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 the organ suitable for a cathedral or large concert halls (which were typically equipped with the instrument).

On July 4, 1885 the directors of the Philharmonic Society agreed to commission a new, specifically French orchestral work, preferring Charles Gounod, with Léo Delibes, Jules Massenet, and Saint-Saëns as backup candidates.

"[9] Based on correspondence between Saint-Saëns and both his publisher Durand and the Philharmonic Society's honorary secretary, Francesco Berger, composition of the new symphony was concentrated in the first months of 1886.

Rare exceptions, such as the 1869 premiere of Bizet's Roma Symphony by Pasdeloup at his Concerts populaires series, were not warmly received by Parisian concertgoers.

[14] Both Jann Pasler and Andrew Deruchie view Saint-Saëns choice to compose a symphony as "a direct response to ... Wagnerism in France".

[19][page needed] Vincent d'Indy and Henri Duparc, both disciples of the Belgian composer, César Franck, and enthusiastic proponents of Wagnerism, took control and opened the Société Nationale's programming to non-French, and especially German music.

In Saint-Saëns' view, they were a "Caesarean [i.e. César Franck] and Wagnerian coterie" who had turned the Société Nationale into a "closed salon, unrelated to the intentions of its founders".

[9] In a correspondence from February 1886, he wrote to his publisher Durand: I am in the process of perpetrating a vast composition for the coming Mardi Gras [i.e.

"[24] The shift from B to C minor meant that the "new symphony, with its cyclic thematic design, triumphant major-mode finale, and seamlessly linked movements, ... would invite comparison to the nineteenth century's ultimate model, Beethoven's Fifth".

Deruchie has argued that Saint-Saëns sought to infuse this "narrative design and the broad formal layout he inherited from previous symphonists with compositional procedures that had matured in other genres, notably the symphonic poem", highlighting the "eclecticism" of the work, notably in its unusual instrumentation (organ and piano) and "timbres and styles foreign to the [symphonic] genre".

[27] As various scholars have pointed out, however, the original dedication was intended "as a homage" to Franz Liszt the man, and not the memory, since his death occurred between the London premiere of the work and its eventual publication.

A notable performance of the symphony took place on June 2, 1913, where it was the featured work at a Jubilee Festival Concert held at Queen's Hall in Saint-Saëns' honour.

The composer was in attendance (he performed a concerto by Mozart, the only work on the program not by him), where Alexander Mackenzie delivered an encomium at the concert declaring he had "led the advance of French music in every branch, and you are justly acknowledged today to be its most exalted and most gifted representative".

Saint-Saëns' use of keyboard instruments – piano (scored for both two and four hands at various places) and the organ – are unusual additions to the orchestration for a late-Romantic symphony.

Following Saint-Saëns' own explanation provided in the program notes he wrote for the London premiere, the decision to include both organ and piano keyboard in the instrumentation stemmed principally from his desire to innovate upon the traditional symphonic scoring practice.

[39][8] The instrument he had played at that concert was removed in 1882, replaced by a new organ made by Bryceson Brothers & Ellis, a fact of which Saint-Saëns was unaware.

In the program notes that he prepared for its London premiere, he wrote: This symphony, like its author's fourth Pianoforte Concerto, and Sonata for Piano and Violin, is divided into two movements.

The symphony makes cyclic use of its thematic material, derived from fragments of plainsong, as a unifying device; each melody appears in more than one movement.

This material is worked out in fairly classical sonata-allegro form, and gradually fades to a quieter mood, which becomes a slightly ominous series of plucked notes in cello and bass, ending on a G pitch, followed by a slow and soft sustained A♭ note in the organ, resolving into the new key of D♭ major for the poco adagio section of the movement.

The second movement opens with an energetic string melody, which gives way to a presto version of the main theme, complete with extremely rapid scale passages in the piano.

This well-known movement is considerably varied, including as it does polyphonic fugal writing and a brief pastoral interlude, replaced by a massive climax of the whole symphony characterised by a return to the introductory theme in the form of major scale variations.

One of the most renowned recordings[citation needed] is by Charles Munch leading the Boston Symphony Orchestra, with Berj Zamkochian at the organ.

In 2006, the Ondine label recorded Olivier Latry performing the symphony at the inaugural concert of the Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ in Verizon Hall, with Christoph Eschenbach conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra.

[48] In 2021, Thierry Escaich made a recording with Jean-Jacques Kantorow conducting the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège (Complete symphonies).

The same year Olivier Latry made a new recording with Christian Mācelaru conducting the Orchestre National de France (complete symphonies).

[citation needed] The entire main theme of the Maestoso was later adapted and used in the 1977 pop-song "If I Had Words" by Scott Fitzgerald and Yvonne Keeley.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, as part of the BBC Proms series, the organist Jonathan Scott performed, in an empty Royal Albert Hall, his own transcription of the entire symphony for solo organ.