Charles-Marie Widor - 'Allegro Vivace' Symphonie n°5

[Inspirandus]

Played with so much ease. Great interpretation! Such a pleasure to listen to.

[5610winston]

There seems to be a lot of mechanical noise from the instrument. Not a complaint, just an observation.

This is an absolutely thrilling performance!

[jkenefick]

Wow. People know this symphony only for the tocatta, but in my opinion this is THE movement of the symphony!

[diekunstderfuge1749]

Magnifique !

[brutusbassoon]

I'm a bassoonist not an organist so I wondered if it was common practice to have someone change the stops for you,

[Qaatloz]

As you see the organist is in full use of his fingers and hands. Most of the time in concerts and so, 1 or 2 persons are changing stops and swiching pages.

[polgarfan]

@brutusbassoon I'm not sure if anyone has answered you since it's been @ a year, but I would say that a lot of factors play in the need for assistants on the organ. During Bach's time, this was quite common, but with time came developments of pistons that are designed to allow an organist to change stops with the push of 1 button. More recent is the addition of toe stubs, (i.e pistons for your feet). Even with that, there's still a need for assistants IMO.

[brutusbassoon]

@polgarfan thanks very much for that answer. very interesting.

[FeikeAsmaFan]

C'est fantastique!

[Adnossalutarem]

Great performance!

[Guilloufan]

heel erg mooi gespeeld alleen deze man heeft denk ik niet erg veel met zijn zwelpedaal gewerkt ;)

[GJmusique]

as it's not indicated in the score, I think it's not supposed to be played with swells. Where would sir have liked to hear swells? I think this version is perfectly fine and highly enjoyable.

[bobapestaartje]

verry nice

[organist12345]

That wasnt full organ at the end was it?

I thought for this piece you needed it

[ufni3p]

Yes,it was, off course you need the full organ but when that's all you've got there's nothing you can do:(

[organist12345]

I understand, i checked the specs and this isnt a very large organ. Just 60 stops without any 32 foots.

[ufni3p]

Also,from the console where this is recorded you here mostly the Positiv wich is very near,so the Great isn't very prominent here...

[Harsiem]

thats strange, in my copy it says the 6th notein the right hand is raised a semitone, making it major... (the 6th note being the height of each little phrase)

[MrBadRandolph]

If it is right what you say - which I doubt - then you got an invalid version. The 6th note of the theme is definitely A flat, not A. The whole phrase is basicly minor, due to that 6th note.

However, there is an exception: within the "scherzando" part (6:03-6:55) the 6th note does happen to be raised a semitone, making it major.

[julorg]

Les anches ne sonnent pas françaises dans le sens Cavaillé-Coll.... mais faut-il toujours en revenir à CC ? je n'en suis pas sur.

C'est très bien !

[jmeister321684]

You are an excellent organist Mr. Michiels!

Tot ziens! JW

[orgelliefhebber]

Fantastiche muziek, prachtig orgel en een zeer muzikale virtuoze organist. Heb onlangs van dezelfde organist de finale van de 6de symphonie van Vierne gehoord, wat een prachtig evenwicht tussen muzikaliteit en virtuositeit, werkelijk super grote klasse!

[GJ1986]

Hij mag wel een tikkie langzamer...

Verder erg mooi uitgevoerd.

~

A tad slower please... otherwise very nicely interpreted! :)

[winston5610]

I liked it. It is marked "Allegro Vivace", after all, and the tempo at the more rhapsodic interlude (begins 4:47) and the scherzando (begins 6:03) seemed to me to provide a perfect contrast to the stately initial tempo.

I can't fault the power of the instrument, and (I'll probably get some disagreement here) I liked the inclusion of the mechanical noises from the organ's action. I give this video five stars.

[GJmusique]

I rated it 5 stars as well and think this is one of the best performance of this piece found on youtube, still I get 2 thumbs down? why the devils... xD

[a55b47]

Nicely played !! You've got that Klais sounding French (almost) ;-)