Florent Schmitt extracted two orchestral suites from his ballet “Antoine et Cléopâtre.” Stylistically, the score bears a strong resemblance to Ravel’s “Daphnis et Chloé” (also from a ballet). The touches of orientalism and sometimes gooey harmonies remind me more of Richard Strauss’ “Salome.” Sakari Oramo and the BBC Symphony seem to relish the rich texture […]
Florent Schmitt
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Schmitt – Antoine et Cléopâtre
Up until about 1940, Florent Schmitt was one of most frequently-performed living French composers. Although his music virtually disappeared from the repertoire after the Second World War, recent recordings (like this one) have helped a new generation rediscover this remarkable composer. The two orchestral suites Florent Schmitt extracted from his 1920 musique de scène “Antoine […]
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Florent Schmitt – Sonate libre
Florent Schmitt was a near-contemporary of Claude Debussy, though he lived much longer. Debussy died before the end of the First World War, while Schmitt lived on through the Second World War as well as the start of the Cold War (he died in 1958). . While their contemporaneous music has some similarites, Schmitt’s music […]