Gillian Weir plays NIELSEN: Commotio, Op.58: Proms, 15 August 1980: organ of the Royal Albert Hall

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Here we have Nielsen’s magnificent, epic Commotio played magnificently by the Queen of Organists on the King of Instruments.

Dame Gillian gave this towering performance at the Proms on August 15, 1980 – and I am very grateful to her for letting me to share the recording on my channel: I hope – and I am sure – many will be thrilled to be able to hear this great (and sadly rather neglected) work played so powerfully.

I remember a review once trumpeting “Gillian Weir is the standard by which her profession is measured”: what more apt, fair and deserved accolade could there be for such a very great artist – whose brilliance as an musician (in all ways) has always been matched by equally great human qualities of integrity, generosity, kindness towards, and interest in, others – and who has inspired so many, always wanting to see and encourage others go further than they might have thought they possible. What a great example for us all.

Nielsen only turned to write for the organ in the last year of his life: “None of my other works has demanded such great concentration as this: it’s an attempt to recreate the one true organ style, the polyphonic, that especially suits this instrument, which has for a long time been looked on a sort of orchestra: it isn’t that at all.”

Dated 27 February 1931, Nielsen would never hear the work’s premier that was to be performed by his pupil and friend Emilius Bangert at the Marienkirche, Lübeck, on October 6 that year: his ailing health took a turn for the worse with a blood-clot at the heart, from which complications he died in the evening of October 3.

I remember being stunned by the breadth, sweep, emotion and impact hearing this work for this first time in this performance all those years ago: both music and playing opened my young mind to great new vistas and spaces… The overwhelming final C major chord - when the music’s great wash of movement comes finally to its magnificent rest - dispels the all preceding questing turmoils and episodes, like a vast, cleansing ocean of white...............................

(Uploaded in honour of Dame Gillian's birthday - January 17, 2022.)