Saint-Saens - Symphony No. 3 (Organ): II. Maestoso [HD]

The Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 78, was completed by Camille Saint-Saëns in 1886 at what was probably the artistic peak of his career. It is also popularly known as the Organ Symphony, even though it is not a true symphony for organ, but simply an orchestral symphony where two sections out of four use the pipe organ. The composer inscribed it as: Symphonie No. 3 "avec orgue" (with organ).

Of composing the work Saint-Saëns said "I gave everything to it I was able to give. What I have here accomplished, I will never achieve again." The composer seemed to know it would be his last attempt at the symphonic form, and he wrote the work almost as a type of "history" of his own career: virtuoso piano passages, brilliant orchestral writing characteristic of the Romantic period, and the sound of a cathedral-sized pipe organ.

The symphony was commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society in England, and the first performance was given in London on 19 May 1886, at St James's Hall, conducted by the composer. After the death of his friend Franz Liszt on 31 July 1886, Saint-Saëns dedicated the work to Liszt's memory. The composer also conducted the French premiere in January 1887.

The symphony usually lasts for about 35 minutes, and certainly no longer than 40 minutes.
One of the most outstanding and original features of the piece is the ingenious use of keyboard instruments: piano scored for both two and four hands at various places and an organ. The symphony also makes innovative use of cyclic thematic material. Saint-Saëns adapted Liszt's methods of thematic transfiguration, so that the subjects evolve throughout the duration of the symphony.
Although this symphony seems to follow the normal four-movement structure, and many recordings break it in this way, it was actually written in two movements: Saint-Saëns intended a novel two-movement symphony. The composer did note in his own analysis of the symphony, however, that while it was cast in two movements, "the traditional four movement structure is maintained".

The second movement opens with an energetic strings melody, which gives way to a Presto version of the main theme, complete with extremely rapid scale passages in the piano. The Maestoso is introduced by a full C major chord in the organ. Piano four-hands is heard at the beginning with the strings, now playing the C major evolution of the original theme. The theme is then repeated in powerful organ chords, interspersed with brass fanfares. (A remarkable parody of the Dies Irae from Berlioz's Requiem has been seen there.) This theme might actually have been inspired by the anthem Ave Maria attributed to Jacques Arcadelt and recently reworked by Franz Liszt (S.659).