Charles-Marie Widor - Marcia (Symphonie No. 3) - Ben Bloor

Marcia from Symphonie No. 3 by Charles-Marie Widor performed by Ben Bloor in a live concert on the 55 stop 1984-6 Mander organ in Chichester Cathedral on Tuesday 28th May 2024.
Charles-Marie Widor was Marcel Dupré’s predecessor as Organist at Saint-Sulpice in Paris, and indeed held the post for an astonishing 63 years. The movements of his organ symphonies, particularly the earlier ones, often exist in several different versions, as the composer frequently tinkered around with them. One such example is this naively jolly March in F# major from his otherwise quite austere third symphony.
Many thanks to Tim Ravalde for his invitation to play in Chichester.
Ben Bloor is Organist at the London Oratory Church and School Organist at Westminster School.
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[@mspg2]

Widor at his very best. Congratulations Ben.

[@bobbyhendley3084]

Delightful!

[@Inexor]

Splendid!

[@grahamtwist]

A fabulous performance, Ben, with plenty of fire in this organ's reed stops making for a thrilling sound: bravo!

[@andrewlardieri4110]

Marcia, Marcia, Marcia

[@1963mathetes]

Hi Ben! Love the channel! Question though: what edition of the Marcia is this? The beginning is familiar, but the rest seems to diverge significantly from the version I'm familiar with.

[@bloorganist]

I wondered if someone might ask this! Widor seemed to write loads of different versions of this particular movement over the years, tinkering with it as he got older. I play from the Dover edition, which is probably not the most recent version, but I like it!

[@1963mathetes]

@@bloorganist I thought it might be an earlier one. Your playing of it is grand, as always! Here (I think) is Widor's last revision: ua-cam.com/video/yU0QqCXaUO4/v-deo.htmlsi=DJkvVxLkdrYK3T4X