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- Guilmant, Felix Alexandre
Duration: 25 minutes
Description: Félix-Alexandre Guilmant (1837–1911) created his Symphony No. 1 for Organ and Orchestra, Op. 42 in 1878, orchestrating his earlier Sonata No. 1 in D minor for Organ, Op. 42, composed in 1874 and published the following year; the orchestration was completed in March 1878 and retains the sonata’s three movements: 1. Introduction et Allegro: Largo e maestoso – Allegro; 2. Pastorale: Andante quasi allegretto; 3. Final: Allegro assai. A leading figure in the great nineteenth-century French organ tradition, Guilmant served for three decades at Paris’s La Trinité and later taught at the Paris Conservatoire and helped found the Schola Cantorum. The symphony belongs to an era transformed by the monumental instruments of Aristide Cavaillé-Coll and the development of a distinctly “symphonic” French organ style, and its dialogue between soloist and orchestra transfers the architectural scale and orchestral colors of the new organs into the concert hall. The work received its world premiere on August 22, 1878, at the Palais du Trocadéro in Paris, with Guilmant at the newly installed organ and the Orchestre des Concerts Colonne conducted by Édouard Colonne; the performance formed part of the celebrated series of organ concerts associated with the 1878 Paris Exposition, during which the Trocadéro instrument also hosted important performances by César Franck, Charles-Marie Widor, and Camille Saint-Saëns. Guilmant dedicated the work to King Leopold II of Belgium, and the orchestral score was published in 1879. Today, Symphony No. 1 for Organ and Orchestra, Op. 42 is not encountered as frequently as the best-known organ-and-orchestra works of Saint-Saëns or Poulenc, partly because of the practical demands of matching a substantial concert organ with a full orchestra, but it remains one of Guilmant’s most important large-scale compositions and a significant example of the French Romantic tradition of symphonic organ writing. Its original solo-organ incarnation has remained especially prominent among organists, while the orchestral version continues to receive concert performances and recordings as a spectacular showcase for the organ’s ability to contend with, complement, and ultimately unite with a Romantic orchestra. Instrumentation: 2.2.2.2: 4.2.3.1: Timp.Perc(2): Str (9.8.7.6.5 in set): Solo Organ in set. Reprint edition.