The Symphonies of Saint-Saëns, and so on

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May Day

We are not confused by what Widor called Organ Symphonies¹, because we all know the Organ Symphony, made indelible (as to its last movement, at any rate) by that pop treatment in the late 70s!

If we know that it is Saint-Saëns' Symphony No. 3, we know that there must be others (though he could have destroyed them²), but they are never mentioned, and there seems no question of playing them.

So, as I dilated elsewhere, with Saint-Saëns as with Bruch, and we might, at best, hear

* Danse macabre

* The Carnival of the Animals

* One of the piano concertos³

* If operatically minded, Samson et Dalilia or one of a number of others


Well, maybe I shall try to find a CD of any of these other two or three symphonies, which might be indicative of whether conductors give them the time of day

If I find one, I might even buy it - at the right price - and waffle on about it in another posting...




End-notes

¹ Actually, he called them Symphonie pour orgue (but that amounts to the same thing) . Of course, the Toccata from No. 5 (Op. 42, No. 1) most often gets an airing, usually detached.

² It appears that he wrote four others, but withdrew the first, and that what is known as No. 3 is the last of the five that he wrote.

³ Of which (I have them on a two-CD, with, as I recall, a crazy need to change discs mid-concerto!), I think that I like No. 4 best - it may be that it is the one with the jaunty theme that I find reminiscent of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 (the so-called Emperor).

The Beethoven, at any rate, has that bouncy, Tigger theme in the last movement, which Imogen Cooper, as soloist in a live performance, convinced me could sound other than ridiculous (and said afterwards, as I recall, that playing it was a question of properly addressing the fact that it contains a hemiola).


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