Biography de camille saint-saens the organ

Symphony with organ by Camille Saint-Saëns (completed in )

The Symphony No. 3 in C secondary, Op. 78, was completed by Camille Saint-Saëns add on at the peak of his artistic career. Front is popularly known as the Organ Symphony, in that, unusually for a late-Romantic symphony, two of depiction four movements use the pipe organ. The founder inscribed it as: Symphonie No. 3 "avec orgue" (with organ).

The symphony was commissioned by significance Royal Philharmonic Society (then called simply the Symphony Society) in England, and the first performance was given in London on 19 May , fall back St James's Hall, conducted by the composer. Tail end the death of his friend and mentor Franz Liszt on 31 July , Saint-Saëns dedicated prestige work to Liszt's memory.

The composer seemed preempt know it would be his last attempt tackle the symphonic form, and he wrote the travail almost as a type of "history" of own career: virtuoso piano passages, brilliant orchestral scribble characteristic of the Romantic period, and the power of speech of the organ suitable for a cathedral mistake large concert halls (which were typically equipped bang into the instrument). Saint-Saëns noted: "I gave everything activate it I was able to give. What Distracted have here accomplished, I will never achieve again." Although Saint-Saëns was asked, following the resounding come off of the symphony at its French premiere addition , to compose another symphony, he would not in the least again return to the genre.

The Organ Symphony was the first of a spate of symphonic oeuvre by leading French composers. Édouard Lalo's Symphony uphold G minor was composed shortly after the Writer premier of Saint-Saëns' third (between August and Nov ), and premiered in February at the Concerts Lamoureux.^[a] Also in , Vincent d'Indy wrote her highness Symphony on a French Mountain Air, while César Franck composed his Symphony in the summer take precedence autumn of ^[b] Later examples include Ernest Chausson's Symphony in B-flat, written in , and Libber Dukas' Symphony in C composed in

History

Background

On July 4, the directors of the Philharmonic Society regular to commission a new, specifically French orchestral attention, preferring Charles Gounod, with Léo Delibes, Jules Composer, and Saint-Saëns as backup candidates. While the destiny of petitions to these other composers remains unsteady (if indeed they were ever despatched), the mass year the Society arranged to bring Saint-Saëns acquiescence London as piano soloist in a concerto supplementary his choice (Beethoven's fourth concerto), and he desire that his little-performed A-minor second symphony also carbon copy programmed. The society responded by requesting "some harmonious work expressly for next season", to which Saint-Saëns expeditiously agreed, responding in a letter dated Venerable 25, "without making a formal commitment, I stool promise you that I will make every labour to respond to your wish, and to put in writing a new symphony for the sake of greatness Philharmonic Society." Based on correspondence between Saint-Saëns existing both his publisher Durand and the Philharmonic Society's honorary secretary, Francesco Berger, composition of the another symphony was concentrated in the first months pay for The autograph score indicates that it was terminated by April of that year.

Saint-Saëns' decision to putrefy an actual symphony in response to the Symphony Society's request was unusual. First, almost thirty epoch had passed since the forty-nine year old father had last written a symphony (in ), endure his reputation as a concert composer derived first and foremost from his piano concertos and symphonic poems. Specially, the Society's interest in an orchestral or symphonious work by a French composer would have by and large precluded an actual symphony since, as a lesson, it had been largely ignored by French composers. While symphonies were regularly performed in Parisian concurrence halls, appearing in more than half of magnanimity "Grands concerts" series that were comprised by position orchestral societies of Jules Pasdeloup, Édouard Colonne, pointer Charles Lamoureux, almost all were by Austro-German esoteric Nordic composers, especially those of Beethoven, Mendelssohn, status Schumann. French symphonic composers of the late 18th and early nineteenth century, such as Gossec, Leduc, or Méhul, were virtually unknown by the ulterior nineteenth century. Symphonic efforts by later French composers, including those by Gounod and the early symphonies by Saint-Saëns himself, were very rarely performed, as the youthful symphony of Bizet would remain anonymous until Rare exceptions, such as the premiere place Bizet's Roma Symphony by Pasdeloup at his Concerts populaires series, were not warmly received by Frenchman concertgoers.

Both Jann Pasler and Andrew Deruchie view Saint-Saëns choice to compose a symphony as "a straight response to Wagnerism in France". In the date prior to his writing the symphony, Saint-Saëns esoteric warned French composers against adopting Wagnerian techniques status ideas, not for their lack of merit up-to-the-minute aesthetic value, but instead for their fundamental repugnance with the French character and French sensibilities, exhorting: "young musicians, if you wish to be goal, remain French!" In , Saint-Saëns and Romain Bussine had founded the Société nationale de musique to wit to showcase French music by organising both orchestral and chamber music concerts featuring French composers. Newborn , however, Saint-Saëns found himself increasingly marginalised middle the Société Nationale.^{[page&#;needed]}Vincent d'Indy and Henri Duparc, both disciples of the Belgian composer, César Franck, bear enthusiastic proponents of Wagnerism, took control and unsealed the Société Nationale's programming to non-French, and fantastically German music. In Saint-Saëns' view, they were wonderful "Caesarean [i.e. César Franck] and Wagnerian coterie" who had turned the Société Nationale into a "closed salon, unrelated to the intentions of its founders".^[20]

It has therefore been suggested that, for Saint-Saëns, description symphony, in its form, represented "an appropriate channel for a musical response" to growing Wagnerism loaded France "by pursuing the very genre that, according to Wagner and at least some of sovereign French advocates, had mandated the music drama make sure of exhausting itself with Beethoven". and that the philharmonic was an opportunity "to deliver a classical clarify to the concerns of Wagner and French Wagnerians". Saint-Saëns himself did not ascribe a motivation root for his decision to pen a symphony, beyond representation interest in the genre that might be extraneous from his request to have his earlier A-minor symphony programmed.

Composition

Saint-Saëns likely started working on the sonata in the late summer of , but was at the same time busy composing what would prove one of his most popular works, The Carnival of the Animals. In a correspondence disseminate February , he wrote to his publisher Durand:

I am in the process of perpetrating clever vast composition for the coming Mardi Gras [i.e. The Carnival of the Animals]. It is cunning one score. I have only the Finale coalesce write. Fourteen pieces! You ask me whether Unrestrained would do better to work on my opus. You are right, a hundred times right, nevertheless [The Carnival of the Animals] is so amusing.^[c]

Original sketches for the symphony indicate that Saint-Saëns primarily wrote the opening theme of the symphony hill the key of B minor. An early drawing of the second theme was scored in Aphorism major, with a subsequent revision to its terminal form and the measures following (mm –) along with scored in C major and C minor, last analysis the final key of the work. Thus, rectitude sketches of the extended exposition suggest that Saint-Saëns remained in some doubt as to the concluding key of the symphony, a conflict which no problem revealed in a letter to Berger: "this mercenary of a symphony has risen a half-tone; invalid did not want to remain in B minor: it is now in C minor." The change from B to C minor meant that honourableness "new symphony, with its cyclic thematic design, unbeaten major-mode finale, and seamlessly linked movements, would inveigle comparison to the nineteenth century's ultimate model, Beethoven's Fifth". Like Beethoven's fifth symphony, the Organ Work of art, which proceeds from an agitated C minor fortune to a rousing C major conclusion recalls ethics idea of a passage from adversity to let fly. Deruchie has argued that Saint-Saëns sought to contrive this "narrative design and the broad formal essay he inherited from previous symphonists with compositional procedures that had matured in other genres, notably nobleness symphonic poem", highlighting the "eclecticism" of the take pains, notably in its unusual instrumentation (organ and piano) and "timbres and styles foreign to the [symphonic] genre".

It has been commonly noted that the aperture theme of the symphony recalls the "Dies irae" by using the first five pitches of significance well-known medieval chant. Given the dedication "to prestige memory of Franz Liszt", who died in , it has been suggested that Saint-Saëns made determined use of the motif to suggest the "resurrection and eternity" of Liszt. As various scholars enjoy pointed out, however, the original dedication was time "as a homage" to Franz Liszt the person, and not the memory, since his death occurred between the London premiere of the work be first its eventual publication. In a letter dated June 19, , Liszt wrote to Saint-Saëns, acknowledging both the intended dedication and "the success of honourableness symphony in London". In Fallon's view, the disused is non-programmatic and the coincidence of pitches have a crush on the "Dies irae" insignificant. In Deruchie's analysis, Saint-Saëns may have intended the idea of resurrection correlated to the "Dies irae" with the renewal clever the symphonic genre itself. In a letter call on Pierre Adjutant, Saint-Saëns wrote "if a symphony could claim the honor of renewing the symphonic classification, it would be my symphony in C subsidiary, on account of its unusual division and cause dejection use of the organ."

However, in the extensive promulgation notes he prepared for the London premiere, one-time Saint-Saëns drew attention to novel features of potentate new work, noting its cyclic features and excellence unusual scoring for keyboard instruments and expanded belt up and brass sections, which he suggested were copperplate reflection of how "symphonic works should now print allowed to benefit [from] the progress of different instrumentation", nowhere does he make mention of righteousness "Dies irae", nor any programmatic intent behind honourableness work.

Saint-Saëns gave the page autograph score of rank Organ symphony to the Bibliothèque nationale in Sept , a few years before his death conduct yourself

Reception and performance history

Premiere

The premiere, conducted by Saint-Saëns himself, took place at the Philharmonic Society's complaint of 19 May , at St James's Passageway, London. In the opening half of the agreement, Saint-Saëns was the soloist in Beethoven's Fourth Fortepiano Concerto, with Arthur Sullivan conducting. In the in a short time half, in keeping with the Society's tradition capture inviting composers to perform their own works, Saint-Saëns himself conducted the performance of his new orchestra. For his efforts, Saint-Saëns received an honorarium a number of £^[d]

Critical response to the London premiere was untroubled. In a brief notice in the London Horrible (pictured), the reviewer indicated that he would entail to hear the piece again to form monumental opinion.

The next performance of the symphony was its premiere in Germany, which took place giving August in Aachen, at a concert organized beside Fritz Wenigmann that featured an all Saint-Saëns agenda, including the Rhapsodie d'Auvergne (in which Saint-Saëns was the soloist). The symphony took up the specially half of the concert and was warmly received.^[35]

The French premiere, at a 9 January concert be in possession of the Société des Concerts, produced a much excellent enthusiastic response. Public response "was unprecedented for elegant new work", and the second performance a workweek later was similarly warmly received. Ambroise Thomas lobbied the committee of the Société for a 3rd hearing of the work, arguing that the work was "powerful and exceptionally noteworthy, and given integrity invasion of German music, it would be petit mal to offer another performance of this work wind so honours the French school." A third programing of the work was indeed arranged and spoken for on 13 March

Subsequent performances

The United States first night was given on 19 February , conducted lump Theodore Thomas, at the Metropolitan Opera House, Newfound York City.

A notable performance of the work of art took place on June 2, , where patch up was the featured work at a Jubilee Anniversary Concert held at Queen's Hall in Saint-Saëns' look. The composer was in attendance (he performed pure concerto by Mozart, the only work on prestige program not by him), where Alexander Mackenzie at will an encomium at the concert declaring he locked away "led the advance of French music in each branch, and you are justly acknowledged today disparagement be its most exalted and most gifted representative".

In May , Saint-Saëns traveled to San Francisco chimpanzee France's Official Representative to the Panama–Pacific International Essay. He attended a performance of the Symphony Clumsy. 3 at the 3, seat Festival Hall. Karl Muck conducted the San Francisco Symphony. The father was given a standing ovation at the function, which was also attended by composer John Prince Sousa. Saint-Saëns composed another piece especially for character occasion called "Hail California", which included Sousa's celebrated band.^[37]

Instrumentation

The symphony is scored for large orchestra extensive 3 flutes (1 doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, cor anglais, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, bassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, tympanum, triangle, cymbals, bass drum, piano (two and team a few hands), organ, and strings.

Saint-Saëns' use of concluding instruments – piano (scored for both two discipline four hands at various places) and the device – are unusual additions to the orchestration verify a late-Romantic symphony. Following Saint-Saëns' own explanation if in the program notes he wrote for class London premiere, the decision to include both mechanism and piano keyboard in the instrumentation stemmed in the main from his desire to innovate upon the conventional symphonic scoring practice. Mendelssohn had included the means in his second symphony, "Lobgesang", but that be anxious is a symphonic cantata, while Vincent d'Indy's Symphonie sur un chant montagnard français, which includes pianoforte concertante, was only begun after the premiere clean and tidy the Organ symphony. This instrumentation "had not in advance factored in an established symphony".

Saint-Saëns had appeared by the same token the organ soloist in Bach's A minor Creation and Fugue at a Philharmonic Society concert clich on July 2, (where he also performed climax second piano concerto), and it is possible delay the presence of this instrument in the concord hall propelled to include the organ. The apparatus he had played at that concert was dispassionate in , replaced by a new organ notion by Bryceson Brothers & Ellis, a fact clever which Saint-Saëns was unaware. This new instrument confidential a different configuration and it has been not compulsory that the opening organ chords of the Maestoso finale would have been "disappointingly ineffective" as a-ok result.

Structure and Analysis

Although the symphony contains depiction normal four-movement structure (and many recordings divide do business in this manner), Saint-Saëns wrote it as dialect trig two movement work. In the program notes drift he prepared for its London premiere, he wrote:

This symphony, like its author's fourth Pianoforte Concerto, and Sonata for Piano and Violin, is unconnected into two movements. Nevertheless, it contains, in standard, the four traditional movements; but the first, apprehension in development, serves as an Introduction to class Adagio, and the Scherzo is linked by authority same process to the Finale.

A typical performance motionless the symphony lasts about 35 minutes. The piece of music makes cyclic use of its thematic material, variant from fragments of plainsong, as a unifying device; each melody appears in more than one slope. Saint-Saëns also employs Liszt's method of thematic change, so that these subjects evolve into different guises throughout the symphony.^[42][43]

First movement

After its slow introduction, rank first movement leads to a theme of Mendelssohnian (or Schubertian) character, followed by a second theme of a gentler cast, with various secondary themes played in major, and soon after repeated perform minor forms; chromatic patterns play an important duty in both movements. This material is worked extent in fairly classical sonata-allegro form, and gradually fades to a quieter mood, which becomes a marginally ominous series of plucked notes in cello bracket bass, ending on a G pitch, followed newborn a slow and soft sustained A note engage the organ, resolving into the new key take up D major for the poco adagio section warm the movement. This evolves into a dialogue betwixt organ and strings, recalling the earlier main subjectmatter of the movement before the recapitulation. The motion ends in a quiet morendo.

Second movement

The in a tick movement opens with an energetic string melody, which gives way to a presto version of magnanimity main theme, complete with extremely rapid scale passages in the piano.

The Maestoso is introduced antisocial a full C major chord in the organ:

Piano four-hands is heard at the beginning strike up a deal the strings, now playing the C major development of the original theme. The theme is thence repeated in powerful organ chords, interspersed with demimondaine fanfares. This well-known movement is considerably varied, inclusive of as it does polyphonicfugal writing and a short pastoral interlude, replaced by a massive climax signal the whole symphony characterised by a return brand the introductory theme in the form of vital scalevariations.

Performances

The symphony was performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the BBC Proms season owing to the finale to a concert celebrating the change for the better anniversary of the University of Cambridge, as nobleness composer was awarded an honorary doctorate by rendering university in ^[44] In the season, it was performed again by the BBC National Orchestra eliminate Wales, and in , it returned to greatness BBC Proms, this time with Paavo Järvi government the Orchestre de Paris.^[45] saw another return portend Sir Mark Elder conducting The Hallé.^[46]

Recordings

The symphony continues to be a frequently performed and recorded withdraw of the standard repertoire. One of the virtually renowned recordings^{[citation needed]} is by Charles Munch important the Boston Symphony Orchestra, with Berj Zamkochian rest the organ. Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Combination recorded the Symphony No. 3 several times, touch Virgil Fox, E. Power Biggs, and Michael Classicist as the organists.

In , the Ondine christen recorded Olivier Latry performing the symphony at description inaugural concert of the Fred J. Cooper Statue Organ in Verizon Hall, with Christoph Eschenbach aiming the Philadelphia Orchestra. Ondine released the recording perceive on SACD in surround sound.^[47] Another well-regarded tape-record of the work is the Mercury Records "Living Presence" recording made in with the Detroit Orchestra Orchestra under Paul Paray with Marcel Dupré expand organ. It has been reissued on CD variety Mercury # BBC Radio 3 Record Review "Building a Library" recommended the Deutsche Grammophon recording work stoppage the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Daniel Barenboim; predominantly, the organ used was over miles away, livestock Chartres Cathedral played by Gaston Litaize. Simon Preston made a recording in with James Levine conduct the Berlin Philharmonic for Deutsche Grammophon.^[48] In , Thierry Escaich made a recording with Jean-Jacques Kantorow conducting the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège (Complete symphonies). 2 SACD BIS. Diapason d'or. The different year Olivier Latry made a new recording be equivalent Christian Mācelaru conducting the Orchestre National de Writer (complete symphonies). 3 CD Warner classics. 5 Diapasons.^{[citation needed]}

Uses in popular culture

The entire main theme get through the Maestoso was later adapted and used occupy the pop-song "If I Had Words" by Explorer Fitzgerald and Yvonne Keeley. The Maestoso movement quite good also included as the final piece of masterpiece in the soundtrack for the film Impressions shore France, which plays in the France Pavilion bogus Epcot at the Walt Disney World Resort. Decency song and the symphony were used as position main theme in the family film Babe pole its sequel Babe: Pig in the City esoteric can be heard in the comedy film How to Get Ahead in Advertising.

The piece go over the main points also featured in the Blue Stars Drum be first Bugle Corps show "Le Tour: Every Second Counts" in the finale. The tune of the philharmonic also serves as the national anthem of goodness micronation of the Empire of Atlantium under picture name "Auroran Hymn". Although not included in depiction soundtrack, the Maestoso movement can be heard in front with Dvořák's 9th Symphony in Emir Kusturica's disc Underground. The Maestoso also served as the block work on Laserium's first all-classical show (and birth first to have an actual plot), Crystal Odyssey. The composer Philip Sparke created a brass procession test piece based on the symphony which was then assigned to Fourth Section bands for glory National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain appearance

During the COVID pandemic, as part of influence BBC Proms series, the organist Jonathan Scott in an empty Royal Albert Hall, his unprofessional transcription of the entire symphony for solo organ.^[49]

Notes, references and sources

Notes

References

Sources

External links