Camille Saint-Saens: Symphonie Nr.3 "Orgelsymphonie" (180g) (45rpm)

• Label: Reference Recordings, 2013

Saint-Saëns dedicated the written form of his officially third symphony to his friend Franz Liszt, who died a few weeks after the premiere in May 1886. The symphony was commissioned by the Philharmonic Society of London, which had previously commissioned Beethoven's Ninth and Dvorak's Seventh. For Saint-Saëns, then 50, 27 years had passed since his last symphony. He claimed afterwards that he could not write such a work again. He had succeeded, he said, because he had concentrated on the piano and the organ, in the mastery of which he himself - like his friend Liszt - was a master.

The recording was produced by Grammy winner David Frost, and Prof. Keith Johnson was the engineer in charge. As always with Reference Recordings albums, the sound is blessed with size and transparency, conveying a fabulous combination of room ambience and direct sound. The demonstration of power of the gigantic organ in Helzberg Hall in Kansas City, however, is reserved for speakers with the appropriate potency. Reference takes the liberty of not cutting the instrument in the lower registers, and compact systems and mini-monitors are left behind.

The half-speed mastering of the 45 LP was done by Paul Stubblebine. 180g vinyl in gatefold cover.

LP

1. 1Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, op. 78, "Organ" Adagio - Allegro moderato
2. 2Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, op. 78, "Organ" Poco adagio
3. 3Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, op. 78, "Organ" Allegro moderato - Presto
4. 4Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, op. 78, "Organ" Maestoso - Allegro