 By the end of August composition was finished (he reported it in a letter to Durand written on 30 August).The whole suite had its first performance in Paris on 19 December 1880 with Édouard Colonne as conductor.The audience loved it and the composition was published by Durand, Schoenewerk et Cie. the next year with a dedication to Albert Kopff, an ophthalmologist of Alsatian origin, who became a friend of Saint-Saëns during his stay in Algeria.