Saint-Saëns: Requiem, Organ Symphony

The Messe de Requiem occupies a special place in Saint-Saëns’s religious works. Composed in only eight days, it does not follow the dramatic treatments of Berlioz or Verdi but is more allied to Fauré’s devotional style. Indeed it became almost premonitional, as his two children died within weeks of the premiere in Switzerland. In constast to the pain contained in the Requiem is the overt joy of the hugely popular Organ Symphony, in which Saint-Saëns “gave all that he had to give” to produce one of the landmarks of the Romantic symphonic genre.