Sérénade

Having grown up in a family of organ-builders and organists, the path of Charles-Marie Widor as an organist was predestined. In 1870 he moved from Lyon, the town of his birth, to Paris and became titular organist at Saint-Sulpice. In 1890 Widor succeeded César Franck as professor of organ studies at the Paris Conservatoire, where six years later he was appointed professor of composition, too. Alongside orchestral works, solo concertos, vocal pieces and chamber music, Widor’s most important musical achievement was his contribution to the genre of the organ symphony. His Suite op. 34 for flute and piano, structured around a Romance (1881) and composed for Paul Taffanel, may be considered as marking the beginning of the modern French flute school: here for the first time a composition makes full use of the bright tone of the Böhm flute, as introduced to the music world by Taffanel and his pupils. This Sérénade op. 65 is the arrangement of a duo for harmonium and organ. No further information about the arranger has been found. Plate no. 27148 / published in 1903.