Dynamic Organ & Brass: Saint-Saëns & Gabrieli
The Church of the Redeemer
Camille Saint-Saëns and Giovanni Gabrieli, two dynamic composers, are separated in time by over two hundred years. Both straddled two distinct musical eras that marked both of their prodigious outpourings. Saint-Saëns, a child music prodigy, was a great admirer of the modern music of his day. His orchestral works pay much homage to the giants that came before him including Bach, Handel, Haydn, and Mozart. He composed his Symphony No. 3—a majestic showstopper, popularly known as the “Organ Symphony”—in 1886 at the artistic peak of his career. It would be his last symphony.