Haarlem's current city organist, Jos van der Kooy, wonders whether Mendelssohn may have played the organ of St. Bavo on one of his many trips to England. In fact nothing is known about such a visit, which does not detract from the respectability of the current shooting location. After all, from 1858 to 1875 Mendelssohn's pupil Johannes Gijsbertus Bastiaans was organist here. Bastiaans had studied
… with Mendelssohn in Leipzig from 1837-38, and in his later life he performed the music of his teacher regularly. In fact, only No. 4 of Mendelssohn's organ sonatas follows the classical sonata pattern. And that only makes the other sonatas more exciting because of the unexpected contrasts and transitions. Add to this the robust sound of the Müller organ and the somewhat hypothermic logic of Jos van der Kooy's playing, and you get a wonderful compendium of what a monumental organ can do. (HJ)more
