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- 1 - REQUIEM • ORGAN SYMPHONY CAMILLE SAINT SAËNS Nevertheless, amongst his vast array of CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS (1835-1921) (Paris, 1835 – Algiers, 1921) compositions is a treasury of delightful pieces, including some which have inevitably been Music came to Saint-Saëns with a ready overshadowed by his best-known works. In this 1 Overture to La princesse jaune Op. 30 [6.38] facility: “I write music as an apple tree release two such compositions – the Overture produces apples,” he remarked, “and live in to La princesse jaune and the Requiem – are Requiem Op. 54 Tinuke Olafimihan soprano Anthony Roden tenor music like a fish in water.” He wrote around juxtaposed with one of Saint-Saëns’s most Catherine Wyn-Rogers contralto Simon Kirkbride bass 170 opus-numbered compositions, and a vast powerful works, the “Organ” Symphony. The Hertfordshire, Harlow and East London Choruses amount of other music besides. During his Michael Kibblewhite director long life he was hailed as one of the greatest 1 Overture to La princesse jaune Op.30 James O’Donnell organ of French composers and after the first Paris 2 I. Requiem-Kyrie [5.56] performance of his “Organ” Symphony, Gounod In 1872, Saint-Saëns collaborated with the 3 II. Dies Irae [7.27] exclaimed, “There goes the French Beethoven!” librettist Louis Gallet on a one-act operetta which 4 III. Rex Tremendae [3.05] was to be produced at the Opera-comique in June 5 IV. Oro Supplex [5.09] The German classics of Beethoven, of that year. The subject was a whimsical piece 6 V. Hostias [2.33] 7 VI. Sanctus [1.24] Mendelssohn and Schumann were, in fact of oriental fantasy, in which a young Dutchman 8 VII. Benedictus [1.46] the formative influences on Saint-Saëns’s comes sufficiently under the influence of narcotics 9 VIII. Agnus Dei [8.16] early development, though later he absorbed to imagine himself transported to Japan – the not only old French dance forms, but also a land of “silver dragons, jade goblets and scented Symphony No.3 in C minor ‘Organ Symphony’ Op.78 considerable leavening of “exotica”, brought wines.” Here he falls for a Japanese figurine, “The James O’Donnell organ about by his constant travelling abroad. Yellow Princess” of the title, but when he emerges 0 I. Adagio – Allegro [9.48] q II. Adagio [10.46] from his drugged state he actually finds himself w III. Allegro [15.14] The popularity and fame he enjoyed during his in the arms of the girl he really loves. The operetta lifetime brought about a reaction against his received high praise from Fauré, who wrote of its Total timings: [78.29] music, encouraged by his own antipathy to wit, tenderness and splendid colour – qualities modern trends: he despised Debussy and was to be found in the delightfully exotic overture, rendered speechless with horror at the first with its overtones of Sullivan and Offenbach. LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA performance of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. geoffrey simon conductor calasignum.com - 3 - Requiem Op. 54 Unlike Berlioz and Verdi, whose respective Symphony No.3 in C minor actually laid out in two separate parts, with the Tinuke Olafimihan soprano requiems were conceived in grandiose and ‘Organ Symphony’ Op.78 opening Adagio linked directly to the succeeding Anthony Roden tenor quasi-operatic styles, Saint-Saëns’s composition James O’Donnell organ Allegro, and the Scherzo which commences Catherine Wyn-Rogers contralto never loses sight of the church. As in the Requiem 0 I. Adagio – Allegro the third movement similarly leading into the Simon Kirkbride bass of Fauré, a lifelong friend of the older composer, q II. Adagio Finale without pause. Saint-Saëns dedicated The Hertfordshire, Harlow and the vocal writing throughout is both devotional w III. Allegro the symphony to Liszt, whose death only a few East London Choruses and entreating, with soloists and chorus echoing weeks after its first performance was a tragic Michael Kibblewhite director each other in urgent supplication. The scoring is Although known as his Symphony No.3, this was blow to the much-saddened Frenchman. James O’Donnell organ discreet and lucid, the harps in particular making in fact the fifth symphony which Saint-Saëns 2 I. Requiem-Kyrie notable contributions to the accompaniment with wrote. There were four very early efforts written in While working on the symphony, Saint-Saëns 3 II. Dies Irae filigrees of sound. The organ too has an important the 1850s, of which two were neither numbered wrote to the London Philharmonic Society 4 III. Rex Tremendae part, and is often used with striking effect, as in nor published. There was then a gap of a quarter to say that it “will be terrifying,” adding, 5 IV. Oro Supplex the Tuba Mirum section of the Dies Irae, where of a century before this “third” symphony was however, that “it will be a treat for me to 6 V. Hostias it is joined by four unison trombones. (At the written, by which time Saint-Saëns had become conduct it. Will it be a treat, though, for the 7 VI. Sanctus first performance in 1878, under the composer’s famous not only as composer but as a celebrated people who hear it?” The ovation it received 8 VII. Benedictus direction in the Church of Saint-Sulpice, the keyboard virtuoso; he was also much in demand gave him his answer, and its Paris premiere 9 VIII. Agnus Dei organ was played by Charles-Marie Widor.) The on tour as a conductor of his own works. the following year was just as successful. sorrow in the music, particularly in the opening The Messe de Requiem occupies a special pages of the Requiem and again in the Agnus Now aged fifty, he was at the height of his Posterity has long decreed that the “Organ” place in Saint-Saëns’s religious choral works. Dei (where the same theme is reprised), takes reputation, and the London Philharmonic Society Symphony is, indeed, a “treat” for audiences, Its dedicatee was a friend named Albert Libon, on an added poignancy when we learn that not was anxious to commission a work from him since they have long recognised it as one of those who had made a bequest to the composer of long after Saint-Saëns returned from Switzerland, which he could conduct at one of their concerts. works which makes a very special occasion out 100,000 francs on condition that Saint-Saëns his young son fell to his death from the fourth As it happened, Saint-Saëns already had some of a concert. Principally, of course, this is due should write a requiem to be performed after floor of the family’s Paris home. This tragedy was ideas in mind for a new symphony and had to the effect of the organ’s entries – initially Libon’s death. This occurred in 1877 and early compounded even more horribly when his other played a few themes for Liszt, a long-time in the sublime Adagio section, which contains the following spring, Saint-Saëns travelled to child died of an illness only a few weeks later. champion of his music, while working on the one of the composer’s superb long-breathed Switzerland where he composed the work in One can almost hear in Saint-Saëns’s deeply-felt sketches in Paris. They formed the basis of the melodies, and again with the organ’s thrilling its entirety within the space of eight days. music a premonition of the pain that was to come. grandiloquent work he duly presented to London reappearance at the start of the Finale, in on 19 May 1886 – a four-movement symphony which Saint-Saëns obtains all the possible - 4 - - 5 - excitement and drama which can be wrung GEOFFREY SIMON from large orchestral forces. “I have given all that I had to give”, wrote Saint-Saens – “what Australian conductor Geoffrey Simon is I have done I shall never do again.” What he resident in London and has appeared there did, in fact, was to provide generations of with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, music-lovers with one of the finest Romantic London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia symphonies ever composed, its popularity fully Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, assured as long as music is there to be made. London Chamber Orchestra, London Mozart Players and English Chamber Orchestra. © Edward Johnson. Internationally, he has appeared with the Adelaide, Atlanta, Bournemouth, Canberra, City of Birmingham, Fort Worth, Melbourne, Milwaukee, Queensland, Sapporo, Shanghai, St Louis, Sydney, Tasmanian, Vermont and West Australian Symphony Orchestras, the Israel, Moscow, Munich and New Japan Philharmonic Orchestras, the American Symphony, the Residentie Orchestra of The Hague, the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony and the Australian Opera. His music directorships have included the Albany Symphony Orchestra (New York), the Australian Sinfonia (London), the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra (Indiana), the Orquestra Simfònica de Balears “Ciutat de Palma” (Majorca) and the Sacramento Symphony (California). With the Palma Orchestra he conducted Paul Patterson’s - 6 - - 7 - Te Deum for the King and Queen of Spain, and – violins, violas, cellos, double basses, horns, LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA with the Sacramento Symphony he created trumpets, trombones and harps – drawn from the World View series of concerts, attracting London’s leading solo, orchestral and chamber The London Philharmonic Orchestra has Orchestra’s new Principal Conductor from the audiences from twenty non-European cultures. musicians. Known as The London Sound Series, long established a high reputation for its 2007/08 season. Mark-Anthony Turnage was the recordings have attracted interest amongst versatility and artistic excellence. These are appointed Composer in Residence in 2005. Geoffrey Simon is Music Director Emeritus of the instrumentalists worldwide.

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