Jean-Baptiste Dupont plays Widor: Symphony No. 8 Jean-Baptiste Dupont performing Widor’s 8th Organ Symphony on a Cavaillé-Coll organ: a resounding commitment to the French tradition!

The famous Cavaillé-Coll of St Sernin and Widor: a tantalising combination! However, that promise takes a very long time to be fulfilled and, ultimately, I wonder whether it was really worth the effort.

Jean-Baptiste Dupont seems lacklustre at the start of the Symphony, and the recording lacks edge. Perhaps the fault might be Widor’s – the opening allegro risoluto is not one of his most memorable creations – but while Dupont is piling on the stops, it all feels a little too stodgy for my taste. But the second movement also fails to impress; Dupont’s pacing feels unnatural, and what could be a magical solo flute, is marred by a poor registration balance, with the pedals very heavy and the accompaniment figurations too vague. Things start to look up with a chatteringly animated third movement, delivered with some nicely spiky articulation, while with the fourth movement Variations, Dupont finally settles into his stride. He draws some glorious sounds from this glorious instrument, paces the music well, and conveys a strong sense of the movement’s architecture. The Adagio which follows finds this historic and fabulous instrument more obviously in its element, with richly shimmering strings and deliciously silvery montres giving weight to the stronger passages. So far, however, nothing either Dupont or this organ have done will win many converts to Widor’s Eighth Symphony. However, the saving grace of the work is the Final, which in his booklet notes Dupont describes as “the most organistic movement of the Symphony”. Here, at last, everything comes together in a welter of sumptuous sound and gloriously agile fingerwork, with the thundering pedal as the work reaches its climax magnificently captured by the engineers.

The banner heading on the back of the CD case describes the Widor as his “most complex work”. That may well be so, and its complexity is countered on this recording by following it with the gentle Prière from the 6 Pièces by Ropartz. A dreamy, sometimes meandering piece, it gives us a pleasing tour through the organ’s more tranquil and expressive character stops.

Closing the CD with the organ solo introduction from Saint-Saëns’s late (and, it has to be said, largely uninspiring) work for organ and orchestra, Cyprès et Lauriers, seems an odd decision. It is a grim, at times tragic, piece, which, after an imposing start turns into a shapeless solo which leads up to another big climax and then descends into an abyss of nothingness. After this, the orchestra would normally join in and steer the piece to some sort of logical conclusion but without that ending, the piece rather hangs in mid-air. As a showcase for the instrument, it has its purpose, but there are many more appropriate ways of ending a CD than this, even if the choice of Cyprès was made as the recording marked the centenary of its composition.

This recording is clearly a personal passion for Dupont, who was born and studied in Toulouse (and who won the 2009 St Albans Improvisation Competition). Although it was the Tenth Symphony that Widor dedicated to the St Sernin organ, Dupont has chosen to showcase the Eighth Symphony in its final 1929 form. This is not the easiest of symphonies to communicate as a whole, but Dupont deftly demonstrates that he is very much at one with both the piece and instrument. This is the first recording after the recent overhaul of the organ, and the nobility and huge dynamic contrasts of one of Cavaillé-Coll’s finest instruments are present in terrific detail on this recording. The Symphony is complemented with Saint-Saëns’s Cyprès (100 years after its composition) and a Prière by Guy Ropartz. My only disappointment is that the CD is only 54 minutes long. Other audio options are available as downloads, including Widor’s original Prélude, omitted in later editions.

Es gibt digitale, transportable Touring-Orgeln à la Cameron Carpenter. Doch nur stationäre Instrumente können die authentische Erfahrung atmender Pfeifenregister im weiten halligen Kirchenraum vermitteln. Jean-Baptiste Dupont, Titularorganist in Bordeaux, zeigt dies bei Charles Widors 8. Orgelsinfonie (1886/1929). Er spielt die legendäre Cavaillé-Coll-Orgel der Basilika Saint-Sernin in Toulouse. Unglaublich, wie er auf drei Manualen und teils mit Doppelpedal-Passagen diese Musik wogen und brausen, funkeln und rauschen lässt. Ein gewaltiges Klangerlebnis voller Dramatik, lieblicher Zartheit und meditativer Sogkraft.

Mit einer Spieldauer von – je nach Fassung – bis zu einer Stunde ist sie die längste und komplizierteste aller Orgelsymphonien von Widor: seine Achte. Jean-Baptiste Dupont, Titularorganist an der Kathedrale von Bordeaux, schafft es, dieses Monument französischer Orgelromantik überschaubar, ja stellenweise kammermusikalisch-kompakt wirken zu lassen. Er spielt dramatisch, forsch, mit einem tiefen lyrischen Empfinden, und sorgt zugleich für jene musikalische Klarheit, die der »Grandeur« dieser Musik zur Ehre gereicht. Die Cavaillé-Coll-Orgel von St. Sernin in Toulouse sowie die exzellente Tontechnik tun ihr Übriges. Eine herausragende Aufnahme, eine wahre Sternstunde der Orgelsymphonik!

Mit Charles-Marie Widor begegnen wir auf dieser Aufnahme einem der Protagonisten der französischen Orgelsymphonik des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts. Die Orgel hat gewissermaßen die Empore, den liturgischen Raum verlassen und sich als Konzertinstrument selbständig gemacht.

Viele Werke dieser Zeit wurden für die mächtigen Cavaillé-Coll-Orgeln geschrieben. Auf der Cavaillé-Coll-Orgel in Saint-Sernin in Toulouse entstand diese Aufnahme mit Jean-Baptiste Dupont.

Neben den rein technischen Fallstricken, die hinter der Orgel in Toulouse lauern – Jean-Baptiste Dupont beschreibt sie im Booklet – lauert ganz allgemein die Gefahr, sich von der Macht, der Klangwucht des Instruments verführen zu lassen.

Bei Jean-Baptiste Dupont muss man sich keine Sorgen machen. Er beherrscht das Instrument, nicht umgekehrt. Dupont schafft es, den ganz großen Bogen zu schlagen, von den initialen, mächtigen Akkorden bis hin zum festlichen Schluss.

Dazwischen liegen insgesamt sechs Sätze, die ein Füllhorn an Klangfarben und auch Emotionen bieten. Jean-Baptiste Dupont verführt uns mit poetischen Klängen im Moderato, zeigt sich leichtfüßig und verspielt im dritten Satz, unterstreicht seine Sensibilität für Formen und Stile in den Variationen des 4. Satzes.

Orgelsymphonien sind vielleicht nicht jedermanns Sache. Bei Jean-Baptiste Dupont ist man in guten Händen, sich auf differenzierte und einfühlsame Weise auf dieses spannende Repertoire einzulassen.

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With Charles-Marie Widor we have one of the protagonists of French organ symphonic music of the 19th and 20th centuries. In a sense, the organ left the gallery, the liturgical space, and became independent as a concert instrument.

Many works of this period were written for the mighty Cavaillé-Coll organs. It was on the Cavaillé-Coll organ in Saint-Sernin in Toulouse that this recording was made with Jean-Baptiste Dupont.

Besides the purely technical pitfalls that lurk behind the organ in Toulouse – Jean-Baptiste Dupont describes them in the booklet – there is the general danger of being seduced by the power, the sonic force of the instrument.

With Jean-Baptiste Dupont, there is no need to worry. He dominates the instrument, not the other way around. Dupont manages to create the very big arch, from the initial, powerful chords to the festive conclusion.

In between are a total of six movements that offer a cornucopia of tonal colors and also emotions. Jean-Baptiste Dupont seduces us with poetic sounds in the Moderato, shows himself light-footed and playful in the third movement, underlines his sensitivity for forms and styles in the variations of the fourth movement.

Organ symphonies may not be everyone’s cup of tea. With Jean-Baptiste Dupont, one is in good hands to engage with this exciting repertoire in a differentiated and sensitive manner.