"With it I have given all I could give. What I did, I could not achieve again." And he never did. French composer (and organist) Camille Saint-Saëns said that about his Symphony No. 3, called the “Organ” Symphony. It was, indeed, his final symphony, even though he lived another 35 years.
This afternoon we’ll play a recording of the “Organ” Symphony with Charles Munch conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra and their organist since 1957, Boston native
Berj Zamkochian, who was just two weeks short of his 30th birthday at the time of recording in early April 1959. He would go on to play for six American presidents, the Pope, the British royal family and the imperial family of Japan and many more distinctions. It’s a recording that The New York Times hailed as “one of the 50 most important recordings of all time.” And it’s today’s Midday Masterpiece.
