Jon leifs organ concerto camille

Last year was a year of Camille Saint Saens and Franz Schubert for me. I have a much greater appreciation of their music today than I did a year ago.  I’ve written a lot about Schubert (read it here).  Today I want to zoom in on Saint Saens.  After I wrote about his piano concertos (read it here), a reader suggested I listen to Saint Saens’ Symphony No. 3, also known as the Organ Symphony.  Thank you!  I cannot stop listening to it.

This is not so much a symphony for organ as a symphony for two orchestras – a traditional orchestra and organ.  The organ has so much gravitas and its sound is so rich and powerful that it can be construed as an orchestra.  The organ in this symphony adds an unexpected (at least for me) depth to the sound and amplifies emotions created by the main orchestra.   Saint Saens wrote about this symphony, “I gave everything to it I was able to give. What I have here accomplished, I will never achieve again.”  He dedicated it to his friend Franz Liszt.

Orchestre de Paris, Paavo Järvi, conductor

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For other uses, see Organ concerto (disambiguation).

An organ concerto is a type of classical music composition in which a pipe organ soloist is accompanied by an orchestra, although some works exist with the name "concerto" which are for organ alone.

The orchestral form first evolved in the 18th century, when composers including Antonio Vivaldi and George Frideric Handel wrote organ concertos with small orchestras; these organ parts rarely if ever call for the organ pedal board. During the Classical period the organ concerto became popular in many places, especially in Bavaria, Austria and Bohemia (whether called there a concerto, pastorella, or sonata), reaching a position of being almost an integral part of the church music tradition of jubilus character. From the Romantic era fewer works are known. Finally, there are some 20th- and 21st-century examples, of which the concerto by Francis Poulenc has entered the basic repertoire, and is quite frequently played.

Some works for organ and orchestra which clearly feature the organ in a solo, virtuoso role are not given the name concerto, e.g. the Symphonie concertante of Joseph Jongen.

However, the organ concerto form does not include certain orchestral works that call for the pipe organ to be used a

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