Music Director
Charles-Marie Widor (1844-1937)
Organ Symphony No. 6
Charles-Marie Widor (pronounced Vee-dor) was born in Lyon, France. His grandfather was an organ builder of Hungarian descent, and his father was an organ builder and performer. After studying with his father, Widor became the organist at Lyon's lycee when he was just eleven years old.
The organ builder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, a close friend of the family encouraged Widor to go to Brussels to study composition with Francois-Joseph Fétis, director of the Brussels Conservatory. He took organ instruction from J. N. Lemmens, who was a direct descendant of a line of teachers connected to J. S. Bach. Lemmens taught Widor to play traditional German interpretations of Bach's works.
Widor returned to Lyon in 1860 to take over his father's position as organist at Saint-Francois. In 1870, Widor went to Paris to become organist of Saint-Sulpice, which was home to Cavaillé-Coll’s 1863 organ with 100 stops. The appointment was to be for only one year, but Widor remained there until 1934! Widor's ballet La Korrigane had a successful premier at the Paris Opera in 1880.
He began conducting Concordia, a choral society that performed oratorios. Widor also became a music critic for l’estafette, a daily publication. His pen name was "Auletes". Cesar Franck died in 1890, and Widor took his position as professor of organ at the Paris Conservatoire. Widor later became professor of composition as well. The Académie des Beaux-Arts inducted him in 1910.
Widor's most important works were the ten organ symphonies. With the inspiration of Cesar Franck's Grande Piece Symphonique, Widor added to the style of 19th century orchestral and piano music, the great variety of sounds available from Cavaillé Coll's instrument. Widor finished the sixth solo organ symphony in time for the inauguration of Cavaillé-Coll's organ installed in the Trocadero exhibition hall at the 1878 Universal Exposition in Paris.
Program notes by Beth Bergman Fisher