The present album is the second of two recorded by the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège and Jean-Jacques Kantorow to commemorate the centenary of the death of Camille Saint-Saëns. On the first instalment the team offered us ‘deeply impressive performances in stunning sound’ (theclassicreview.com) of the composer’s first and second symphonies and the unnumbered Symphony in A major, but now the time has come for Saint-Saëns’ crowning glory in the symphonic genre: his Symphony No.?3 in C minor, generally known as the ‘Organ Symphony’. The work was composed in 1886, and Saint-Saëns had planned to dedicate it to Liszt but the latter’s death the same year caused the dedication in the published score to be modified to ‘in memory of Franz Liszt’. It is written for a larger orchestra than his previous symphonies, with the unusual addition of a piano and an organ – the two instruments that Liszt (and Saint-Saëns himself) favored. Without being a virtuoso vehicle, the organ part is central to the work – especially in the grandiose ending – and it is here performed by the renowned organist Thierry Escaich, playing the great organ of Liège’s Salle Philharmonique. On the album, the symphony is preceded by the ‘Urbs Roma’ symphony, composed in 1856 by a 21-year-old Saint-Saëns. It was written for a competition, and its title – ‘the city of Rome’ – was one of the subjects prescribed by the organizers. In the absence of an explanation by the composer, it is unclear how the music relates to the subject. Another enigma is why Saint-Saëns omitted the symphony from his catalogue of works, even though it actually won him a first prize. In consequence, ‘Urbs Roma’ remained unpublished until 1974 and is rarely heard even today.

This album of contemporary organ repertoire features fascinating works that display a wide array of influences. Barry Jordan’s Praise Song, heard here its 2018 revision, draws on modern worship songs and African drumming rhythms, an element that also suffuses part of Thierry Escaich’s Évocation II, a work of electrifying intensity and vibrant color. Arvo Pärt’s starkly beautiful Annum per annum is featured alongside Theo Brandmüller’s last work Sternenklänge. Dialogue vers les étoiles by Christian von Blohn – a student of Brandmüller – acts as a moving posthumous dialogue with his teacher.

“After several decades of debate, it is now firmly established that the Art of Fugue was composed for harpsichord. The notation on four staves could lead to confusion and wrongly suggest that the work was intended for an ensemble of four instruments. But this scheme of notation for a keyboard instrument was not uncommon in the past (e.g. it was used by the Italian Girolamo Frescobaldi in his Fiori Musicali), as it facilitates the visualization and grasp of each individual voice's progression and beauty. I am convinced that played appropriately and with artistic integrity, the piano can serve Bach's music superbly. In this recording I have played entirely without pedal so that the splendour of the contrapuntal lines is fully rendered. In some cases, for instance an appoggiatura, the piano allows for perfect imitation of a form of vocality, like a singer following the tonic accents of a language and pronouncing one syllable more quietly than another. The harpsichord can only imitate this by agogic inflections, by playing in an irregular rhythm. Some vocally inspired passages can therefore sound magnificent on the piano.“ (Eloïse Bella Kohn)