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Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1921) Organ Music For some 75 years, from childhood until the last year of his life, Camille Saint-Saens enjoyed international...

Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1921)


Organ Music

For some 75 years, from childhood until the last year of his life, Camille Saint-Saens enjoyed international renown as a piano and organ virtuoso. He was also famous as a prolific composer. As an organ virtuoso, Saint-Saens toured extensively in Europe throughout his career, including, in 1906 and 1915, appearances in the United States. He also held the prestigious position of organist at the Madeleine in Paris for nearly twenty years.

While a relatively small number of his compositions have kept their place in the concert hall and the recording catalogue, the greater part of his output remains relatively unknown. This undeserved neglect extends to his 22 published organ works, consisting of pieces for solo organ, organ and orchestra, transcriptions and chamber music. Throughout his long life the organ remained not only a central aspect of his musical personality, but of his activity as a composer, and some of his first and last works were for the instrument.

Saint-Saens was born in Paris on 9th October 1835.

His father, a clerk in the Ministry of the Interior, died of consumption three months after his birth leaving him to be reared by his mother and his great-aunt, Charlotte Masson. His musical aunt introduced him to the piano and began giving him his early musical training when he was two and a half, and a year later he wrote his first piano piece. In 1846, at the age of ten, he made his formal debut as a pianist at the Salle Pleyel, playing a Mozart and a Beethoven concerto. In the winter of 1847 he received his first lessons on the organ from Alexandre- Pierre Boely (1785-1858), organist of Saint-Germainl'Auxerrois and remembered as the 'French Bach'. In October 1848 he entered the Paris Conservatoire, enrolling in the organ class of François Benoist (1794- 1878), whose pupils included Gounod, Franck, Bizet and Alkan. In 1851, after only three years of study, Saint- Saens won a Premier Prix in organ. His professional career as an organist began in 1853 when he was appointed to the church of Saint Severin in Paris. A few months later he accepted a similar appointed at the Church of Saint-Merry, where, on 3rd December 1857, at the dedication of the newly rebuilt organ, he gave the first performance of his first published organ work, the Fantasie in E flat. Four days later, on 7th December, Saint-Saens was appointed to the Madeleine, where he was to remain until 1877.

During his years at the Madeleine Saint-Saens was active as an organ recitalist and became well-known for his improvisations on the church's magnificent Cavaille- Coll organ. He was to become one of Cavaille-Coll's favourite organists, and participated in the dedication of many of the organ-builder's largest and most famous instruments, including Saint Sulpice, Notre-Dame, La Trinite and the Trocadero. In September 1878 he gave the first performance of his friend Liszt's Fantasy and Fugue on 'Ad nos ad salutarem undam' at the dedication of the Trocadero organ..

The last half of his life was replete with activity and honours. In April of 1877 Saint-Saens resigned his post at the Madeleine, after disagreements with the clergy. His increased activity as a composer and touring virtuoso, however, probably hastened the decision. With the exception of an honorary appointment as organist at Saint Severin in 1897, he never again held an organ position.

He remained active, however, as an organ recitalist and continued to compose for the instrument for the remainder of his life, publishing his last organ work in 1919, two years before his death. 1881 saw his election to the Academie des Beaux-Arts, and 1886 the première of his so-called Organ Symphony, which was to become one of his most famous works. His opera Samson et Dalila was first staged in Paris in 1892, and in 1893 he received an honorary doctorate from Cambridge University in England. 1906 found him touring America where he returned in 1915 to appear at the San Francisco World's Fair. A fervent patriot during the years of the Great War, he maintained his concert activity and wrote several patriotic works. One of his last compositions, Cyprès et Lauriers for organ and orchestra, was written in 1919 to celebrate the Allied victory.

After a brief illness Saint-Saens died at the Hôtel de l'Oasis, in his beloved Algiers, on 16th December 1921.

At his burial in Montparnasse cemetery on 24th December the organist Charles-Marie Widor, as perpetual secretary of the Academie des Beaux-Arts, spoke in the name of the Institut de France:
"His example and his work remain. The man is no more, but his spirit hovers over the world, alive and glorious, and will continue to hover as long as we have instruments and orchestras."

Disc 1

Prelude and Fugue in E flat major, Op. 99, No. 3 (more info)
Composed by: Camille Saint-Saens
Robert Delcamp, organ
Produced by: Rubsam, Wolfgang


1.   Prelude and Fugue in E flat major, Op. 99, No. 3 - 8:25


Rhapsody on Breton Melodies in F major, Op. 7, No. 3 (more info)
Composed by: Camille Saint-Saens
Robert Delcamp, organ
Produced by: Rubsam, Wolfgang


2.   Rhapsody on Breton Melodies in F major, Op. 7, No. 3 - 8:42


7 Improvisations, Op. 150 (more info)
Composed by: Camille Saint-Saens
Robert Delcamp, organ
Produced by: Rubsam, Wolfgang


3.   I. Molto lento - 10:59
4.   II. Feria Pentecostes - 4:52
5.   III. Poco adagio - 6:24
6.   IV. Allegretto - 3:03
7.   V. Pro Martyribus - 5:14
8.   VI. Pro Defunctis - 6:58
9.   VII. Allegro giocoso - 4:29


Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 78, "Organ": II. Poco adagio (trans. E. Bernard) (more info)
Composed by: Camille Saint-Saens
Robert Delcamp, organ
Produced by: Rubsam, Wolfgang


10.   Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 78, "Organ": Poco adagio (trans. E. Bernard) - 10:47


Fantaisie in E flat major (more info)
Composed by: Camille Saint-Saens
Robert Delcamp, organ
Produced by: Rubsam, Wolfgang


11.   Fantaisie in E flat major - 6:44

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