What better way to celebrate a new year than with a look back? In this case, the Classics a Day team decided to go back 100 years. For January 2021 the challenge is to post works that were completed in or recordings released in 1921. It turns out there was quite a lot going on […]
Florent Schmitt
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Florent Schmitt release balances the familiar with the unknown
This release mixes Florent Schmitt’s most recorded work –La Tragédie de Salomé — with some receiving their world recording premieres. But it’s all Schmitt, so it’s all good. Maestro JoAnn Falletta and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra do well with late Romantic/early Post Romantic repertoire. Their previous Schmitt recording of Antoine et Cleopatre was outstanding. As […]
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Florent Schmitt Symphony No. 2 “busy for everyone”
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 […]
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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 […]