Marcel Dupré - Variations sur un Noël (op.20) played by Gillian Weir on the organ of the Hedvig Elonora Kyrka in Stockholm. Courtesy of The King of Instruments DVD.
Cette musique puissante, étonnante et douloureusement belle prend un niveau encore plus élevé de transcendance envoûtante avec les images de cette vidéo. Ma défunte femme est tombée sur cet enregistrement quand elle enseignait dans le Maine, et a fait en sorte que tous ceux qu'elle connaissait expérimentent l’œuvre de ce musicien français inspiré et somptueux !
I've always admired the work of Dame Gillian Weir and once again I am in awe. the sheer ease with which she performs that last variation is incredible! what a fantastic recording.
This piece is extremely difficult to play, Gillian Weir is a superior performer. I would prefer to watch all of her performance without the interruptions for the paintings.
This video was posted back when RU-vid still had a 10-minute time limit on all video postings. This is why several of the variations were omitted from this performance. Nowadays, of course, that limitation no longer exists, especially since Google, which now owns RU-vid, has sufficiently deep pockets to furnish as much server space for storage and as much video bandwidth as RU-vid may require at any given time!
I love that grand jeu, very French plenum with trumpet instead of mixture, for instance in left hands fast notes part(ostinato sextol style) in the middle of the piece
Who cares about Fox or Biggs or Carpenter here? What the heck does that matter anyway? If you have ears, just listen - if you like what you hear say so. Personally I think this performance was just marvelous...as is the instrument as well - I love the sound of this machine - charming. This is no easy piece to play - how many of you ever tried? I did - I surely cant play it like this....or I would.
It always saddens me when I see lack of knowledge and experience surface that makes itself known because of ignorance,and with their ignorance seek to raise one great talent above another great talent by seeking to tear down that which can't be torn down,,except with ignorance.FYI. Virgil Fox had all the music of Bach memorized by the age of 18 and he never used music in concert. Gillian is a great musicuan. We are gratefull for her talent and richer for it.
I absolutely agree, David. Virgil was simply the best and I attended 6 performances as a 'witness' to his tremendous knowledge of Bach and the organ. Appreciate your being here and telling it like it was.
An earlier entry in which I mentioned Virgil Fox performing the Bach Gamut in Washingtom Symphony Hall on their new organ donated by a dear friend prompts me to note here that that great organ is being torn out and replaced as not suitabley designed for concert material! If pigs could fly! Hope they take better care of the new one, Is it my imagination or do Symphony Halls seem to hate organs,well some do!?
The self proclaimed organ and composer analysts and critics on this page would like everyone to be aware of their "GENIUS" and try to impress the gullible. Instead they should enjoy all performances, let it be Virgil Fox. HM or Marko Hakanpää and get a life for themselves. Appreciate the effort.
