Symphony No. 3 in c minor, Op.78, “Organ”

• Saint-Saëns composed this symphony in April of 1886. It premiered on May 19, 1886 in St. James’ Hall in London. The Royal Philharmonic Society performed, and Saint-Saëns conducted.¹
• Saint-Saëns dedicated this piece “to the memory of Franz Liszt.” He had initially dedicated it to the Royal Philharmonic Society, who commissioned it, but he altered the dedication after Liszt’s death on July 1, 1886.²
• The French premiere of the symphony took place eight months later, and it was so popular that a third performance had to be added to the originally scheduled two.³

“I do not recall ever witnessing the Conservatoire audience, normally disinclined to displays of enthusiasm, applaud so frenetically anything other than a virtuoso. It was as though the bravos would never end, and I must say … the symphony merits them in every way.”

French music critic Arthur Pougin’s review of the French premiere of the “Organ” Symphony⁴

1. “Symphony No.3, Op.78 (Saint-Saëns, Camille),” IMSLP, accessed April 6, 2021, https://imslp.org/wiki/Symphony_No.3%2C_Op.78_(Saint-Sa%C3%ABns%2C_Camille).
2. Ibid.
3. Andrew Deruchie, The French Symphony at the Fin-de-Siècle: Style, Culture, and the Symphonic Tradition (Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell & Brewer, 2013), 19.
4. Quoted in Ibid.