Frederick Hohman, founder and director of the Pro Organo label, and director of the AGO Committee on Educational Resources, performs 12 of his favorite movements from the ten organ symphonies of Charles-Marie Widor on a new Pro Organo release (CD 7202) entitled Soar Above.
The recording was made on the 1927 Casavant organ (7,310 pipes, 108 ranks), restored and installed in 1999 by Schantz Organ Company at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church in Mahtomedi (greater Twin Cities), Minnesota.
In preparing for the recording sessions, Hohman has applied the various recommendations that Charles-Marie Widor described as ideal performance practices in prefaces to the first publication of his first eight organ symphonies, as well as in his preface to the Widor-Schweitzer edition (circa 1907) of Bach’s organ works.
The 77-minute CD, which contains a 20-page booklet and 4,000-word essay on Widor, authored by Hohman, was launched in conjunction with a March 27 concert appearance by Hohman at the Minnesota venue where the CD was recorded.
Details and purchase links available at www.ProOrgano.com.
