Where's Widor?

[Mandryka]

[Mandryka]

Just wanted a place to note how much I'm enjoying the op 79 violin sonata with Hans Maile and Horst Goebel on Thorophon.

[DaveF]

Love it - and I hope Cato's 'Like' means that Where's Wally is a global phenomenon.

As a fluent Francophone, @Mandryka, can you clarify whether he's Wee-dor or Vee-dor (the latter seems to be the usual British pronunciation, but I'm guessing that the former, along the lines of Watteau, is probably correct)?

My own Widor story: at the wedding of a couple of friends of mine (before I knew them, so I didn't witness it), the bride, who is a bassoonist, apparently made her entry to an arrangement of The Toccata for 8 of the things.  Whether sounds of turning were heard from the crypt of St-Sulpice is not recorded.

[Mandryka]

V I think @DaveF - but my accent is a bit like Winston Churchill's

[Wanderer]

Vee-dor

That's the correct pronunciation.

[pjme]

I'm not so sure about the prononciation of Widor as "Veedor (cfr. King Vidor).

Afaik, this name is extremely rare in France and may well be of German origin. (One of Charles Marie's ancestors was born in Rouffach (Rufach)  Haut Rhin).
Jean Widor , organ builder in Rufach, born ca 1775.)



https://fr.howtopronounce.com/french/charles-marie-widor-1#google_vignette

In francophone Belgium the W is always pronounced as an english W. In France most words starting with a W are pronounced as V. But I'm not sure about words of foreign origin....

on France Musique (organ programme) I hear a clear "Vee - dor".  Forvo leaves me undecided....

https://forvo.com/search/Widor/#google_vignette

[pjme]

[Mandryka]

He wrote songs -- I'm enjoying a recording by Rebecca Wascoe Hays which is streaming everywhere -- but I'm tempted to buy the one by Anne Marie Rodde and Noel Lee. Does anyone know it?

[KevinP]

I quite enjoy this piece.

[Mandryka]

The first three movements of the 10th symphony are more austere than his virtuoso organ music, it's based on Gregorian chant. For me, there are connotations sometimes of late Brahms and Bruckner symphony 5. The second movement is really special, distinctive. I like it.

Ruined by the horrid finale IMO. Skip it!

This Chorzempa recording has good sound, made at St Sernin in Toulouse (which has been modified subsequently, contentiously) I haven't heard any others.


Did he write any other symphonies in this vein?

[Symphonic Addict]

The 9th Organ Symphony 'Gothique' features less flamboyant music, but IIRC not at the same degree as the 10th.

On the other hand, my favorite organ symphony is the 7th. The opening of the fifth movement, especially, feels so grand, epic and memorable, it never fails to thrill me, but as played on this recording:



Needless to say I am rather fond (but not exclusively) of that grandiose side of the composer.

[Mandryka]

The 9th Organ Symphony 'Gothique' features less flamboyant music, but IIRC not at the same degree as the 10th.

On the other hand, my favorite organ symphony is the 7th. The opening of the fifth movement, especially, feels so grand, epic and memorable, it never fails to thrill me, but as played on this recording:



Needless to say I am rather fond (but not exclusively) of that grandiose side of the composer.

Nolan's recording taught me how important clarity is in this music - thanks. I'm stealing myself to listen to the 7th.

[pjme]

Rare Widor - a (1900) piece dedicated to Alphonse Hasselmans

Preface
The term "chorale" is never far away when conversation turns to Charles-Marie Widor. He is, after all, known today as an organ virtuoso and a composer of organ music, which naturally conjures up associations with hymn tunes and chorale variations. What seems unusual, however, is the fact that the present work is not a piece of organ music. Quite obviously Widor the composer has been consigned to the organ far too long and must be rediscovered in his full breadth and variety.
.....
Choral et Variations pour Harpe et Orchestre, op. 74

One of the figures who had a formative impact on the history of harp playing is Alphonse Hasselmans (1845-1912), a harp virtuoso and, from 1884 until his death, professor of harp at the Paris Conservatoire, and thus for many years Widor's colleague. Choral et Variations is dedicated to Hasselmans, and he played the solo part when the work was premièred in the Salle Erard on 12 March 1900. The critics spoke of a huge success, praising the work's magical and elegant charm no less than its well-conceived dialogue between harp and orchestra. Thirty years later the critics were still enthusiastic.
This was, incidentally, not the only time that Widor used a chorale melody in an instrumental work, whether for organ or for orchestra; it was a stylistic device that he adopted in his maturity. Choral et Variations belongs to a series of compositions that Widor built on Gregorian chant: Symphonie gothique (1895), Symphonie romane (1900), Sinfonia sacra (1907), Symphonie antique (1911), and Suite latine (1927). The use of plainchant is perhaps best understood in connection with the state of French church music in the late nineteenth century. The efforts to revert to musical traditions based on Gregorian chant also found expression in musical scholarship, in which Widor took an avid interest.
For his virtuoso composition Widor rejected the form of a traditional three-movement concerto, nor is the work a conventional set of variations. Instead, he wrote free variations, gathering them together in a single 361-bar movement. Beginning with a solo flute, the chorale melody is stated by a gentle combination of woodwinds and strings, the whole taking on an archaic character through melodic and harmonic turns of phrase and a contrapuntal texture. The harp takes the theme in unison, giving rise to a varied conversation between the soloist and the orchestra. Then the harp part increasingly dissolves into figurations, scales, and arpeggios, leading to a grand escalation and finally to a climax followed by a solo cadenza (mm. 110-32). The next section develops the head motif in symphonic fashion. Scherzo-like elements can be heard in the variations that follow, and the work comes to a conclusion in an energetic F-sharp-major apotheosis. In short, rather than a standard set of variations, Widor's op. 74 is partly modeled along symphonic lines

Source: https://repertoire-explorer.musikmph.de/en/product/widor-charles-marie-5/