Symphony No. 3

Considered throughout much of his career as the preeminent French composer, Camille Saint-Saëns wrote music that embodies a characteristic French concern for clarity and order, together with his own assured mastery of the composer's craft. These qualities are evident in Saint-Saëns' Symphony No. 3, widely regarded as the composer's major orchestral work, and one of the very few to incorporated the organ as a featured instrument.
Saint-Saëns wrote this symphony during the period of his greatest creativity -- in the 1870s and '80s -- at which time he also produced such important works as the opera Samson et Dalila, Le Carnaval des animaux, the Piano Concerto No. 4, and the Violin Concerto No. 3. Deeply moving and majestic, the "Organ" Symphony bears all the hallmarks of Saint-Saëns' fluent mastery of orchestral composition. It is reprinted here form an authoritative full-score edition published by Durand et Schoenewerk, Paris.