the name Willem Hülsmann might well have passed you by. Hülsmann (1911-89) was a gifted organist, improviser and choral director who found himself at the epicentre of the early post-war Organ Reform skirmishes in the Netherlands. Such was the obstinately conservative nature of Dutch organ building, certainly by those supplying instruments to Protestant churches, ‘Reform, in the spirit in which it was discussed in Germany during the interbellum and beyond, was a relative concept. However, the period around the second world war had seen a notable decline in appreciation and understanding of traditional organ building. This even included the electrification - under the auspices of the Dutch Reformed Church's ‘Organ and Bell Council’ and its figurehead, the eccentric ‘Mr’ Arie Bouman (1911-99) - of several organs of international significance, including the Duyschot instrument at the Westerkerk in Amsterdam and the Schnitger organ at the Martinikerk in Groningen. In 1946 a new synodal organ advisory committee for the Dutch Reformed Church was established under the leadership of the highly influential Utrecht organist Lambert Erné (1915-71). Keenly interested in and highly knowledgeable about organ building, Hülsmann took his place on this committee which was, at the time, bewitched by the pre-eminent organs of the Marcussen workshop, then under the direction of Sybrand Zachariassen (1900-60). Major milestones in this period of Dutch organ history include the magnificent 1956 Marcussen organ in Erné's own Nicolaikerk in Utrecht, and the same company's (in)famous ‘restoration’ of the Haarlem Müller organ in 1960 - a tale, controversial even then, in which Hülsmann was closely involved.

In 1950, Hülsmann had been appointed to the position of organist at the Grote of St Joriskerk in Amersfoort, a tall and spacious 15th/16th-century ‘hall church’ (no transepts). Like most grand Dutch city churches, St Joris had a distinguished organ history that could be traced back to the origins of the Renaissance Utrecht school of organ building. It is known that in 1551 Cornelis Gerrits added a Bovenwerk to the existing organ which, in turn, was rebuilt in 1638 by the (Amersfoort-native) Van Hagerbeer family, builders of the famed Alkmaar organ - the first of a number of curious links with Alkmaar's Grote Kerk In 1845, a new organ was built by the Deventer organ builder C.F.A. Naber. This organ, of three manuals (Hoofdwerk, Bovenwerk, Rugwerk) and 38 stops, contains material by both Gerrits (a pair of wide-scaled lead flutes in the Bovenwerk) and Van Hagerbeer (8ft and 4ft Praestants on both Hoofdwerk and Bovenwerk). Another curious link with Alkmaar: Naber, a builder associated mostly with smaller, one- and two-manual organs, was responsible at the time for the maintenance of the Alkmaar organ, and took the opportunity to copy F.C. Schnitger's Hobo and Vox Humana stops for the Amersfoort organ. The new instrument was placed, unceremoniously, on the choir screen dating from 1480, whose tracery was depicted by Caesar van Everdingen in the gargantuan depiction of David and Goliath which adorns the shutters on the Alkmaar organs famed Jacob van Campen-designed case. The consequences for the tracery in Amersfoort presented by Naber's organ, and the Rugwerk in particular, were obvious and, as early as the 1880s, the Dutch sculptor and architect F.W Mengelberg (whose 16 children included the legendary orchestral conductor Willem) produced a detailed, if somewhat romanticised, drawing of the screen as a model for its reconstruction.

It would take until a church restoration in the 1960s for the stars to align. The desire to restore the screen and to improve the projection of the Naber organ led to its relocation on a new gallery on the west side of the nave. As the chancel area was being used more frequently as a separate chapel, for weddings in particular, the rationale for a second organ in this area was obvious. By this time, however, Hülsmann's gaze had drifted away from Denmark. Zachariassen had died unexpectedly during the Haarlem project and it was clear to many that the supremacy of the Danish product was on the wane, a view later embodied in the Dutch narrative by Jan Jongepier's chilly, and much cited, review in Het Orgel of the giant 1973 Marcussen organ in the restored St Laurenskerk in Rotterdam. Hülsmann's encounter with the 1965 Metzler organ (IV/67) at the Cathedral of St Pierre in Geneva (later made famous by Louis Thiry's Messiaen recordings for Calliope) would prove pivotal. Here was a grand, eclectic organ which was clearly from a different philosophical world, and which owed more to contact with historic instruments. That contact was heightened by the involvement of Dutch organ builder Bernhardt Edskes who, at the age of 23, had joined the Metzler firm to serve his apprenticeship. Edskes, who had grown up with the Groningen Schnitger soundworld both in his ears and under his fingers and feet, found his star quickly in the ascendancy, and the project to design and voice the Amersfoort Choir Organ fell on his desk.

Hülsmann, meanwhile, had found a willing facilitator for his ambitions in Ben Pon. Pon was a member of the third generation of an Amersfoort family business which, in 1947, had signed the official import rights for Volkswagen in the Netherlands, a privilege the business still holds. Pon too had visited the Metzler organ in Geneva and donated the necessary capital to allow the procurement of the Amersfoort instrument. In fact there were, and are, two: in addition to the Choir Organ, St Joris also houses a mobile three-stop positive with charming painted shutters. Following a brief period in the south aisle during the church restoration, in 1969 the Choir Organ took its place on a tiny swallow's nest gallery accessed via the south-east corner of the now vacant, restored choir screen, facing north. With its elegant five- part case, it consisted of a single manual, with nine stops, an 8ft Principal in the façade and the very effective 16ft Quintade duplexed as an independent pedal stop.

This was an organ I encountered frequently in its original guise when I lived in the town and accompanied ecumenical services and concerts in the church. In the very gracious acoustics, it was, for its time, an exceptionally good instrument with a ‘calm’ and entirely cohesive plenum, outstanding, full flutes and an intuitive action. It didn't sound like a historic organ in any way, but the acerbic sharpness and exaggerated transients of the neo-Baroque, still to a greater or lesser extent the stock-intrade of the native builders in 1967, were absent. Only the Trompete, which at Pon's insistence emulated the spirit of the horizontal trumpets in Geneva, was less than sociable.

With Edskes driving them onwards, and with the first experiments just beginning to be made in historically inspired organ building in the Netherlands, Metzler would return in 1971 to build the outstanding 32ft instrument at the Grote Kerk in The Hague. The fact that this organ, at the behest of Hülsmann's one-time teacher Adriaan Engels, replaced the largest organ built in the Netherlands in the 19th century (Witte, 1882, III/55) prompted a bout of self-reflection not dissimilar to that following Marcussen's Haarlem intervention; nevertheless, the Metzler organ is surely one ofthe best left by the 1970s anywhere in Europe.

The organ is located on a swallow's nest gallery designed by W. Snieder, the architect responsible for the church restoration. The oak casework was originally painted by Antonio Frasson, while the new Borstwerk doors were gilded and painted by the De Jongh workshop of Waardenburg. At the expanded console, the new stop knobs have been made to match the originals

The new Pedaal division is housed in an opening just 60cm deep behind the case

The double-mitred bass of the Borstwerk Dulzian

In Amersfoort, the stars were to realign, fortuitously, half a century later. The appointment, in 2012, of Rien Donkersloot, one of the most brilliant Dutch organists and improvisers of his generation, and the appearance of another donor (this time a construction firm) keen to advance the local organ culture, has prompted the considerable enlargement of the Metzler organ through the addition of a Borstwerk, and an independent Pedaal behind the main case. Having left Metzler (shortly after designing the organ for Trinity College, Cambridge) to start his own company in Switzerland in 1975, the project has seen Bernhardt Edskes return to ‘finish’ the organ he began as a young man. While the addition of the Borstwerk seems to have been provided for when the organ was originally made, the opening behind the case for the Pedaal is all of 60cm deep and Edskes has had to be creative to accommodate the four-stop division. This is planted on a 52-note wind-chest to facilitate the staggering of the pipework, that of the Subbaß cleverly mitred to allow the deployment of the fold-down tuning platform for the Hoofdwerk on top. A late change of plan meanwhile saw the deployment of a Dulzian in the Borstwerk, which, due to the limited height available, is ingeniously double-mitred in the bass.

The 1845 Naber organ is now housed at the west end of the church

The Metzler/Naber organ as seen from the choir screen

Edskes's enlargement of the organ perhaps gives rise to an artistic paradox, however. The organ I used to know convincingly embodied the transitional nature of its date ofconception. Technically and tonally the Hoofdwerk is unchanged, the now excellent Trompete (mercifully calmed by former Flentrop director Frits Elshout) and some repair work aside. It retains the slight edginess of initial attack and controlled brilliance of its era. The small reservoir and presence of a Metzler-patented regulator in the Hoofdwerk soundboard (from which the new Borstwerk also derives its wind) ensures that the winding plays no role in the organ's expression. Neither does the tuning, which remains equal. Within such a framework the colourful Borstwerk with its full, prompt Dulzian (useful both in a solo and continuo role thanks to the newly adjustable doors) and lively flutes, with their typical Edskes promptness and absence (mostly) of initial consonant, feels slightly displaced chronologically. The playing experience is also slightly disconcerting. The original keyboard was simple, functional - ebony naturals, ivory sharps, no frills. The new keyboards with plum naturals, ebony sharps and ogee fronts plus the beautiful inlay in the key cheeks set up, in combination with the suspended action, a set of expectations which, due to the technical parameters of the original organ, aren't entirely realised. It's not that the organ isn't cohesive or sophisticated; it is both lovely to play and to listen to, but with so many historic instruments in the local organ landscape, its move towards an instrument optimally equipped for much early repertoire and associated playing techniques leave a nagging, almost subconscious sense of ambiguity. Somehow, the organ still seems happiest in 20th-century musical idioms.

This then is an organ which has bookended the life and career of Bernhardt Edskes. Initially voiced in his late 20s, the completion of the Pedaal division anticipated his passing in September 2022 by a matter of months. As such the organ documents the artistic development of a craftsman whose contribution to the organ culture of the later 20th and early 21st centuries, both as builder, restorer and researcher, was formidable. In this glorious church, and in the hands ofthe brilliant Rien Donkersloot, its music will continue to provide a fitting tribute, to Edskes and Hülsmann alike.