Of Charles-Marie Widor’s collection, Bach’s Memento, Widor scholar John Near writes, “Immersed in the music of Bach his whole life, it is little wonder that in 1925 he felt inspired to make “transcriptions,” as the cover of Bach’s Memento indicates, of six of his favorite pieces by Bach—who himself had been an inveterate borrower and arranger of other composer’s music.”
The collection is brought to a monumental close with the Mattheus-Final, Widor’s magnificent and emotional expression of the last chorus of the St. Matthew Passion, the scope of which is, as Near points out, akin to the closing of one of the organ symphonies. John Near sums up this part of Widor’s great legacy: “Regardless of contemporary opinions, Bach’s Memento represents Widor’s heartfelt tribute to the great Cantor whose work was the cantus firmus of his life and the raison d’être of organ study.”
Mattheus-Final is performed here by Jeremy David Tarrant on the 1992 D.F. Pilzecker organ in Detroit’s Cathedral Church of St. Paul.
See Jeremy David Tarrant's artist spotlight: https://www.thediapason.com/artists/jeremy-david-tarrant
Jeremy David Tarrant is represented by Seven Eight Artists.
