Dame Gillian Weir

Gillian Weir played an inspired programme of Bach and Messiaen in Saturday's concert in Christ Church Cathedral. It's the 100th anniversary of Messiaen's birth, so probably a busy year for Weir, the doyenne of Messiaen's organ works. It's quite a coup for Music At Oxford to have staged this bold concert, in the strangely intimate setting of one of the smallest cathedrals in the country.

Bach and Messiaen may seem odd bedfellows, but the partnership works. Movements from Messiaen's Messe de la Pentecôte alternate with 21 Chorale Preludes based on Lutheran hymn tunes, from Bach's Clavier-Ubung. The depth of expression in each match beautifully, and Weir seems perfectly at home playing both genres, needing as little time to clear her musical palate as the audience do. With no applause between movements the atmosphere was austere and tense, emphasising the religious nature of the evening.

Odd one out in this recital is the introductory Choral II in B minor by César Franck. It sits between Bach and Messiaen in centuries, and with its alternating fast and high, wide and low passages it sets the pace for the rest of the programme. Unfortunately this piece suffered from the range of stops on the Christ Church organ, which can provide ponderous, farty woodwind like a parish harmonium or brash, squealing trumpets. It fails to sound melodious in either range. That said, the organ coped better with Bach and Messaien than with Franck, in particular having no trouble providing some of the more extreme sounds, such as Messaien's notes so low you feel rather than hear them.

Highlights included Les Oiseaux et les Sources, with the detail of real bird song. Apparently Messaien could sometimes be seen creeping about in parks with a notebook, to capture birdsong before taperecorders. This piece perhaps illustrates the differences between the composers - Bach formal, Lutheran, expressing an emotional response to his religion, Messiaen free, Catholic, seeking to explain the incomprehensible, and using the fine detail of the familiar to lead his listeners to the unfamiliar and mysterious. They are linked by their passion, their religion and the musical timeline. Messaien plays with structure, referencing plainsong and Hindu rhythms as well as natural sounds, in the way that modern poets can hint at the formal structures of classical poetry, without being bound by them. If Bach is John Donne, then Messiaen might be TS Eliot, flitting from one structure to another. Essentially the pairing of Bach and Messiaen steers us from the familiar to the unfamiliar much as Messiaen within Liturgy would seem, or as Messiaen does within his own music - we can enjoy his wilder passages knowing that resolution will come.

The concert rose to a crescendo, with Messiaen's Le Vent de l'Esprit (The Wind of the Spirit) which tore through the Cathedral with trademark power and resplendent discords. Finally Bach's Komm Gott, Schöpfer felt like the voluntary to the concert, leaving the audience refreshed and resulting in enormous applause. Some of the audience watched Weir on a videolink, showing her fingers, and occasionally her feet darting about. Personally I felt it was unnecessary - you can hear how nimble she is - but it did provide another dimension to the evening. And when you have someone as fabulous as Gillian Weir visiting you do want to soak up as much of the evening as you can.

Jen Pawsey (DI Reviewer), 22/05/08

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