Charles-Marie Widor is one of the most important representatives of the Paris organ school from Franck to Messiaen. His pupils included Tournemire, Vierne, Dupré and Schweitzer. Widor was the inventor of the organ symphony (not counting Franck's Grande Pièce Symphonique). Widor's first four symphonies are not that 'symphonic' by the way; they could be better referred to as suites. Here and there
… this music sounds quite mundane, as if it belongs in the drawing room rather than in the church. Yet here too the music already contains the 'profundity' that is so characteristic of Widor's latest symphonies. Only from the Fifth Symphony (with the justly popular Toccata) the genre gained in logic and allure, culminating in the magisterial Eighth. The organ symphonies of this CD, however, were still to come. They differ from the previous symphonies in two important ways. Firstly, they are not indicated by an ordinal number (in fact they are the ninth and tenth symphonies), but by a architectural style: Gothique and Romane (references to the cathedrals for which they were written). Secondly, the theme is determined by Gregorian chant, culminating in the Symphonie Romane, which is entirely determined by the graduated Haec Dies. And so Widor pointed forward with his Gothique to Dupré and with his Romane to Tournemire, and therefore (through both symphonies) indirectly to Messiaen. (HJ) Firstly, they are not indicated by an ordinal number (in fact they are the ninth and tenth symphonies), but by a architectural style: Gothique and Romane (references to the cathedrals for which they were written). Secondly, the theme is determined by Gregorian chant, culminating in the Symphonie Romane, which is entirely determined by the graduated Haec Dies. And so Widor pointed forward with his Gothique to Dupré and with his Romane to Tournemire, and therefore (through both symphonies) indirectly to Messiaen. (HJ) Firstly, they are not indicated by an ordinal number (in fact they are the ninth and tenth symphonies), but by a architectural style: Gothique and Romane (references to the cathedrals for which they were written). Secondly, the theme is determined by Gregorian chant, culminating in the Symphonie Romane, which is determined in its entirety by the graduated Haec Dies. And so Widor pointed forward with his Gothique to Dupré and with his Romane to Tournemire, and therefore (through both symphonies) indirectly to Messiaen. (HJ) And so Widor pointed forward with his Gothique to Dupré and with his Romane to Tournemire, and therefore indirectly (through both symphonies) to Messiaen. (HJ) And so Widor pointed forward with his Gothique to Dupré and with his Romane to Tournemire, and therefore indirectly (through both symphonies) to Messiaen. (HJ)more
