Last year I enjoyed Trotter's Liszt/Reubke coupling, also on Argo (2/91), and now he has had the splendid idea of recording Widor on one of the better-known Cavaille-Coll instruments—St Francois-de-Sales in Lyon. Almost any French organ music from Franck to Messiaen would sound glorious on an instrument as well voiced and regulated as this one. Is that why the Widor symphonies contain some duller moments? No need for the composer to be at full stretch or too concise if the instrument—in the finest nineteenth-century romantic tradition—sounds as glorious as this? But the Widor symphonies are entities and have been recorded that way. Looking back at them, I find it astonishing that such an apparently conservative figure as Widor lived on until 1937, well into the age of polytonality and serialism, dying at the age of 93. That should not blind us to his genuine originality in terms of harmony as well as the exploration of organ technique. Take the Toccata from the Fifth Symphony, which Trotter carries off brilliantly, although this particular Cavaille-Coll has no 32-foot reeds. How ingenious to tap the lower note underneath the big tune, in an acoustic which would provide fundamental enhancement, where the tune is anyway being doubled in three different octaves—Widor was also a composer of opera. And of course French toccatas of this type are now heard as pre-minimalist in their constant repetitions. This effect is increased when such rhythms can also be delivered cleanly with tracker actions.
The range of Widor is surprising—sonata-form symphonic movements; fugal treatments in the Bach tradition; and genuine lyrical pieces apparently not far from Mendelssohn or Rheinberger but actually reaching back more locally to Berlioz and Gounod. The Adagio just before the famous Toccata is an example of the latter, perhaps a little less bland than Trotter makes it, and spaced to perfection for registration on this instrument, where every detail can be heard. Notice the quality of the four-foot flute solo (in the pedal) at the opening and the richness of the double-pedal part at 3'00'' as the movement settles to its radiant C major ending.
Even though everything is a delight to listen to on this Cavaille-Coll, so well recorded, it is disappointing that Widor has again been given 'highlights' treatment, even though his individual movements have always lifted out very nicely for organ voluntaries. We don't treat orchestral symphonies like that—and Widor wrote five of those too. The Symphonie gothique, Op. 70, which is No. 9, stands up well complete but it is frustrating to have only bits of Nos. 5, 6 and 7. At least the Trois nouvelles pieces, published in 1934 but presumed to have been written much earlier, are included complete. With an ideal instrument like this and reliable, unidiosyncratic performances, I could listen to a lot more Widor.'