Bernhardt Hilbrand Edskes (28 October 1940 – 21 September 2022) was a Dutch-Swiss organist, organologist, and organ builder based in Wohlen.
Edskes was born to Albert Hendrik Edskes and Grietje de Graaf, and grew up in Groningen as the youngest of four musical brothers. He received piano and organ lessons from the first grade onwards and became assistant organist at the organ at the Dorpskerk at Noordbroek at the age of 13 and principal organist at the Organ in the Jacobikerk at Uithuizen at the age of 15. In addition to music, he was also interested in painting and drawing, which he deepened at the Groningen Academy of Fine Arts.[1]
As a result of the North Sea flood of 1953, numerous new organs had to be built in the Netherlands, for which the Swiss company Metzler received orders. Edskes designed several new organs for this firm. In 1963, he moved to Switzerland and became artistic director for exterior design and tonal conception at Metzler. In 1966, he married Doris Edskes née Utzinger Alber, a federally certified structural draughtswoman, with whom he has two daughters. After working for Metzler for twelve years, he set up his own workshop in Wohlen in 1975.
For years, Edskes was chairman of the Swiss Association of Organists and lecturer in organ building at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and at the Zurich University of the Arts. He gives concerts throughout Europe, lectures on organ building and has recorded various CDs. In addition, he was organist at the in Dietikon until 2000.
Andreas Boesch, employee at the company since 2000, took over the technical project planning in 2005. Since March 2019, he has been the managing director and owner of Orgelbau Edskes.
Edskes was known for his consistent restoration practice and reconstructions of Renaissance and Baroque organs,[2] However, he restored 19th-century organs and realised independent new buildings. As for his brother, the Groningen organologist Cor Edskes, the work of Arp Schnitger forms the focus and conceptual orientation for quite a few of his new buildings. Characteristic of Edskes' historicising new organs is the completely uniform Intonation. He considers it pseudo-romantic to deliberately incorporate irregularities in order to make an organ appear older.[3] Edskes also built stringed keyboard instruments such as harpsichords and clavichords.
The size of the instruments is indicated in the fifth column by the number of manuals and the number of sounding stops in the sixth column. A capital "P" stands for an independent pedal, a small "p" for an attached pedal.
| Year | Location | Church | class=unsortable | Picture ! | Manual | Stops | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | Willisau | Musikinstrumentensammlung[4] | I | 1 | Restaurierung des Regals von Johannes Christophorus Pfleger (1644); 1991 von Edskes für Kloster Muri nachgebaut[5] | ||
| 1983 | Zürich-Witikon | Maria Krönung | II/P | 27 | zusammen mit Armin Hauser; angelehnt an Arp Schnitger | ||
| 1985 | Basel | Predigerkirche | II/p | 11 | Neubau als Schwalbennestorgel in Zusammenarbeit mit Sebastian Blank; Pedal in der Tiefe mit eigenen Pfeifen[6] | ||
| 1988 | Nieuw Scheemda (Oldambt) | Dorpskerk | I/p | 8 | Restaurierung des Positivs von Arp Schnitger (1695) | ||
| data-sort-value="1993" | 1988–1989 | Regensburg | Minoritenkirche (Historisches Museum) | II/P | 11 | Rekonstruktion der Schwalbennestorgel (15./16. Jahrhundert) nach einem Dispositionsentwurf von Caspar Sturm (1583) | |
| 1992 | Muri | Klosterkirche St. Martin | I | 4 | Nachbau der Chororgel von Karl Joseph Maria Bossart (1777/1778)[7] | ||
| data-sort-value="1993" | 1992–1993 | II/p | 17 | Restoration of the organ by Johann Friedrich Wenthin (1788/89)[8] | |||
| 1993 | Münzbach | Pfarrkirche | II/P | 15 | Restaurierung der Orgel von Franz Lorenz Richter (1764) in Zusammenarbeit mit Orgelbau Kögler → Orgel | ||
| 1994 | Basel | Waisenhaus-Kirche | II/P | 22 | Nachbau der Orgel von Arp Schnitger (1693–1694) im Hamburger Zustand[9] → Orgel der Grasberger Kirche | ||
| 1994 | Steyr | Benediktinerstift Gleink | II/P | 20 | Neubau hinter historischem Gehäuse von 1732. | ||
| 1995 | Linz | Marienkapelle des Konservatoriums für Kirchenmusik | II/P | 12 | |||
| 1995 | Village church | I/p | Restaurierung der Orgel von Gottfried Fritzsche (1621/22), die 1725/26 durch Johann Andreas Graff eingreifend umgebaut wurde | ||||
| 1996 | Hardegsen | St. Mauritius | II/P | 30 | Neubau unter Verwendung von Restteilen der Hauptwerkfront von Johann Justus Hansen (1784), die mehrfach umgebaut wurde; der Brustwerkschrank ist leer.[10] | ||
| 1997 | Aurich | St.-Ludgerus-Kirche | II/P | 15 | Neubau; Unterwerk als Flötenwerk | ||
| 1997 | Neufelden | Pfarrkirche Neufelden | I/P | 8 | Rekonstruktion der Brüstungsorgel von Johann Ignaz Egedacher (1720–1730) | ||
| 1997 | Friedenskirche | II/P | 13 | Neubau | |||
| 1997 | Gurten | Pfarrkirche | II/P | 13 | Neubau | ||
| 1996–1998 | St. Georg | I/p | 12 | Restoration of the organ by Johann Wilhelm Gloger (1726-1728), reconstruction of three stops; largely preserved | |||
| 1999 | Mittenwald | St. Peter und Paul | II/P | 29 | Neubau | ||
| data-sort-value="2000" | 1995–2000 | Melle | St. Petri | III/P | 37 | Restaurierung der Orgel von Christian Vater (1722–1724) → Orgel | |
| data-sort-value="2001" | 1986, 2000–2001 | Uithuizen | Jacobikerk | II/P | 28 | Restaurierung der Orgel von Arp Schnitger (1700/01) auf den Zustand von 1785; 1986 Rückpositiv, 2000/01 Hauptwerk und Pedal → Orgel der Jacobikerk Uithuizen | |
| 2001 | Mariana, Minas Gerais | Franziskanerkirche | II/p | 19 | Restaurierung der Orgel von Arp Schnitger (um 1712), Wiederherstellung des Zustands von 1753 (Aufstellung in Mariana)[11] → Orgel der Kathedrale von Mariana | ||
| 2002 | Tokio | Klosterkirche Nazareth | II/P | 12 | Neubau | ||
| 2003 | Groningen | Hausorgel Jan Willem van Willigen | II/P | 10 | Neubau in Anlehnung an die Schnitger-Orgel in Uithuizen[12] | ||
| 2003–2004 | Ommen | Het Baken | II/P | 21 | Neubau[13] | ||
| 2004–2005 | Veenhuizen | Koepelkerk | II/P | 15 | Restaurierung und Erweiterung der Orgel von Hillebrand (1821); das Rückpositiv in der Brüstung ist nur 25 cm tief und verfügt über 5 Register | ||
| data-sort-value="2006" | 2004–2006 | Dordrecht | Julianakerk | II/P | 32 | Neubau unter Einbeziehung der Pedalregister aus der Vorgängerorgel[14] | |
| 2007 | Termen | Pfarrkirche | II/P | 22 | Neubau[15] | ||
| data-sort-value="2008" | 2007–2008 | Dübendorf | Maria Frieden | I/P | 8 | Restaurierung einer slowenischen Orgel von Franc Goršič (1886) in Besitz von Edskes, die in der Kirche Allerheiligen Zürich und Maria Frieden Dübendorf als Interimsorgel diente und heute in Dübendorf als Chororgel eingesetzt wird.[16] | |
| 2008 | Miyazaki | Lutherkirche | II/P | 14 | Neubau | ||
| 2009 | Groningen | „Stichting Groningen Orgelland“ | I | Orgelfunktionsmodell | |||
| 2009 | Zürich-Neuaffoltern | Allerheiligen | II/P | 27 | Neubau[17] | ||
| 2010–2011 | Aagtekerke | Gereformeerde Gemeente | II/P | 22 | Neubau[18] | ||
| 2011 | Former collegiate church | II/P | 26 | behind historical casing | |||
| 2012 | Mittenwald | St. Peter und Paul | I | 41/2 | New construction of a choir organ | ||
| 2012–2013 | Groningen | Het Zwitserse Huis, private Hausorgel | II/P | 17 | New building in the style of Schnitger | ||
| 2014 | Dübendorf | Maria Frieden | II/P | 36 | Two-piece case with free-standing console.[19] | ||
| 2015 | Ouddorp | Eben-Haëzerkerk | IIIP | 40 | Conversion and rebuilding of the organ by Troels Krohn (1956) from the Helleruplund Kirke with Rückpositiv and Schwellwerk | ||
| 2016 | Neustadt an der Weinstraße | Stiftskirche | II/P | 20 | Neubau[20] | ||
| 2017 | Groningen | Lutherse Kerk | II/P | 24 | Rekonstruktion der verlorenen Schnitger-Orgel von 1699 (II/p/16), die 1717 um ein selbstständiges Pedal erweitert wurde[21] | ||
| 2018 | Gfenn (Dübendorf) | Lazariterkirche | II/P | 12 | im Gehäuse von Architekt Keller (1967); Temperierung nach Arnolt Schlick (1511)[22] | ||
| 2019–2020 | Moerkapelle | Gereformeerde Gemeente | II/P | 30 | including 13 stops from the previous organ by Pieter Flaes (1890) |