Charles-Marie Widor’s Symphonie pour orgue et orchestre, opus 42[bis]

Edited by John R. Near

Renowned as the father of the organ symphony—a multi-movement work for solo organ—Charles-Marie Widor (1844–1937) was a grand musician in every sense. At the Paris Conservatory he filled the posts of professor of organ for six years and professor of composition for 31 years; at the church of Saint-Sulpice he reigned over the largest organ in France for 64 years; and as a member of the Institute of France, he served as the perpetual secretary of its Academy of Fine Arts for 22 years. A prolific composer, Widor published works for a variety of chamber ensembles, solo piano, voice (over 70 mélodies), chorus (motets and a mass), orchestra (five symphonies, a symphonic poem, and several concertos), and the theater (four operas, a ballet, a pantomime, and incidental music). Still, his most enduring legacy has been his ten solo organ symphonies.

During the rehearsals of Widor’s ballet, La Korrigane, in fall 1880, the prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII, approached Widor to ask him if he would compose a grand work for organ and orchestra and perform as soloist in Royal Albert Hall on the occasion of a festival that he was organizing for the profit of his hospital in London. Widor accepted, and for the occasion he arranged three movements from his organ symphonies to constitute the Symphonie pour orgue et orchestre which, in common with his second set of four Symphonies pour orgue, he designated as opus 42—the modifier bis has been appended to the opus number in the new critical edition. Movements one and three are drawn from Symphonie VI in G minor (movements one and five respectively), and movement two is drawn from Symphonie II in D major (movement three). The scoring in the outer movements is for full orchestra and organ, while the second movement has a sparer scoring for strings and organ.

Contemporary press reviews reveal that Widor premiered the new work in Paris on 13 April 1882. A few weeks later, on 20 May 1882, Widor, hailed as “le roi des organistes français” (the king of French organists), performed the Symphonie in the presence of the royal court in London’s Royal Albert Hall with the Royal Amateur Orchestral Society.

Widor clearly demonstrated the brilliant possibilities of putting the organ and orchestra on equal footing in an extended composition. Although in 1894 he went on to compose the magnificent and completely original Troisième Symphonie pour orgue et orchestre, opus 69, the opus 42[bis] arrangement continued to be admired, especially in the hands of the Belgian virtuoso organist Charles-Marie Courboin (1884–1973). Courboin first performed the work on 11 April 1904 with Antwerp’s Société Royale d’Har­monie, but he apparently did not perform the work again until its auspicious American premiere on 27 March 1919 at John Wanamaker’s Philadelphia department store, with its 18,144-pipe organ. Some 12,000 concertgoers crowded into the store’s grand court and five galleries. On the marble gallery beneath the façade of the great organ, the 100-member Philadelphia Orchestra gathered to perform under the baton of its famous music director, Leopold Stokowski. From every description, the concert must still be considered the high point in the history of the organ and the Philadelphia orchestra.

In a lecture presented in 1925 at the Convention of the National Association of Organists in Cleveland, the rising wave of interest in organ-orchestral programs in America was traced to that seminal performance of Widor’s Symphonie in 1919. With the mounting public interest in organ-orchestral concerts, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra engaged Courboin to perform Widor’s Symphonie during its 1924–25 season. Although Courboin continued to perform the work, it was in the hands of Albert Riemenschneider (1878–1950), Widor’s greatest American student, that the Symphonie found a new champion. Riemenschneider made sojourns to Paris to study with Widor in 1904–05, 1914, 1924, 1927, and 1930. Near the end of their time together in 1927, Widor presented the revised score of the Symphonie pour orgue et orchestre to Riemenschneider who reported to Widor the “unstinted triumph” of one performance. The work eventually slipped into oblivion for several decades until interest was rekindled in the early 1990s.

This premiere edition is based on Widor’s autograph manuscript as well as copies that he had made and which carry emendations and corrections in his own hand. The Introduction to this edition contains details about the Symphonie’s origin, manuscript sources, revisions, early performances, and includes performance guidelines. Published in full score with separate organ part (and orchestral parts available by request), the edition reintroduces this legendary tour de force to the repertory for organ and orchestra.

A-R also publishes:

Charles-Marie Widor: The Symphonies for Organ
Edited by John R. Near

John R. Near is Associate Professor of Music and Chair of the Music Department at Principia College, Elsah, Illinois. He began his research on Widor in 1982 for his doctoral dissertation at Boston University, The Life and Work of Charles-Marie Widor (1985).