Widor Organ Symphony 5 in F Minor

This is played by Oliver Latry on the Grand Organ of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. (See the Toccata section for more details.)

The first movement has less immediate appeal than the final Toccata, but it winds up to some classic organ music by the end of the movement.

Oliver Latry at Notre Dame again playing the Allegro Cantbile, the second movement of the Widor 5th Organ Symphony.

A beautiful, restrained movement before the excitement of the Toccata.

Most people know the Widor Toccata for the Widor 5th, even if they don't know what it is. It's often played at weddings and is even played that the end of Christmas Midnight Mass in Saint Peters, Rome (ie the bassilca at the Vatican).

Such a magestic, full-bodied piece of music needs - deserves - to be played on a great Cathedral organ, ideally by a top organist who can manage to keep the complex piece precisely to tempo. So here it is played on the magnificent Aristide Cavaillé-Coll Les Grandes Orgues du Notre Dame de Paris (the Grand Organ of the Cathedral of Our Lady, Paris) and played by the Titular Cathedral Organist Olivier Latry.