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Home > Composers Datebook > Saint-Saens and "Babe" at the organ


	Podcast:		Composers Datebook
	Episode:		Saint-Saens and "Babe" at the organ
	Category:		Health
	Duration:		00:01:59
	Publish Date:		2018-05-19 00:00:00
	Description:		It’s a little ironic that at the height of his career, the great Romantic composer Camille Saint-Saens was more appreciated in England and the United States than in his native France. And so, it’s perhaps not surprising that his Symphony No. 3, subtitled the “Organ Symphony,” premiered not in Paris, but at St James's Church in London on today’s date in 1886, with the composer conducting as well as performing as the organ soloist. In addition to being a famous composer and brilliant pianist, Saint-Saens was also an accomplished organist. In 1857, he became an organist at the famous Church of the Madeleine in Paris, and held that post for 20 years. The great Romantic composer Franz Liszt once hailed Saint-Saens as the finest organist in the world. And so, again not surprisingly, Saint-Saens dedicated the published score of the “Organ Symphony” to Liszt, who had died in Germany shortly after the London premiere. What we DO find surprising is that, for quite a few modern American audiences, this great and noble symphonic work calls to mind a clever little sheep-herding piglet named “Babe.” For reasons beyond the knowledge of even the Composers Datebook, one of the uplifting themes from Saint-Saens’ “Organ Symphony” was used, to great effect, in a popular 1995 film about talking barnyard animals. Maybe the filmmakers stumbled upon Saint-Saens’ “Organ Symphony” after sampling another work the French composed in 1886, a witty chamber lark entitled “Carnival of the Animals.”
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