Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 78 "Organ"

The symphony runs in two large parts, each fusing what would normally be two separate movements into one continuous span.

Part I opens with a nervous, searching string theme in C minor that drives an agitated fast section. This gives way to a slower, hymn-like passage where the organ first enters, quietly, almost like a held breath under the strings, coloring the harmony rather than dominating it.

Part I's second half returns to fast tempo, working the opening idea into scurrying, restless music that seems to look for resolution but does not fully find it, fading into an uneasy quiet.

Part II begins with a scherzo, quick and playful, with a piano adding glittering runs. A trio section lightens the mood further before the scherzo material returns, building tension and speeding up.

Then comes the moment audiences wait for: the organ enters fortissimo on a great C major chord, and the whole orchestra, now joined by piano four hands, launches into a broad, triumphant chorale-like theme drawn from the symphony's opening idea, transformed from anxious minor into radiant major. The music builds through variations of this theme to a blazing close.

Saint-Saëns composed this symphony in 1886 on commission from the Philharmonic Society of London, where he conducted the premiere that year. He dedicated it to the memory of Franz Liszt, who died shortly after the first performance and whose practice of transforming a single theme across a whole work influenced the symphony's construction. Saint-Saëns considered it his most ambitious orchestral achievement, reportedly saying he had given it everything he had to give. It calls for a large orchestra, organ, and piano, an unusual combination that made it something of an event from the start. It remains his most frequently performed symphony and a staple of orchestras with access to a concert organ.