Although Charles-Marie Widor (1844-1937) is best known for his virtuosic organ works, his F minor piano concerto is thoroughly idiomatic and often evokes Schumann’s propensity for short, obsessively yearning phrases, such as the first movement’s rising sequences. The finale’s main theme also bears similarities to the last section of Schumann’s Carnaval. Further, Widor’s glittery, symmetrical passagework would not be out of place in a Saint-Saëns concerto. And the Beethoven Fourth concerto’s slow movement is recalled in the central Adagio religioso, which exchanges unison orchestral lines with chordal piano rejoinders.
By contrast, the Fantasie in one movement conveys genuine Romantic sweep in the manner of the First Tchaikovsky concerto, while the harmonically denser, idea-packed Second concerto updates Franck’s idiom by about 20 years. Widor’s orchestration is lush yet never overwrought, with lots of imaginative woodwind scoring in solo and tutti passages.
We can hope that these world-premiere recordings (courtesy of Hyperion’s valuable Romantic Piano Concerto Series) will entice pianists looking for unusual, substantial fare beyond the central concerto repertoire. Certainly Markus Becker’s solid, serious-minded, and commanding keyboard mastery makes a cogent case for these attractive and elegantly crafted works, together with carefully balanced and full-throated orchestral support from Thierry Fischer and the superb BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Highly recommended.
