With his third and last symphony, Camille Saint-Saëns set out to create a masterpiece.  At 51, he was–and had long been–one of the most famous musicians in France, equally successful as a composer, conductor, pianist, and organist.  (For many years, he served as the organist of the Madeleine, one of the landmark churches in Paris.)  His career had started with the unqualified endorsement of such luminaries as Berlioz, Liszt, and Gounod, and he had come to be considered a luminary himself.  At the same time, he had reason to feel that some of his best efforts in the field of composition were not sufficiently appreciated.  He had won great acclaim for his concertos and other virtuosic solo pieces.  However, his symphonic poems, such as Le Rouet d’Omphale (“Omphale’s Spinning-Wheel”), met with little enthusiasm in Paris, and the opera Samson and Delilah, which he himself saw as his most important work, had to be premiered abroad.  At home, Saint-Saëns was locked in a bitter rivalry with César Franck.  He was antagonized by Franck’s students, and was increasingly isolated in the Société Nationale de Musique (which he had helped found), a situation that, soon after the premiere of the Third Symphony, led to his resignation as the society’s president.

Saint-Saëns, then, wanted to make a major statement, and the invitation of the London Philharmonic Society to write a symphony provided just the incentive he needed.  He showed his work-in-progress to Franz Liszt (who had been a constant source of encouragement) when the older man passed through Paris for the last time in his life in 1885.  Saint-Saëns conducted the premiere of his completed symphony in London on May 19, 1886, to a standing ovation.  It was a success in France as well.

The symphony is divided into two parts, but each part can be broken down to two movements, so that the traditional four-movement symphonic structure is not hard to recognize (opening movement + Adagio, and scherzo + finale).  The inclusion of an organ solo in a symphonic work may seem unusual, but it was not without precedent, as Saint-Saëns’s mentor Liszt had used an organ in his Hunnenschlacht (“Battle of the Huns”); Saint-Saëns included a piano in his orchestra as well, with two pianists playing four-hands.  

Saint-Saëns’s method of motivic transformation also follows Lisztian models.  Much of the piece is based on a single motif whose variants are heard throughout the two parts and four movements.  As in Liszt’s symphonic poems, the motif undergoes major changes in rhythm, tempo, orchestration and general character.  The organ first enters in the “Adagio” section, with a major solo followed by many more later on.  In the final movement, the main motif is transformed into a solemn chorale and then into a fugue.  The work ends with a magnificent and majestic climax.

Saint-Saëns was well aware of the symphony’s significance in his career.  He never attempted to write another symphony; instead, he returned to writing operas, concertos, and chamber music during the remaining 35 years of his life.  As he said about the “Organ” Symphony in later years:  “I have given all I had to give.  What I have done I shall never do again.”

~Program Notes by Peter Laki, copyright 2026