Organist’s Energy Drives Symphony

The great French organ symphonies demand a sure ear for color and balance, making them more than just technically difficult for a visiting organist to realize. Considering that some of the reed stops on the organs at First Congregational Church were unavailable (the pipes were being revoiced) Sunday afternoon, Gillian Weir’s achievement in Widor’s Symphony No. 6 was all the more remarkable.

The British organist, making her third appearance on the annual organ series at First Congregational, used effective combinations to replace the missing tones, preserving the moody lyric elegance of the Adagio and the dark taut bite of the Intermezzo. She seemed reluctant to open up the sound as fully as she might in the outer movements with all ranks present and accounted for, but otherwise this was a model of clarity and expression, projected with confident energy.

Weir worked to equally persuasive effect in two pieces by Marcel Dupre. She developed the blazing Allegro Deciso finale from “Evocation” with articulate fury, contained at times in sound but firmly pointed and paced.

Elsewhere on her program, Weir seemed in a mood for piquant color and charm, beginning in tuneful, dancing terms with a Toccata by Michelangelo Rossi and the “Aria detto lo Balletto” by Frescobaldi. A classical sonata movement by Franz-Xaver Schnitzer displayed perky passage work, and a transcription of Liszt’s “St. Francois de Paule marchant sur les flots” indulged pictorial impulses lavishly.