Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Saint-Saens: Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 78 "Organ" - Maestoso

the movements in this well-known symphony are not usually very well divided. this section, what many would probably call the fourth movement, is actually the second half of the second movement. the symphony was conceived in two movements but saint-saens said that it "retains the 4-movement form" of a symphony, so... yea.

this is the only orchestral work of saint-saens (that is non-soloist) besides maybe danse macabre and the carnival of animals, which gets any sunlight at all. he wrote two other symphonies and a handful of suites, but i've never heard them. other repertoire that gets played ad nauseum is the intro/rondo capriccioso for violin/orchestra, havannaise for the same ensemble, the cello concerto, and the piano concerto no. 2. oh and violin concerto no. 3. i have a composer-friend who liked to say that he thought saint-saens would probably be completely embarrassed and kind of depressed to know that his most popular legacy to the world was the carnival of the animals. the truth is he did compose a lot of silly light virtuosic music, and he was very good at it. but he gets looked down on sometimes because things that are supposed to be a little more serious still sound like playful light music (see his pc no. 2... which is awesome and fun btw).

anyway so here is his one symphony which he sort of poured his all into, and he claimed that he would never again attain what he had attained in writing it. it was written/premiered in 1886 and dedicated to liszt who died that same year. shortly thereafter he basically had his ties in france cut (via removal from the national society of music and his mother's death), so he spent the rest of his life travelling the world before dying in algeria in 1921.

what's remarkable about this symphony is, of course, the organ part (and maybe only marginally less noticeably, the piano, for which some parts require four hands). of course it's not an organ concerto, the organ is just included as part of the instruments. for this particular movement there is a low pedal of a frequency so low that is more felt than heard, and you can imagine how this might transform one's experience of the symphony if one were listening to it live.
after the gigantic organ chords that open this movement you can hear sparkling piano writing along with the theme, which is a C Major version of the theme that appears in the first movement. the theme is reaffirmed by the organ (complete with brass fanfare interjections).
right afterwards we begin a fugal section which takes us through to a more gentle theme and mood, with some lyrical string and wind writing. but then we are returned to a more militant version of the theme, with insistent tattoos of b-flat from the trumpets. the apex is put off by a brief little pastoral section with an arpeggio motif, lots of string and wind solos. but after that the march is on again; lots of chromatic muttering in the strings and brass fanfares on top build up into a towering climax which pretty much makes as much use of the organ as you'd expect.
i am a little sad that part of me, when listening to this, still feels like, man, that is so silly/sappy. after all this is the guy's magnum opus. but for me that's just what saint-saens's music sounds like a lot of the time - it's good though, because he manages to do it in ways that are still satisfying and even surprising. one other thing about this symphony in particular is it's awfully loud with the organ and everything. in fact at some points i just sort of wanted to turn it down and not listen too closely. but actually if there's one thing i actually really do like about this symphony it's that i feel it does incorporate the organ as successfully as it's possible to do, considering it produces just as much sound as the rest of the orchestra put together and then some. to the degree that it's possible, the organ is actually written as just another instrument in the orchestra, with its share of accompanying chordal stuff and random grandiose solo passages. if i were to sort of mentally concoct my own version of thus spake zarathustra after that famous opening, it would sound something like this. i was always disappointed when that big organ c chord just bottoms out without becoming anything.

ok, see you tomorrow.

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