Even people who aren’t big fans of organ music (like me, for instance) can find something to enjoy in Widor’s organ symphonies. They really do have some wonderful tunes and evocative sonorities, and if the famous Toccata finale of Symphony No. 5 sounds like a calliope on the verge of a nervous breakdown, well, who cares? Actually, John Grew’s performance eschews vulgarity almost to a fault. Rhythmically meticulous and artfully phrased, his rendition really makes music out of it, though at some sacrifice of sheer excitement. I also wish the principal voice in the second movement (an oboe stop according to the score) had a bit more prominence, but aside from this minor quibble this is an unfailingly elegant and very beautiful reading.
The Ninth Symphony, the “Gothique”, is even better, its more meditative character well-suited to Grew’s relatively sober approach. More to the point, the splendid Casavant organ at the Église Saint-Nom-de-Jésus in Montreal, with its wonderfully atmospheric and sensual quieter stops, sounds made for this work. The extremely atmospheric recording certainly helps: those deep pedals have great presence even at the lowest dynamic levels, but both Grew and the engineers ensure that they never muddy the texture. Both Kauzinger (Novalis) and van Oosten (MDG) offer harder-edged, more overtly virtuosic interpretations, but these are certainly performances that fall easily on the ear. This disc’s a keeper. [1/26/2007]
