Organ Symphony No.1

Historical context

Vierne composed his First Organ Symphony, in D minor, in the late 1890s (it appeared in print in Paris in 1899) while he was still Charles-Marie Widor’s assistant at Saint-Sulpice and on the eve of winning the loft of Notre-Dame in 1900. He dedicated it to Alexandre Guilmant (1837-1911), the third of the masters under whom he had served. In six movements - Prélude, Fugue, Pastorale, Allegro vivace, Andante and a closing Final - it is a symphony in Widor’s secular sense, treating Aristide Cavaillé-Coll’s instrument as a one-man orchestra rather than as a liturgical organ.

The last movement, the Final in D major, became one of the most played of all French organ pieces: a headlong toccata in which the theme strides through the pedals beneath a glittering haze of manual figuration. It is often lifted out of the symphony and performed on its own as a recital showpiece.

Drawn from public reference sources (Wikipedia, standard organ-repertoire references).