Premieres Symphonies

Camille Saint-Saens was only fifteen years old when he composed his first symphony in 1850, which became known as his Symphony No. 0 - his official Symphony No. 1 only appeared three years later. Gounod was thirty-seven years old when his La nonne sanglante was removed from the repertoire of the Paris Opera by a new director; he quickly recovered by composing a symphony in March 1855 for the Société des Jeunes Artistes. In the same year, the seventeen-year-old Bizet began working on his Symphony in C major. Gounod's symphony clearly influenced Bizet's work, as he had just completed a transcription for four-hand piano. This recording marks the beginning of a collaboration between the label Alpha Classics, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo and its Music Director Kazuki Yamada, a great admirer of the French symphonic repertoire and also Music Director of the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra and the Seiji Ozawa International Academy.