It seemed like a battle Thursday between the huge Lied pipe organ in First-Plymouth Congregational Church and Lincoln's Symphony Orchestra.

That was to be the case for two heavyweights on the bill, Josef Jongen's "Symphonie concertante," opus 81, and the Camille Saint-Saens' "Organ" Symphony No. 3 in C minor, opus 78.

Christopher Marks, assistant organ professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, performed the Jongen work. First-Plymouth Minister of Music Jeremy Bankson was on the bench for Saint-Saens.

Jongen sets the organ and orchestra as equals. Saint-Saens is more of a solo-and-accompaniment approach.

Orchestral solos were superb in the opening sections of the Jongen piece. A lively melody trade between organ and flute was well articulated in the First-Plymouth warm acoustics.

The finale was a lesson in sonority. Organ and orchestra matched perfectly. The crowd offered grand applause at the conclusion.

Bankson's treatment of the Saint-Saens symphony differed from Marks' approach to Jongen's piece.

Saint-Saens' lovely second movement was ravishing. Bankson explored some excellent organ stop choices in making it a pinnacle of Romantic music expression.

The concluding movement was a regal procession, but within it, care was taken by both orchestra and organist not to become too pompous. Restraint prevailed in a heroic rendering of this masterpiece.

These two works offer their own individual challenges. On Thursday, both organists were victorious.

And the orchestra? Almost forgot those folks. But they've been so good lately, it seems trite to say they excelled once again.

But excel they did, and those lucky patrons with tickets for tonight's repeat concert will be pleased.