Charles-Marie Widor is renowned for his Late Romantic organ works, yet all of these together only total 10% of his prodigious output. There is much yet to explore in his orchestral works (including three symphonies and a piano concerto), chamber pieces, songs and piano pieces.

Widor's series of multi-movement Organ Symphonies for the solo instrument are really better described as suites; there are few examples of movements in the expected sonata form and no real scherzos. The two symphonies presented here add an orchestra to the solo instrument, and were composed under unusual circumstances.

The Symphony for Organ & Orchestra op. 42 (bis) was written at the behest of King Edward VII for performance at a charity concert at the Royal Albert Hall in 1882. Rather than write something new, Widor fashioned the work from the first and last movements of his sixth Organ Symphony op. 43, interpolated with the Andante of the second, op. 9. The result is very much akin to an organ concerto. Widor himself performed it in Paris before its London début, and there was a famous performance in Philadelphia at the 1919 dedication of the rebuilt organ of Wannamaker's Department Store with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Stokowski. The audience of about 12,000 were still outnumbered by the 18,144 stops of the highly eccentric organ.

Widor's orchestration technique was effectively to augment the organ with instruments used as additional registration stops, thus extending the organ's power and range of tonal colour. He was rather less inventive at weaving the solo part with the orchestra than was Saint-Saëns, whose Symphony no. 3 for Organ and Orchestra appeared some four years later. The brass and woodwind choirs particularly sound organ-like in the new compilation.

The piece begins with a march-like Allegro maestoso ('maestro' as the contents page of the booklet incorrectly has it) on the full organ, taken up by the full orchestra. The movement approximates to a rondo in form, and has some fine tunes and a cheerful approach with plenty of sonic splendour, managing to avoid bombast and pomposity. There is a gorgeously melodic slow movement to more than rival that of Saint Saëns, the strings playing with great depth of tone. A strongly rhythmic Finale with spectacular organ figurations brings this celebratory work to an imposing close.

Widor was inspired to write his Sinfonia Sacra op. 81 by no less a personage than Albert Schweitzer. The composer was about to write a piece to celebrate his election to the Berlin Academy of the Arts, and Schweitzer suggested he use Bach's chorale 'Nun komm' der Heiden Heiland'. Widor produced a work which is both introspective and inspiring, reflecting the text as Schweitzer advised. It is a set of variations in a block-like succession surprisingly reminiscent of Bruckner, with alternating quiet sections culminating in majestic but false climaxes. Melodies abound in this highly romanticised tribute to Bach and there is a cracking fugue which begins on the strings and is passed to the full organ. Although the work is played continuously, CPO give handy entry points to the 5 main sections.

Organ-orchestra combinations provide enormous headaches for concert producers and recording engineers alike. All too often, the orchestra goes to a large reverberant church for its organ, where the instrument easily dominates. Alternatively, companies frequently record a church organ and mix it into a concert performance. However, the Bamburg Symphony Orchestra have a fine modern concert hall with a magnificent organ installed in 1992-93. The CPO engineers have wisely avoided over-miking the organ and instead give us a realistic concert perspective of the full sonic spectacle. There is plenty of room for the magnificent climaxes to expand, and the acoustic gives a fine rasp to the brass and bloom to the strings. The perspective is both wide and deep, with the organ behind the orchestra, and even with the softest organ stops, there is a surprising amount of detail. Organ pedals, including a 32' contrabass, are felt as well as heard, and the wide dynamic range is truthfully conveyed. The disc is cut at a lowish level, so it takes some experimenting to find the sweet spot on the volume control, but the results are very rewarding.

The Bamburg performances of this rarely-heard pair of works are as fine as one could ever imagine; obviously very well-prepared and most enthusiastically played. Christian Schmitt follows Widor's registrations as scored and adapts them very well to the 4 manual, 74 sounding stops of his organ, and Stefan Solyom guides the orchestra through Widor's many abrupt tempo changes with great aplomb. More importantly, the orchestral players, particularly the brass, enjoy posing as organ stops, and relish the melodic and dramatic aspects of the music to the manner born.

CPO's production is exemplary; informative and detailed notes on the organ and music are given in German, English and French, and the cover reproduces an attractive landscape painting.

A most enjoyable recording of two excellent but rarely-performed Widor works, which will delight organ and orchestral lovers in equal measure.

Copyright © 2009 John Miller and HRAudio.net

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Recordings of organ with orchestra must be a big challenge to record successfully. The CPO engineers have done a good job on this one. The organ beautifully integrates with the orchestra throughout the program. Unlike one of the previous reviewers, I do not think this SACD suffers from "no bass" - there is sufficient low end foundation to both the organ and orchestra. Yet, it does not quite match what one would hear in a concert performance and as such lacks the ultimate in realism. While the recorded sound is well-blended, the perspective is mid-hall and there is a slight veil over the sounds that keeps this from being highly rated for me.

Despite the minor sound limitations I think this is worth acquiring because of the music and performances which are very good. Both pieces share a late-romantic ethos, firmly tonal in character with a wide deployment of various orchestral instruments in the texture. There are moments in the Sinfonia Sacre that briefly feature one or two players (e.g.a solo violin or oboe) playing along with the organ at mezzo piano followed by an exhilerating tutti to liven things up. Good stuff. Recommended.

Copyright © 2010 Mark Novak and HRAudio.net

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