Saturday, December 1, 2007; 7:30 PM at Presbyterian Church of Los Gatos - Donation: $20 general, $15 senior/student, children 12 years and younger with adult FREE · Tickets available at door at 7:00 PM or from orchestra members in advance - Tickets now available ONLINE.

• Press Release
• Concert Flyer

Michael Paul Gibson, Conductor
Thomas Alexander, Concertmaster
Margaret Martin Kvamme, Organ Soloist

Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68 by Johannes Brahms

First performed on November 4, 1876

1. Un poco sostenuto - Allegro
2. Andante sostenuto
3. Un poco allegretto e grazioso
4. Adagio - Piu Andante - Allegro non troppo, ma con brio

The premiere was conducted by Felix Otto Dessoff, a friend of the composer. It took Brahms at least 14 years to complete, the first sketches dating from 1862.

The long gestation of the symphony may be put down to two factors: on the one hand, Brahms' self-critical fastidiousness which led him to destroy many of his early works, and, on the other hand, the expectation of Brahms' friends and the public that Brahms would continue "Beethoven's inheritance" and produce a

Johannes Brahms
1833 - 1897

symphony of commensurate dignity and intellectual scope — an expectation which Brahms felt he could not fulfill easily in view of the monumental reputation of Beethoven.

Grand Chœur Dialogué by Eugène Gigout

for Organ

Margaret Martin Kvamme, Organ Soloist

Eugène Gigout was a French organist and a composer of classical music for organ. He was a pupil of Camille Saint-Saëns.

He was born on 23 March 1844 in Nancy, France, and died on 9 December 1925 in Paris, France.

He was the organist of St. Augustin Church in Paris for 62 years. He was widely known as a teacher and his output as a composer was considerable. He was an expert improviser, and founded his own music school.

Symphony No. 3 in C minor “Organ Symphony” Op. 78 by Camille Saint-Saëns

Completed in 1886

Margaret Martin Kvamme, Organ Soloist

1. Adagio - Allegro moderato
   
   Poco adagio
    
2. Allegro moderato - Presto- Allegro moderato
   
   Maestoso - Piu allegro - Molto allegro

The Symphony No. 3 in C minor Op. 78 was completed by Camille Saint-Saëns in 1886 at what was probably the artistic zenith of his career. It is also popularly known as the "Organ Symphony", even though it is not a true symphony for organ, but simply an orchestral symphony where 2 sections out of 4 use the pipe organ. Though it is frequently listed, even on record and CD covers, as a symphony for orchestra "and organ" the composer inscribed it as a symphony for orchestra "avec" ("with") organ, which is a more accurate way of describing it. This symphony was commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society in England, and the first performance was given in London in 1886, conducted by the composer.

Of composing the work Saint-Saëns said that he had "given everything to it I was able to give." The composer seemed to know it would be his last attempt at the symphonic form, and he wrote the work almost as a type of "history" of his own career: Virtuoso piano passages, brilliant orchestral writing characteristic of the Romantic period, and the sound of a cathedral-sized pipe organ. The work was dedicated to Saint-Saëns's friend Franz Liszt, who died that year, on July 31, 1886.

Eugène Gigout
1844 - 1925
Recording session with Eugène Gigout for the Welte-Philharmonic-Organ, 1912

Charles Camille Saint-Saëns
1835 - 1921

Margaret Martin Kvamme