Saint-Saëns: Symphony No. 3

Camille Saint-Saens (Composer), Eugene Ormandy (Conductor), Philadelphia Orchestra (Orchestra), Michael Murray (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Michael Murray
• Orchestra: Philadelphia Orchestra
• Conductor: Eugene Ormandy
• Composer: Camille Saint-Saens
• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Telarc
• ASIN: B000003CSK
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #66,595 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A sturdy "organ and orchestra" classic, in splendid sound., September 14, 2003

By 

Bob Zeidler (Charlton, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Saint-Saëns: Symphony No. 3 (Audio CD)

The Saint-Saëns Symphony No. 3 ("Organ Symphony") is without question the most famous, and most frequently-performed, work in the symphonic repertoire for this pairing of forces. Over the years, it has received the attention of many conductors. A quick search of available recordings shows that most speciaiists in the French repertoire have committed performances to disc: Charles Dutoit, Charles Munch, Georges Pretre, Andre Cluytens, Paul Paray, Jean Martinon, Sir Thomas Beecham, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Jean Fournet, Michel Plasson, Louis de Froment, Louis Fremaux (some of them with multiple recordings).

But, for all that "French specialization," the all-time record for most recordings of this work is held by a Hungarian, Eugene Ormandy. The record (no pun intended) shows that Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra recorded this work at least four times: twice with E. Power Biggs (the first of which, in the mid-'50s, is how I first came to know the work), once with Virgil Fox, and, finally (almost as a "career summation") with Michael Murray on this splendid Telarc CD.

Recorded at a time (1980) when Ormandy was preparing to relinquish his Philadelphia Orchestra Music Director position to his successor, Riccardo Muti, and when the novelty of digital recording was still unique enough that Telarc, in the vanguard of this technology, succeeded in securing recording rights for several major U.S. orchestras (including three of the "big five" if only for a limited number of releases), this performance is the equal of any, and the sound (from an unusual venue for the Philadelphia Orchestra, the St. Francis de Sales Church) remains "state of the art" nearly a quarter-century later. It is, arguably, one of the very best recordings of the Philadelphia Orchestra ever made, irrespective of repertoire. And the Cavaillé-Coll organ installation at St. Francis de Sales is a "near-twin" to the instruments actually played countless times by Saint-Saëns in Paris (at Notre Dame and at the Madeleine church).

Saint-Saëns was both a child prodigy and a composer who lived, and composed over, a long and fruitful life. But he was "only" fifty when he wrote this final symphony of his; all of his subsequent works were in different genres. He thought it a fitting capstone to his symphonic output, and who are we to argue? Composed in 1888, when Johannes Brahms was the leading symphonist of the day and such young "upstarts" as Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler were beginning to gain attention, Saint-Saëns's compositional aesthetic for the work (save for the fact that it incorporates the organ) is almost "reactionary" by comparison. It is immediately accessible to virtually anyone, such is its appeal. An adjective often used to describe Saint-Saëns's writing in this work is "suave"; I think this characterization is spot-on.

The Philadelphia Orchestra has rarely if ever sounded better than it does here. Famous for its "silky strings" during Ormandy's tenure, the whole orchestra is a model of refinement so vital for realizing the suave writings of Saint-Saëns; all choirs of the orchestra exhibit this refinement at every dynamic level. The organ-orchestra balances are perfect (clearly, Telarc did a remarkable job in establishing these balances in what is often a tricky venue, that of a rather reverberent church). And the dynamic and frequency ranges of the recording are nothing short of astounding; of present-day "demo" quality despite the passage of a quarter century.

My only complaint about this CD - and it is admittedly one that is "pocketbook dependent" - is that it offers rather a small amount of music for its cost. When it was newly-released (as a fairly early Telarc CD transfer from a 1980 digitially-mastered LP), matters were different, and CDs offering significantly more playing time than this one does were the exception. Nowadays, with 75+ minute CDs a routine matter, this recording - good as it is - should either be remastered to include more music (not a problem, given Telarc's large catalog), or offered as a "super budget" reissue (also not a problem, since Telarc has such a product line). This is the ONLY issue that keeps me from giving this recording a 5-star rating. For interpretive and sonic reasons, it clearly deserves such a rating; it remains the best recording of this work after all these years.

Bob Zeidler

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Philadelphia Sound, Writ Large, May 14, 2001

By 

John Grabowski (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Saint-Saëns: Symphony No. 3 (Audio CD)

If you've heard about the legendary "Philadelphia Sound" (which was killed by Riccardo Muti) and wondered what it was about, then get this CD. Many of the old Columbia (now Sony) recordings were made under less-than-great circumstances, and were mixed and equalized for the sound systems of the day (1950s and 60s), so they tend to sound strident and harsh and "gray." Many younger folks wonder what the big deal was over the so-called "Philadelphia Sound." Well, this CD should explain it to them. EO and the Philly Orch are lush without ever becoming bloated or "sugary." There is an intense spirituality at times, which betray Ormandy as a deeper conductor than he is often credited as being. This is probably the closest one can come to knowning what it was like to hear the Philadelphia Orchestra live back in those days, though the acoustic is more reverberant than one would get in the dry Academy of Music. In fact, perhaps it is a bit too reverberant. That would be my one slight reservation with the CD. There are some parts that are a little covered-over and smeared. It's only minor however, and there's nothing that would stand in the way of my recommending this disc. Be forewarned it's not a very long CD, and it wasn't even by CD standards when it was first released. But there's quantity and there's quality, and I'd rather have the latter.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ormandy & Philadelphia do Saint-Saens: A Classic of the recorded literature, May 20, 2007

By 

Dan Fee "music fan aka drdanfee" (Berkeley, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Saint-Saens Symphony No. 3 "Organ" / Encores a la Francaise / Ormandy, Murray, Philadelphia Orchestra (Stereo Hybrid SACD) (Audio CD)

If memory serves, Eugene Ormandy did the Saint-Saens Third Symphony several times in various recordings. Given the brilliant orchestration, plus the use of the great French pipe organ, this piece just has to be a show piece. It demonstrated vinyl LP stereo, then it demonstrated the early failed vinyl quad, then it demonstrated CD stereo, and now it arrives on SACD. This master tape was made in the transition years before superaudio surround sound actually arrived, yet it represented a sterling technical step forward, thanks to the 50 Hz soundstream system that allowed an increase in resolution and something closer to what fanatics have long called, tube-like warmth.

Now this soundstream master is successfully transferred into DSD superaudio, albeit limited to two stereo channels. Which just serves to demonstrate how very much can be accomplished in two channels, given the higher resolution that DSD procedures allow. Yes, the dynamic range and detail and sense of tonal presence are all remarkable and lovely. And if this doesn't approximate the holy grail of tube-like warmth, then I do not think we are ever going to get there via digital methods.

Such technical capacities would mean little if this disc were not also showing off the rich sheen of the famed Philadelphia strings, christened with woodwinds in platinum, and golden glowing brass. The organ is particularly effective, yet integrated always into the larger orchestral fabric. Needless to say, there are never any problems of musical technique with the members of the Philadelphia. They excel, as a matter of course. Yet we must not take their excellence for granted, even though they are so generous with their talents that being cup bearer to the gods must come to seem for a while like the most ordinary of musical occupations.

The Saint-Saens was recorded complete with organ, played by virtuoso Michael Murray, at the Saint Francis de Sales church in Philadelphia, so it has special claims to care and to adopting a clean, non-gimmicky approach. Nearby streets were actually closed to traffic during the sessions, and special voicing of the organ and the church as an acoustic recording venue were carried out.

All of this effort paid off handsomely, now that we can hear what the original master captured.

There is nothing eccentric in this performance. It is entirely mainstream in its tempos and accents. Ormandy was often under-rated, like Fritz Reiner ... competent, yes, but ... Hearing him again after all these years reveals the rock solid tempo management he could take for granted, as well as his ability to get out of the way of the music and let the composer ring through without mannerism or fuss. This is all to the good, since with a facile composer like Saint-Saens, it is easy to try to hitch things up a bit by plastering on somebody's version of Frenchification, gone usually all glitzy. The end results of such pushing and pulling is not only to maul and distort the music, but in the end to make the music seem even shallower and less substantial than ever.

Ormandy does not let his players play down to the composer, nor does Michael Murray condescend, despite the composer's use of the organ for color and weight, as well as for display.

The remainder of the SACD is a second complete French music organ recital, played solo by Michael Murray on the great organ installed in Boston's Symphony Hall. It is difficult to imagine an organist who could play this recital repertoire better, nor a better instrument upon which the music could be played. The famed acoustics of Symphony Hall add their hallowed luster.

Murray as an organist is a masterful twin to Ormandy as band leader. Fuss, muss, and fiddle are foregone in favor of the organist adopting a direct, astute, and very rewarding transparency as a channel of musical communication. The tonal occupations of each different recital piece come through, clearly, and if we have to hear something after the symphony so grandly concludes, it is hard to gripe about this recital being it.

Among the full-channel superaudio competition, I am favorably disposed to the Nezet-Seguin/Montreal Metro outing. It has its own special values. The recent recording by Eschenbach with Philadelphia is also getting loud raves, so that one is probably in the high running, too.

Yet if you grew up with Ormandy - or if you didn't, and have been wondering just what the talk was all about during his long-standing tenure as music director - this disc is a blessedly welcome blast from the past. Bravo to Telarc for re-releasing it in superaudio, and not just consigning it to the past.

Why just have one Saint-Saens' Third? Plus you can use the organ recital portion to help voice and balance your chosen subwoofer into the home system you have been dying to test. Sounds like a win-win-win, thanks to soundstream, and thanks to solid musical values.