David M. Patrick plays Widor, Vierne & Duruflé

Featuring

David M. Patrick
Charles-Marie Widor
Louis Vierne
Maurice Duruflé

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Composer's Artistic Vision

Vierne's six organ symphonies, though inspired by Notre-Dame, are essentially recital music with a wide range of expression, rather than strictly liturgical works.

Compositional Technique

Widor's ten organ symphonies, including the Sixth, are noted for their formal length and breadth, bold exploitation of tonal range, and often unorthodox structures that mix classical sonata forms with Bachian free fantasias.

Composer Biography

Louis Vierne, the celebrated composer and organist of Notre-Dame-de-Paris from 1900, studied with both César Franck and Charles-Marie Widor at the Paris Conservatoire.

Performer Biography

David M. Patrick, the performer on this album, won the Stuart Prize for organ and the Walford Davies Prize at the Royal College of Music, leading to recitals at Westminster Cathedral and Westminster Abbey.

Composer Biography

Charles-Marie Widor, a prominent organist and composer, served as the organist of the Parisian church of Saint-Sulpice and was an influential professor at the Paris Conservatoire.

Composer Biography

Maurice Duruflé studied with Tournemire and Vierne, and later with Eugène Gigout and Paul Dukas at the Paris Conservatoire, with Dukas's self-criticism influencing his own meticulous craftsmanship.

Instruments

Widor successfully exploited the new technological resources of the large Cavaillé-Coll organs, which offered increased power and coloristic potential.