Widor: Organ Favourites (Incls Toccata from Symphony No 5)

"I can therefore recommend this is as a highly enjoyable, and, thanks to the organ, rather remarkable release" (MusicWeb Sept 2007)

Charles-Marie Widor was born on 21 February 1844, in Lyons. His father, organist of the church of Saint François-de-Sales, gave Widor his first music lessons. By the age of eleven, his progress was such that he became organist of his school chapel and could deputise for his father at Saint-François. In 1863 the French organ builder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll (1811-1899) arranged for him to study in Brussels : organ with the virtuoso Jacques Lemmens (1823-1881) and composition with François- Joseph Fétis (1784-1871), director of the Brussels Conservatoire. Widor emerged from this rigorous course of study a virtuoso organist with a thorough training in the principals of classical composition.

With Cavaillé-Coll's continuing help and influence, Widor's reputation as an organist began to flourish, and he came in contact with many of the great music personalities of the time such as Saint-Saëns, Franck, Meyerbeer, Liszt, Rossini, and Gounod. In 1868 he was one of seven organists chosen to give the inaugural recital of the new Cavaillé-Coll organ at Notre Dame. In 1869 he participated in the opening recital of the new Cavaillé-Coll organ at La Trinité and was appointed Saint-Saëns' assistant at La Madeleine. In January 1870, on the recommendation of Cavaillé-Coll and Gounod, he was appointed as probationary organist for one year at the church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris. It housed what was, at that time, Cavaillé-Coll's magnum opus. The appointment of a 25-year-old to such a prestigious post was controversial, but Cavaillé-Coll felt that from this position, Widor could best advance an organ reform movement inspired by the teaching of Lemmens. It is indeed fortunate that the young composer had such a magnificent instrument at his disposal, for it became the inspiration for his ten organ symphonies which revolutionised the art of organ playing and composition in France. He was never confirmed as permanent organist at Saint-Sulpice, and so remained the temporary organist for the next 64 years. During his tenure the organ loft at Saint-Sulpice became a gathering place for the artistic and aristocratic elite of Paris, who came to admire the wonders Widor could conjure from Cavaillé-Coll's monumental instrument.