Let's listen to the theme from Babe (both in and out of the city), i mean the thing they play at the French Pavilion at Epcot, i mean that Fitzgerald/Keeley song, i mean the Organ Symphony, i mean the Symphony (avec Organ), i mean Camille Saint-Saëns' 3rd and last (or 5th if you count the 2 he threw in the trash can) symphonic work that's technically four movements squashed into two, and features 6 hands and 2 feet worth of virtuosic keyboard shenanigans that everybody uses in some project they worked on at some point. It might be the most famous work from the Romantic period you might vaguely recall hearing somewhere sometime. That's pretty high praise for the barren wasteland of music that happened between Beethoven's 5th and Strauss' Also Spracht Zarathustra in the minds of 20th century pop culture. Ugh, that lame old emotionally chromatic sap is so passe. Except John Williams. Total innovator, that guy. Give me the musical Xanax of Lorde or Billie Eilish any day, am i right? (Oh sarcasm, how i adore thee. I like Lorde and Eilish, but you have to admit they are $500 worth of amphetamines away from exciting).
He dedicated it to his friend who happened to have the same name as Franz Liszt, because he was Franz Liszt, but he died. It's a very Lisztian piece that continually transforms and reuses its thematic material, in this case plainsong themes from liturgical masses, many also spracht by Liszt himself.
Sadly, i don't think Earl Grant ever did a recording of it, so i guess we'll have to settle for Ormandy and E. Power Biggs.
I don't want to spoil the classic cinema for you, but they don't turn the porcine shepherd turned Spuds McKenzie savior into breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
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