Appendix 7 - Widor’s travels to Russia and his 1903 passport

Summary

[see Figs. 24 and 25]

During Widor's 1896 trip to Russia, he became acquainted with Vasily Safonov (1852–1918), a pianist, conductor, and director of the Moscow Conservatory. Safonov planned to construct a new conservatory building with a grand concert hall. Upon Widor's recommendation, a Cavaillé-Coll/Mutin organ was commissioned and installed in 1901; Widor inaugurated the instrument on April 11 (see Near, Widor: A Life, 274–75). He returned to Russia again in 1903, which was announced in Ménestrel 69 (February 1, 1903): 40.

Ch.-M. Widor left Thursday [January 29] for Saint-Petersburg and Moscow, where he will conduct orchestra concerts and perform on the organ. In the latter city he will perform again on the superb organ by Cavaillé-Coll that we admired at the 1900 [Paris] Exhibition and which was, on his advice, commissioned by the Imperial Russian Society for the hall of the Conservatory. In Moscow, Ch.-M. Widor will conduct many unpublished works, among others the Overture and the March from Les Pêcheurs de Saint-Jean [an opera in four acts, premiered December 26, 1905, at the Opéra-Comique, Paris].

On the passport issued to Widor on January 22, 1903, the passport agency described his physical characteristics: “height: 172 centimeters [5ʹ7¾ʺ]; hair: gray; forehead: high; eyebrows: gray; eyes: dark; nose: roman; mouth: average; beard: gray; chin: round; face: oval; complexion: clear.”