Werk: Messe de la Pentecôte, for solo organ

Sir Simon Rattle conducts 80+ members of the LSO in the monumental Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale in a site-specific performance inside – and outside – St Paul’s Cathedral.

This was the showpiece concert of this year’s City of London Festival and took place in the spectacular surroundings of St Paul’s Cathedral. Three key French composers were featured, concluding with well-known 3rd Symphony of Saint-Saëns. The first performance of this work was conducted by Saint-Saëns in London in 1886 in the long-since demolished St James’s Hall.