Widor & Vierne: Organ Symphonies

Tobias Frank performs two organ symphonies by Charles-Marie Widor and Louis Vierne on his new CD release: Widor’s Symphony no. 5, op. 42/1, and Vierne’s Symphony no. 6, op. 59. Both works could hardly be more contrasting: Widor glamorously takes on the challenge of the new instrumental genre, while Vierne’s highly emotional composition is saturated in biographical detail. The genre of the French organ symphony sets its magnificent foundation-stone with Widor’s op. 42/1 in 1878, and comes to a dignified closure with Vierne’s op. 59 fifty-two years later.

For his recording, Tobias Frank selected the organ at the St-Matthias-Kirche in Berlin: a grandiose instrument with the sound-palette of a pseudo-French cathedral organ. As one of the few large-scale organs of the early years of the West German Federal Republic, until today, it can be considered “en vogue” down to the smallest detail.

Tobias Frank