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Widor - The Last Organ Symphonies

£12.29

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Label: Simax

Cat No: PSC1155

Barcode: 7033662011551

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Instrumental

Release Date: 26th November 2007

Works

Widor, Charles-Marie

Organ Symphony no.9 in C minor, op.70 'Gothique'
Organ Symphony no.10 in D major, op.73 'Romane'

Artists

Bjorn Boysen (organ)

Works

Widor, Charles-Marie

Organ Symphony no.9 in C minor, op.70 'Gothique'
Organ Symphony no.10 in D major, op.73 'Romane'

Artists

Bjorn Boysen (organ)

About

Charles-Marie Widor named his mighty organ pieces symphonies rather than sonatas because of their scale, structure, and impressive use of orchestral colours. Widor himself was the organist at St. Sulpice in Paris, performing on the greatest of the Cavaillé-Coll organs. In 1893 the young Albert Schweitzer came to study with Widor, and he was to become very important for the future development of the composer. Schweitzer brought new knowledge of Bach’s organ works to Widor, demonstrating how Bach followed the Lutheran hymn texts in the chorale preludes.

There is much to indicate that this new information about the theological dimension in Bach’s organ music was a vital source of inspiration to Widor. In the last two organ symphonies, Widor for the first time made use of musical material taken for the Roman Catholic liturgy. The Christmas introit ‘Puer nautus est’ is the basis of the last two movemtents of the ninth symphony, and in the tenth he chose to base the entire work on Gregorian material.

Schweitzer himself was a strong spokesman for the French organ, and in Århus he managed to turn the restoration of the instrument from a German project into a unique northern organ with a French accent, finished in 1928.

Bjørn Boysen is among Norway’s foremost concert organists with tours in numerous European countries. Boysen has performed on many recordings and has appeared regularly on Norwegian national radio and television. He is the organist of the Oslo Concert Hall, and Professor of the organ at the Norwegian Academy of Music.

Bjørn Boysen is playing the organ of Århus cathedral (Th. Frobenius, 1928).