The organ in the Petruskerk in Leens was built in the years 1733/34 by the Groningen organ builder Albertus Anthoni Hinsz. The organ builder Hinsz had established his name as an independent organ builder during the conversion and enlargement of the organ in the Martinikerk in Groningen in 1729, during which the organ received a new back positive .
The organ in Leens received 27 stops, divided over Hoofdwerk, Rugpositief and a free Pedaal. It was completed in December 1734. Hinsz borrowed the design and detailing of the instrument from the organ of the Michaelskerk in Zwolle. He repeated this structure a number of times: in Almelo, Midwolda, Harlingen, Bolsward and Uithuizermeeden. But the organ in Leens sounds the most brilliant. The sound is therefore closest to the Schnitger tradition. The carvings and statues of the richly decorated organ case were made by Theodorus van der Haven and Caspar Struiwigh.
The Petruskerk was restored in the years 1948-52, during which the interior decoration was changed. The organ, which was encased during the church restoration, was made playable again after completion of the church by the organ builder Mense Ruiter, followed by a restoration by the organ builders Gebr. Van Vulpen in Utrecht. The organ was returned to Leens on April 26, 1968.
In later years it became clear that the organ was in need of major maintenance in various parts. After the plans for major maintenance were completed, they were expanded with the plan to restore the organ back to its original construction and voicing the pipes as Anthonie Hinsz had done in 1733. This work was carried out by Orgelmakerij Reil BV in Heerde. They knew the organ best by thoroughly examining a similar instrument from Hinsz in Tzum in order to be able to copy it exactly. The copied organ is placed in Ermelo. Then they restored the Hinsz organ in Tzum.
In Leens, the entire wind supply with five bellows was reconstructed, as well as other parts of the organ including the Calcanten clock. The original pipes were voiced with great precision. The Neidhardt II tuning was maintained; the wind pressure remained virtually the same. When the windchests and pipework were in Heerde (2020), the carvings were restored and supplemented by Tico Top. At the beginning of May 2021, the organ was festively inaugurated and appeared the Booklet + CD: The Hinsz organ by Leens, back to 1733.
The province of Groningen is called the organ garden of Europe. Nowhere else can you find so many organs with the special timbres of the Baroque. The craft of the 16th and 17th centuries was lost when the later Bätz organs were built, as well as those of Maarschalkerweerd and Adema. I don't want sample sets of these organs. Dr. Teus den Toom describes in his dissertation on Witte that he took the Schnitger pipes to the rubbish heap to replace them with his own high-pressure pipes. The Orgelbewegung, started in 1930, was the beginning of the rediscovery of the craft of the 17th century.
Albert and Han Reil, together with Klaas Bolt, have succeeded in completely reconstructing the craft of organ building. The sounds of the Hinsz organ in Leens (2021) demonstrate this well; they are the most beautiful sounds that can inspire an organist. Even if they sound from Sonus Paradisi samples at living room level; I hear the sounds as the organist in Leens hears them. Jiri Zurek has proven his in-depth knowledge of sound sampling. He uses new insights in the sampling technique and thus reaches a very high level. The long loading time is a necessary consequence, as it transfers full character from each pipe. The acoustics come from an IR recording. I switch off the wind model, because with Jiri Zurek's new technique, the real fluctuations of the wind flow are clearly audible. They are lively sounds, similar to the church.
