The Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo and its music director Kazuki Yamada — a great lover of the French symphonic repertoire  — present the first symphonies of three giants of French Romantic music. Camille Saint-Saëns was only fifteen years old when he composed his first symphony in 1850, which is known as his Symphony No. 0 — his official Symphony No. 1 would not arrive for another three years. 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 swiftly restored his spirits by composing a symphony for the Société des Jeunes Artistes in March 1855. Bizet, aged seventeen, began work on his Symphony in C major that same year. Gounod’s symphony clearly influenced Bizet’s work, as Bizet had just completed a transcription of it for piano four hands.