Saint-Saens / Barber / Poulenc - Symphony No. 3 (Organ) / Organ Concerto / Toccata Festiva - Latry, Olivier (organ)

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Music Director Christoph Eschenbach leads The Philadelphia Orchestra through a program of prominent masterpieces for organ and orchestra, which also feature one of the world’s finest organ virtuosos, Olivier Latry, who is resident organist at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris.

These are recordings made at a historic event, the inaugural concerts of the new pipe organ at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center in May 2006. The press qualified the performances as electrifying (“one of the great performances in Eschenbach’s music-director tenure. (…) If this performance is well-captured on disc, it will be a case of lightning in a bottle.” – Philadelphia Inquirer, 13 May 2006).

The new instrument is the largest pipe organ of any concert hall in the United States, and combined with the legendary sound of the glorious Philadelphians, it provides for a thrilling sound demonstration on SACD.

Three powerful works on this recording showcase the broad range of the new instrument’s possibilities: sparkling virtuosity in Samuel Barber’s celebratory Toccata Festiva, religious moods in Francis Poulenc’s profound Organ Concerto, and rafter-shaking power in Saint-Saëns’s majestic “Organ” Symphony – one of the absolute masterpieces in the organ/orchestra repertoire.