Dame Gillian Weir is
one of the most highly esteemed organists
in the world, performing organ works
from the Renaissance up to contemporary
compositions. Her recording reputation
is likely most advanced by her readings
for Priory of the complete organ works
of Olivier Messiaen. In addition to
being a highly acclaimed concert soloist,
Weir has excelled in the field of teaching
and is in strong demand as a judge at
international competitions. She was
nominated by Classic CD magazine as
one of the 100 Greatest Keyboard Players
of the 20th Century, and
the Sunday Times selected her as one
of the 1000 Music Makers of the Millennium.
For this Bach set of
performances, Weir plays two Phelps
organs, one built in 1974 and housed
in Fort Collins, Colorado, and the other
built in 1970 and housed in Toronto.
Both organs have mechanical key and
electric stop action, and they sound
splendid in Weir’s hands. Each of the
organs has abundant strength to convey
Bach’s powerful works such as the Prelude
and Fugue BWV 552 while also offering
the tenderest passages such as in the
Pastorale in F major.
The new 2-CD set is
my first encounter with Weir’s Bach,
and I am greatly impressed. Overall,
her style in Bach is highlighted by
light textures and a wonderful rhythmic
buoyancy. Yet, when Bach’s severity
and power are called for, there is no
stinting. Registrations are always attractive,
and the articulation is consistently
interesting. However, it is the warmth
of Bach that most represents Weir’s
approach to his music.
Being a Bach organ
enthusiast, I am familiar with most
of the Bach organ recordings made over
the past few decades. Dame Gillian Weir
more than holds her own when compared
to this vast recorded repertoire. Other
Bach organists may surpass Weir concerning
distinctive registrations, incisive
articulation, and the presentation of
musical severity and sweep. However,
she has no peers when the subject is
Bach’s lyricism and rhythmic flow. Undoubtedly,
her new recording is a major addition
to the organ discography of Bach, and
I urge readers to investigate her performances.
Here is a more detailed
description of the music and interpretations:-
Schübler Chorales
– These masterful six chorales are a
testimony to Bach’s command of counterpoint,
which simply refers to the simultaneous
playing of different melody lines set
against each other. Weir conveys Bach’s
command superbly, and delivers as fine
a set of the six chorales as any other
on record.
Most impressive are
Weir’s delightful rhythmic flows that
are lively and irresistible. Also, the
light textures she employs work wonderfully
except in BWV 648 where she tends to
dilute the gravity of the subject matter
with a rhythmic pattern that’s somewhat
jaunty. On EMI, Werner Jacob gives the
piece a demonstrative and ceremonial
nature far removed from Weir’s rather
cheery reading.
Weir’s performances
of BWV 645 and 647 are amongst the best
I have heard. In BWV 645, her quick
tempo and vibrant rhythms are invigorating,
and she creates urgency through her
greater speed and incisive inflections.
BWV 647 is a mixture of severity and
enlightenment, perfectly caught.
Pastorale in F major
and Canonic Variations – These are two
under-appreciated works that bask in
the glow of Bach’s love of making music.
The Pastorale is in four movements,
highlighted by a mesmerizing drone bass
in each movement. I find the work thoroughly
uplifting, and you won’t find another
composition in the Bach corpus that
surpasses the Pastorale in terms of
offering Bach’s comfort and security.
Even the 3rd Movement pleading
aria in a minor key has tremendously
effective rays of light. Most impressive
are the 1st Movement’s ‘bag-pipe’
refrains and the 2nd Movement’s
infectious rhythms and voice interplay.
Lionel Rogg has been my standard for
the Pastorale but now has to share this
distinction with Gillian Weir. As with
the previous works discussed, she has
an uncanny knack for finding just the
right rhythmic flows to use, and it
works to perfection in the 2nd
Movement where she is bubbling with
the elixir of life. Concerning the rays
of light I mentioned in the 3rd
Movement, Weir’s strike to the heart
immediately.
The Canonic Variations
is one of Bach’s prime examples of canonic
form. In its simplest form, a voice
carries the basic melody line and is
followed some bars later by another
voice with the same melody. However,
the second voice can take the melody
and invert it, alter its speed, alter
its pitch, and even change the music’s
nature. The result sounds like a panorama
of multiple themes when it is in reality
only one theme subjected to a series
of technical devices.
The architectural command
that Bach brings to his Canonic Variations
is beyond compare, and Weir revels in
the technical complexity. She uses her
technical expertise to convey to listeners
Bach’s sense of spiritual enlightenment,
paying particular homage to the music’s
lift. Weir’s is a wonderful performance
that puts a warm glow into this reviewer’s
soul. Again, her rhythms are enchanting
and her tenderness sublime.
Chorale Partita – Bach
composed four chorale partitas, each
one taking a hymn tune and subjecting
it to a series of variations of wide
breadth. BWV 767 has eight variations
in a pattern of increasing grandeur
and richness of texture. The 1st
Variation is an extended duet between
the soprano and tenor voices; the rhetorical
side of Bach’s music is constantly interesting.
Most rewarding is the 7th
Variation where Bach’s chromatic effects
(pitches outside the prevailing key)
create an eerie landscape contrasted
with the ascension to spirituality conveyed
by Bach’s rising lines. Weir plays the
7th Variation with outstanding
priority on its contrasts and gives
us as poignant an interpretation as
any on record. She’s also exceptional
in the other variations, except that
her leaping bass in the 3rd
Variation has too little projection
to compete with and complement the other
voices sufficiently.
Clavier-Übung
III (German Organ Mass) – This is a
major Bach work that lasts over 1½ hours
and includes Manualiter Chorales, Pedaliter
Chorales, the Four Duets, and the Prelude
and Fugue BWV 552. As with Bach’s other
monumental works such as the Well Tempered
Clavier, the German Organ Mass is a
compendium of Bach’s architectural styles
and emotional themes. It’s all here
– inversion, stretto, canon, counterpoint,
augmentation, diminution, etc. Further,
the breadth of emotions takes us from
the highest peaks of enlightenment and
security to the most perverse aspects
of the human condition.
It would take quite
a few pages to give a full account of
the work’s history and construction,
but I will offer a few items that I
hope provide some illumination about
the music. We have a series of chorales
that Bach wrote in both manualiter and
pedaliter form. The pedaliter chorales
are often referred to as the ‘major’
chorales of the work; they are rich
in texture, relatively severe, and very
powerful/demonstrative pieces; of course,
the pedals are used. The corresponding
manualiter chorales, sometimes called
the ‘small’ chorales, tend to be transparent
and intimate with light textures, some
playfulness, and a serenity not found
in the pedaliter chorales. However,
there still is plenty of bite in these
small chorales, so don’t expect a collection
of only warm music.
The Four Duets, more
familiar as standing on their own and
played on harpsichord or piano, are
hard to explain in the context of the
entire work. Bach evidently added them
just before the work was published,
and his reasons for doing so remain
a mystery. There is the line of thought
that Bach must have considered the work
slanted in too rich and powerful a manner
and that including the Four Duets which
are manualiter in form would equalize
the matter. Actually, this explanation
is the best I’ve heard and will accept
until a better one surfaces. The Prelude
and Fugue BWV 552 represents the ‘bookends’
of the work. As with most of Bach’s
music in this genre, BWV 552 is towering
music of majesty and serious intentions.
As you can note from
the heading, Gillian Weir gives an unusual
sequencing of the German Organ Mass.
Instead of playing a pedaliter chorale
followed by its manualiter companion,
Weir plays the manualiter chorales as
a group on Disc 1 and the pedaliter
chorales on Disc 2. Also, the Prelude
and Fugue BWV 552 becomes a set of bookends
only for the pedaliter chorales. Weir’s
justification for this sequence is that
"In this way not only does one
lessen the continual clashing of keys;
even more importantly a quite distinct
mood is created in each". I take
issue with her approach in that it reduces
the variety and contrasts inherent in
the work. The manualiter chorales can
be a fine respite from the power, severity,
and grandeur of the pedaliter chorales.
When played together, these powerful
chorales can be a little overbearing
depending on the style of the specific
organist. Placing the Prelude BWV 552
in front of all the pedaliter chorales
only exacerbates the potential problem.
On the other hand, I should not make
too much of this, because Weir is never
overbearing.
Now to Weir’s actual
performances. I did have a concern that
her basic approach to Bach might not
be well suited to the pedaliter chorales
and especially problematic for the Prelude
& Fugue BWV 552. However, my concerns
were entirely unfounded. Weir takes
to the severe and thunderous routes
splendidly. Whenever Bach’s music needs
to be ripped from the earth and soar
to the heavens, Weir puts on her ‘power-pack’
as naturally as she conveys Bach’s tender
refrains.
Compelling in every
piece of the German Organ Mass, Weir’s
reading of the pedaliter chorale BWV
687 is superior to all others. This
is monolithic music of intense severity,
and Weir dives into Bach’s mighty double-fugue
edifice delighting in the opportunity
to trade blows. There aren’t many rays
of light in the piece, and Bach only
offers them to us in tiny slivers. Still,
Weir makes the most of them, allowing
listeners a bit of respite from the
grinding and severe nature of the music.
There hasn’t been a
wealth of Bach organ recordings made
in recent years, and I have been hungry
for a fine set of newly recorded performances.
With Gillian Weir’s new recording, my
hunger is gone. While listening to her
performances, I can’t get the "Papa
Bach" designation out of my mind.
Weir gives us a Bach with outstretched
arms waiting to envelop humankind in
his security and enlightenment. All
we have to do is step forward.
Don Satz