Widor - Ouverture portugaise

[dmitterd]

Readers may be interested to know that the University of Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, with organist Harold Fabrikant, have recently recorded Widor's earliest extant composition, his Ouverture portugaise for organ, wind ensemble and orchestra. Under the excellent direction of Assoc. Prof. Richard Davis, it shows Widor's command of form, even if it may seem in need of a little trim. Link to listen is here: https://soundcloud.com/user-167475557/ouverture-portugaise

The preparation of a performing edition was most interesting work indeed, and I'm hoping that other ensembles might be tempted to perform/record the work.

Cheers,
Daniel

[MartinH]

I enjoyed that quite a bit - even made a cd copy to put in the car. Not earth-shattering (nothing of Widor's really is), but enjoyable for what it is. Interesting scoring to say the least. When the brass band plays it sounds like Gottschalk or something. Maybe over-long. The lack of some kind of climactic ending dooms it to the curiosity .

[Gareth Vaughan]

I agree. A not unattractive piece. Lots for the organ and nice fanfares for the brass, plus a good tune for the strings at one point. I also wondered if there was an allusion to a Portuguese hymn - not sure; would have to listen again. Despite meandering a bit and being overlong, the impression left is a pleasant and celebratory one. I hope the king was pleased.

[semloh]

Thanks for giving us that information, and the link, Daniel. 
I think it's rather adventurous for such an early Widor work and, combining the qualities that Gareth mentioned, surely pleased its royal dedicatee.

[Christopher]

Is there a way of saving it as an mp3 (or whatever) file? I rather like it.

[MartinH]

The sound editor I use (Roxio) has an option to Capture Sound Card Output that I use. Very useful for exactly this sort of thing. I use it a lot to capture BBC Proms concerts.

[der79sebas]

I did it most easily with an online converter (googled for "soundcloud downloader"):

https://9soundclouddownloader.com/

or

https://scdownloader.net/

[Christopher]

Thanks!

[Ilja]

The lack of some kind of climactic ending dooms it to the curiosity .

Seems quite climactic enough to me, to be honest. There are some variations on the Hino da Carta Constitucional, and a hymn I remember vaguely but can't specify at the moment. But the Hino is not a very memorable piece of music (Alfredo Keil's new anthem A Portuguesa (1891) is vastly better) and I can understand why Widor did not include it in its entirety.

[dmitterd]

Hi Everyone,
Great to read such interesting thoughts on the Ouverture. I've unlocked the download facility from the Soundcloud page - please feel free to grab your own download of the audio file.

cheers,
Daniel

[semloh]

Thanks, Daniel!