Widor - Organ Symphonies Vol.1 (Symphonies Nos.1 and 2, Op.13)

Charles-Marie WIDOR (1844–1937)

Organ Symphonies Vol.1 

Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2, Op. 13

Wolfgang Rübsam

on the E.M.Skinner Organ

Recorded March 2019 at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, 

The University of Chicago, Illinois, USA

It is unfortunate that as eclectic a musician as Charles-Marie Widor—hugely influential and venerated in his time and at home in numerous genres as a composer—should nowadays be exclusively associated with the instrument of the organ. To make matters worse, Widor’s extensive oeuvre for the instrument, with the ten organ symphonies at its centre, barely features in the contemporary concert scene, instead being represented by a handful of movements from individual symphonies, most particularly the Toccata from Symphony No. 5 Op. 42, No. 1—the most famous piece bearing the name since Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 565.

How do we explain the fact that Widor is effectively a household name, but actually very little is known about him and his musical significance, and only a handful of his works are really known?

As far as the organ works are concerned, this might be partly explained by the fact that the beauty and profundity of Widor’s musical expression does not necessarily reveal itself on a first hearing. An additional factor is that many of his movements are far from easy to play, given their technical difficulties and complex textures—testament to the creative and technical mastery Widor retained until an advanced age.

In addition, a significant proportion of professional organists take the view that Widor’s music can only be properly played on the instruments of Aristide Cavaillé-Coll. This argument is less than conclusive. It is certainly true that the great organ of Saint-Sulpice in Paris, on which Widor performed over the extraordinary time frame of 64 years, was a great, indeed unmatched source of inspiration for him—and unlike his predecessor Lefébure-Wély, Widor managed to achieve not merely superficial effects on the instrument, but to find new combinations and mixtures of colours and texture, as well as sounding out the very deepest symphonic, ‘chamber’ and solo possibilities of the instrument.

At the same time, given that today only relatively few of the great instruments of this great organ builder, innovative and yet still anchored in tradition, have truly been maintained in their original condition (most have been fundamentally altered in terms of their character, in relation to the orgue néo-classique, whether in a technical sense, as regards the electrification of the tracker action for instance, or in sonic terms), the argument implies that an ideal performance of Widor’s music is only possible in a few, highly specialised locations.

This can be countered by the fact that Widor himself had no problem performing his works on instruments of different provenance, be it on his numerous tours of Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, England or elsewhere. Even his Symphony No. 10, although composed for the Cavaillé-Coll organ of the abbey of Saint-Sernin in Toulouse, was first performed by Widor himself on the German Romantic Wilhelm Sauer organ in Berlin’s Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche in early 1900. So this apparently critical and axiomatic principle for the choice of instrument—one that has done Widor a real disservice as regards the wider performance if his works—has to be put in perspective.

Widor’s symphonies went through some stark transformations over his career. After the ‘Classical’- sounding beginnings with Op. 13, via the virtuosic monumentality of the developments in Op. 42, he ultimately arrived at the final two works, Op. 70 ‘Gothique’ and Op. 73 ‘Romane’, influenced by Gregorian chant and suffused with an air of spirituality. These works truly make it possible to experience Widor’s aphorism ‘To play the organ is to manifest a purpose that has been filled with the gaze of eternity’ at first hand.

There is so much more to discover with Widor: the creator of piano, chamber, orchestral, ballet and operatic music; the magnanimous teacher and developer of a systematic methodology for organ-playing; the editor of organ collections; the music critic and essayist; the author of a theory of instrumentation that was both based on Berlioz’s famous work and developed it further; and last but not least, the tireless champion, both as an organist and as a conductor, of the music of J.S. Bach.

But let us start by discovering the Organ Symphonies, as the present recording allows us to do. Charles-Marie Widor’s ten symphonies are indisputably central in his repertory of works of the organ. Within them, however, a constant process of development can be discerned, beginning, from a stylistic point of view, with neo- Classical tendencies and elements that resemble character pieces in Op. 13. They later become more obviously virtuosic works, bound in formal terms by a large-scale symphonic language, one that reaches monumental scale in Op. 42. Finally, in Opp. 70 and 73, Widor arrives at a structure imbued, through its elements of Gregorian chant, with spiritual depth.

In the process Widor was also constantly working on the overall sound and feel of his symphonies, sometimes subjecting them to heavy revisions, adding or replacing movements, expanding the scale of his works or changing their endings. It is a matter of regret that not all of his handwritten marks from his own personal copy, which he used in performance, have been reflected in subsequent publications.

The performer must therefore sometimes decide which version of a movement or indeed of an entire symphony to play. Moreover, it was often Widor’s own practice to select not necessarily a whole symphony for public performance, but a few parts of one, or even just a single piece. This applied both to liturgical and concert use.

Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 13, No. 1

This first work in the genre, from a formal point of view, resembles a suite more than a classical symphony. The serious, solemn Prélude, with its obvious homage to Johann Sebastian Bach, opens the lavish, seven-movement work with a pedal solo that introduces one of the two main themes. A contrasting Allegretto in A flat major follows, whose tonal character is primarily characterised by flute stops and cannot be easily classified in a specific form. In the following Intermezzo in G minor we can see the first instance of Widor’s toccata style, with its characteristic virtuoso style and ostinato manual figures.

The ensuing Adagio in E flat major is a piece of inner beauty, that contrasts with the Marche pontificale in C major that follows. This luminous work in rondo form evokes the ceremonial processional music of a magnificent service in the church of Saint-Sulpice.

The melancholy Méditation in E flat minor presents another contrast: a moment of peace before the intricate Finale, which with its opening key of C minor and its contrapuntal form—a masterfully constructed fugue—gives the whole work its cyclical nature.

Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 13, No. 2

Here too a Præludium circulare opens the work. This time, it is not so much counterpoint that sets the tone as an unusual motivic modulation that keeps shifting a semitone higher and thus ultimately comes full circle, finding itself back at the original key. The following Pastorale in G major charms the listener with its appealing, flowing ebullience and its surprising tonal shifts and variations. In the rondo-like Andante in B flat major that follows, chorale-style passages alternate with freer, less structured passages.

Widor initially then planned a Scherzo in E major (see forthcoming release Volume 2, 8.574195). In later editions he replaced it with a Salve Regina in D minor, characterised by his late Gregorian style, as in the Symphonies, Opp. 70 and 73. This creates a certain divergence from the remaining movements, but the sequence of movements in differing styles is undeniably fascinating.

The Adagio in B minor, opening with its solo arabesquestyle voice, affords a pause for breath before the rousing Finale, with its principal key of D major. This moto perpetuo with its constant seamless ‘grand jeu’ pulsation is a superb example of Widor’s ability to achieve spectacular effects from apparently little in the way of musical substance.

All in all we can draw the clear conclusion that Widor’s Op. 13 is often unfairly undervalued. In the context of the time, these early works represented a novelty, already offering the listener a high degree of ingenuity. The use of older stylistic elements and forms should not be seen as anachronistic, but rather recognised as a reminiscence of great forebears such as Bach, Mendelssohn and Schumann. Combined with Widor’s own individual style and the sonic beauties and capacities of the French Romantic organ that he exploits to such brilliant effect, he can truly be said to have created something new and even unprecedented in the genre.

Christian von Blohn