Charles marie widor compositions often chosen
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We need, we want, to hear everything.' The Ninth was Widor's favourite symphony. I had taken the artistic approach that it was crucial to record Widor’s symphonies in a massive space, on a Cavaillé-Coll organ of real pedigree, as Widor and Cavaillé-Coll are inseparable. Inspired by the orchestral possibilities of Cavaillé-Coll’s grand organ (capable of imitating the timbres of orchestral instruments), he began to write his Organ Symphonies.
He was the first to apply the term ” symphony ” to organ music, transforming the solo instrument into a veritable one-man orchestra .
First subject, ABA, A major (minor)/C-sharp minor/A major, Andante 4/4, forte/piano/forte. 20 (1875, Hamelle)
86 (1927, Durand)
3. 🇩🇪 The German Romantic Heritage (By Orchestration)
Although Widor was French , the idea of a “symphony” for a solo instrument was inspired by the German Romantic orchestral model .
César Franck (1822-1890) :
Link: His predecessor as a professor at the Conservatory.
Similarity : Franck raised the organ to a level of spiritual and formal expression just as high as Widor’s, but with a more mystical and contemplative style, often based on cyclic form (as in his Grande Pièce Symphonique ) .
Contrasting the Sixth, however, variation procedure replaces sonata discipline. The fifth [here sixth] movement, an Adagio in D major, was written originally (uniquely) for just the short-resonating voix humaine, re-registered in the 1887 revision. He was also a key pedagogue (director of the Conservatory).
Relationships
1. 3 (1887, Hamelle)
8 op. Whether or not Schweitzer was entirely correct to say that the Fifth 'deserts' the path of its predecessors, 'the lyric withdraws' (1951), is arguable. Likewise his habitual pleasure in key-shifting. Time is money in the recording business, and although I had rehearsed with great diligence for six months prior—and performed the symphonies many times across the way—once the red light comes on everything changes.
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