A Very Specialist Area

The current issue of BBC Music mag comes with a cover disk of Organ Symphonies, Vierne Symphony No 3 and Widor Symphony No 5, played by David Briggs. The world of the organ symphony has always seemed a curious little backwater to me. I have never quite bought into the "king of the instruments" idea and all the multiple stops labelled flute, saxophone or whatever all just seem to come out sounding like an organ to me. The idea of this world being inhabited by musical train spotters isn't helped by the discussion around the instrument used being as or more important as the music ( here it is a Cavaille-Coll organ in the basilica of St Sernin, Toulouse ) Having said that, it is valuable to have a genre / repertoire gap filled by this magazine freebie which is clearly beautifully played by Briggs. This is a particularly French area of the repertoire and both symphonies occupy similar ground, the final movement of the Widor is the famous toccata that even non-organ enthusiasts will know. I found myself much more appreciative of the lower key more meditative movements than the noisy flamboyant blasts with all the stops pulled out ( strange how that phrase "pulling out all the stops" has entered the language ) There is a neat bonus track at the end of the disk where Briggs improvises on the bell chime of St Sernin, improvisation having been traditionally such an important part of the organist's armoury.