Saint-saens: Symphony No. 3 / Le Rouet D'omphale

Description

Camille Saint-Sa?½ns (1835 - 1921)Symphony No.3 In C Minor (Organ Symphony), Opus 78Le Rouet d'Omphale, Opus 31 Bacchanale from "Samson & Delilah", Opus 47Camille Saint-Sa?½ns lived a long life, composed a large amount ofmusic, and by the time of his death in 1921 at the age of 86 seemed a relic of adistant age. As a young man he had earned the nick-name of the FrenchMendelssohn. He found himself, in old age, in the world of composers such asRavel, Stravinsky and Schoenberg.Saint-Sa?½ns was born in Paris in 1835. His father, a clerk in theMinistry of the Interior, died shortly after his son 's birth, and the boy wasbrought up by his mother and her aunt, the latter giving him his first pianolessons when he was two and a half. He showed exceptional ability and at theage of ten appeared in a public concert at the Salle Pleyel, having alreadylearned by heart all the Beethoven sonatas.In an otherwise distinguished enough career at the Conservatoire, wherehe had composition lessons from Halevy and studied the organ with Bergist,Saint-Sa?½ns failed to win the Prix de Rome, but w rote an impressive series ofcompositions. In common with many other French composers, he took anappointment as an organist in Paris and was for nearly twenty years employed inthat capacity at the Madeleine.For four years Saint-Sa?½ns, from 1861 until 1865, taught at the EcoleNiedermeyer and it was there that he met Gabriel Faur?¿, who was to remain hisclose friend throughout his life. His marriage in 1875 was brief and unhappyand lasted a mere six years, with his two children dying in infancy. The deathof his mother in 1888 proved a greater blow to his security, and he wasthereafter to spend a great deal of time travelling, particularly to Egypt andto AIgeria. He died in Algiers in 1921.Saint-Sa?½ns was immensely gifted, both as a performer and as acomposer. Liszt, who heard him improvise at the Madeleine, described him as thegreatest living organist, while Hans von Buelow, who heard him read at sight atthe piano the score of Wagner's Siegfried declared him the greatest musicalmind of the time. As a pianist he performed principally his own music, avoidingthe inevitable drudgery of the mere virtuoso he might so easily have become.The compositions of Saint-Sa?½ns cover almost every possible genre ofmusic. He w rote for the theatre and for the church, composed songs, orchestralmusic and chamber music, with works for the piano and for the organ. In stylehe deserved the comparison with Mendelssohn, sharing with that composer anability in the handling of traditional forms and techniques and a gift fororchestration.The third and last of the numbered symphonies that Saint-Sa?½ns wrote,the so-called Organ Symphony, wascompleted in 1886, the year of the famous private jeu d'esprit, Le carnaval des animaux. It was dedicatedto the memory of Franz Liszt, who died that year in Bayreuth. The twomovements of the work include the normal structure of a four-movement symphony,with the use of cycli