Jan Lehtola - Charles-Marie Widor: Symphonies 3 & 8 (SACD)
- Product Code: ABCD 306
HISTORICAL ORGANS AND COMPOSERS 2
CHARLES-MARIE WIDOR
Symphonies 3 & 8
Jan Lehtola
Cavaillé-Coll organ (1879)
St. François-de-Sales, Lyon, France
Magnificent Organs in Magnificent Hands
The second volume in Jan Lehtola’s series documenting the history of organs and organ music features Organ Symphonies Nos. 3 and 8 by the French composer Charles-Marie Widor. The works were recorded in Lyon on a Cavaillé-Coll organ. The close collaboration between Aristide Cavaillé-Coll and Charles-Marie Widor succeeded in a unique way in combining organ building with performance and, above all, creative musical artistry.
The Third Symphony, heard first on the album, is a fine and representative example of Widor’s early style, although he did later update the work. The Eighth Organ Symphony is a mammoth work in terms of the number of movements, its technical demands, and its duration. It marked the pinnacle of his ability to extract the full potential from his instrument. At the same time, he created a work whose scale surpasses all previous achievements in the field of organ music.
FORMAT: SACD
