Symphonie Gothique - I - Moderato

By popular demand here is more of this Symphonie, this first movement being recorded for the concert hall for only the second time. In Widor's last 2 Symphonies he looked back to the middle ages and forward to the future at the same time. in fact, such was his foresight, that he invented the genre of the Gothic horror movie, creating this wonderful soundtrack many years before the rest of the movie could be completed. The opening sections set the scene in the Gothic castle. The vampires awake around 4.15, strike at 5.00 and start retiring to their coffins around 7.30.