Symphony No. 3 in C minor "Organ symphony" was completed in 1886 by French composer Camille Saint-Saëns (1835 - 1921). Of composing the work Saint-Saëns said "I gave everything to it I was able to give. What I have here accomplished, I will never achieve again." The composer seemed to know it would be his last attempt at the symphonic form, and he wrote the work almost as a type of "history" of his own career: virtuoso piano passages, brilliant orchestral writing characteristic of the Romantic period, and the sound of a cathedral-sized pipe organ. The symphony seems to follow the normal four-movement structure, and many recordings divide it in this manner, but it was actually written in two movements. When I first listened to this monumental work, it was love at first hearing, even though the big tune in the final part was spoiled for me, by hearing it first in the pop song If I had words... The average playing time is 35 minutes (AllMusic). I have two versions, of which I have a clear preference for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Daniel Barenboim with Gaston Litaize on organ on a Deutsche Grammophon CD.
