Limitless artistry

1:12pm Thursday 10th July 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

THE second of Hereford Cathedral’s Gala Organ Concerts was given on Tuesday evening by the world-renowned organist Dame Gillian Weir.

Without question it ranked among the greatest performances I have ever experienced in a long career. The unconventional programme was intriguing. It opened with William Matthias’s virtuosic Variations on a Welsh Hymn Tune, after which Dame Gillian enthralled us with engaging works by Sweelinck, Liszt, Messiaen, Duruflé, Widor and Eben. Most enchanting was probably Messaien’s Chants d’oiseaux, in which the massive Willis instrument was transformed into a veritable aviary of delicate twitterings, cacklings and boomings. Most brilliant was the staggering bravura of the Moto Ostinato and Finale from Czech composer Petr Eben’s Sunday Music which ended the recital.

Dame Gillian’s achievement was technically staggering. I don’t know what the equivalent of finger legato is when referring to the feet or to shifting from manual to manual, but the way she applied it was miraculous. The range of colours was spectacular and the subtle transitions between them magical. Never before have I heard an organ recital come close to sounding like this. And that is only the technical aspects. Musically it was exemplary. Where required her performance was tender, dramatic, soothing and hair-raising.

At the end of her engaging pre-concert interview with fellow recitalist in the series Peter Dyke, someone asked Dame Gillian whether the organ’s mechanical nature allows musical expression. Her verbal answer was gracious: it’s all in the phrasing. Her musical answer was an emphatic demonstration of limitless artistry. John Rushby-Smith