“[It] is like a half-hour visit to the pleasure dome in Xanadu, and if it doesn’t give you a few spiritual orgasms, then perhaps you need to insert Viagra® in each of your ears.”
— Raymond Tuttle, music critic, Fanfare Magazine
“Florent Schmitt has much to say; his Tragédie de Salomé is a great work, and one of deep originality.”
— Eugène Ysayë, Belgian violinist and conductor
“Because of its unusual harmonic intensity and dramatic use of the orchestra, this work takes rank as one of the most important post-Debussy scores — second only to Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé as the vital product of the French imaginative style.”
— Howard Decker McKinney, composer, musicologist and author
Costume designs for the 1913 Ballets Russes production of Florent Schmitt’s La Tragédie de Salomé, created by Serge Soudeikine.
The ballet La Tragédie de Salomé, Op. 50 is Florent Schmitt’s most famous and oft-recorded composition — and it isn’t hard to figure out why.
All the rage: A Loïe Fuller lamp, created and sold at about the time of Fuller’s 1907 premiere of Florent Schmitt’s La Tragédie de Salomé in Paris.
Salomé represents the very best in the French tradition of evocative music on exotic subjects … but in this case, we have a hefty dose of the “epic” and “barbaric” to go along with the Impressionistic and “orientalist” touches.
Composed in 1907 for chamber-size orchestra, the ballet started out nearly one hour long. Its first performance was at the Théâtre des Arts (now the Théâtre Hébertot) in a production that featured Loïe Fuller, the American-born dancer and choreographer who was famous for her scarves and lighting effects.
Writing of the lead dancer’s commanding performance, the French music and drama critic Edmond Stoullig remarked:
“All the other persons in the drama dwelt immovable, looking at Mme. Fuller. What could they do otherwise? There was nothing to do except to admire her, mouths agape.”
Evidently, the opening night performance was a success in all respects. In his 1997 book Loïe Fuller, Goddess of Light, historian and author Richard Nelson Current described the event as follows:
Fanboy par excellence: Aristide Pierre Henri Briand (1862-1932). The French politician served eleven terms as prime minister during the Third Republic. (ca. 1920 photo)
“On opening night, November 9, the theatre was filled with a wonderfully interesting assembly of representatives of all that was brilliant in the artistic and literary life of Paris — besides some of what was most prominent in political life, including Georges Clemenceau, the premier of France, and Aristide Briand, a leading member of the Chamber of Deputies.
As soon as the curtain fell, Briand sent Loïe his card with a penciled message of congratulations. She came to the footlights, held the card in the air, kisssed it, waved her fingers [toward] the box where the ministers sat, and withdrew amid laughter and cheers. Briand blushed like a girl.”
The entrance to Loïe Fuller’s theatre at the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris. The Expo’s stated mission was “to celebrate the achievements of the past century and to accelerate development into the next.” Fuller’s theatre, designed by famed architect Henri Sauvage, certainly exemplified that objective.
In an article published in 1987 by the periodical 19th Century Music, musicologist and author Susan Youens characterizes Fuller as “a living embodiment of art nouveau and the femmes fleurs in art, with their expressive merger of botany and human anatomy.” As an example, in the “Dance of Fear” in La Tragédie de Salomé, Youens describes Fuller as being clothed in “voluminous dresses made of thin India silk with immense trains; by manipulating the folds of cloth she created effects of butterflies, lilies and flames — the new technology of electric arc lights playing on the moving folds and pleats.”
The program cover for the original production of La Tragédie de Salomé, presented at the Théâtre des Arts.
In her 2015 book Poetics of Dance: Body, Image and Space in the Historical Avant-Gardes, Gabriele Brandstetter noted some of the unique new techniques employed by Fuller in La Tragédie de Salomé:
” … Fuller attemped to combine her own style of lighting technique, which had gained in virtuosity over the years, with the Salomé materials by projecting colored lights onto wide, moving fabric surfaces. [It] was not merely a dramatization of Salome’s dances — as an erotic presentation of the body — but a drama of desire and guilt clothed in phantasmagorical images.
The psychological drama was reflected in elements of the landscape — in cloud formations, the play of light on the Moab mountains, the elements of light and water — as in the moment after Salome’s dance on the palace terrace high above the Dead Sea … including a dance on a panel of glass lighted from below.”
Born in Paris, raised in France and England, educated in Germany, serving at the World War I front lines in Galicia: Writer and diplomat Harry Clemens Ulrich Graf von Kessler (1868-1937) was the quintessential “citizen of the world.”
It should be noted, however, that while audience members were doubtless impressed by Fuller’s lighting concepts, some, such as Harry Graf Kessler, expressed disappointment in her embodiment of Salome, because Fuller did not conform to the image of a slim, lithe dancer.
An even less complimentary description of Miss Fuller and the production was penned by music critic Louis Laloy in the pages of S.I.M. Revue musical at the time of the work’s premiere, in which he wrote:
Louis Laloy (1874-1944)
“The artist who knew so well how to show us the flight of butterflies or the flames of Hell has no idea how to dance — and the proof is that she is reduced to representing the movements of the peacock via adorning a grotesque spring-loaded tail which even the Folies-Bergère would reject.
As for the music which accompanies these dances, intended to panic the unfortunate Herod, it is impossible for me to say anthing about it: Despite the valiant efforts of Mr. Inghelbrecht, the orchestra was so meager … that I was unable to grasp anything of the thoughts of the composer …”
French conductor Eugène Bigot (1885-1962) was one of the players in the small instrumental ensemble that premiered the original 1907 version of La Tragédie de Salomé. Bigot would go on to conduct countless performances of the 1910 version of the ballet during his four decades on the podium.
Several years later Florent Schmitt revisited the score, condensing it to about one-half its original length while substantially augmenting the orchestration and making the female voices optional. The resulting score, premiered in 1911 as an orchestral suite and featuring composer-conductor Gabriel Pierné directing the Colonne Concerts Orchestra, was a sonic spectacular.
Igor Stravinsky (l.), photographed with Florent Schmitt in 1912. Schmitt dedicated the Salomé score to him.
Schmitt dedicated his composition to Igor Stravinsky, who is said to have been influenced by the jagged rhythms and barbarism in certain parts of the score.
Pierre-Octave Ferroud, Schmitt’s pupil and first biographer, wrote these words about the the outsized influence of this music:
“La Tragédie precedes Le Sacre du printemps by six years — and the honor goes to Florent Schmitt to have opened a road where others would follow. He opened it up and lit it up in the Danse des éclairs (no pun intended), followed by the Danse de l’effroi where he released rhythmic powers like no one before had dared to do.”
Stéphane Denève
Mirroring those sentiments the French conductor Stéphane Denève, speaking to the audience before a 2011 concert with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra where he performed Schmitt’s piece, declared:
“Without La Tragédie de Salomé, Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring would not have been the same!”
The ballet score illustrates the pioneering aspects of Schmitt’s writing. According to research conducted by music notation specialist Dr. Donald Byrd at Indiana University, the 1907 Salomé represents the earliest appearance of a non-integer time signature numerator — (3-1/2)/4 — in published music, pre-dating the usage of similar treatments by Charles Ives, Edgar Varèse and others.
Critics have lauded this music from the very beginning. Comte de Delma-Heide attended the January 1911 presentation of the work by Gabriel Pierné and the Concerts Colonne Orchestra, citing it as one of the best new musical discoveries in an article published in the January 25, 1911 issue of Musical Courier magazine:
“This season’s programs of the Colonne Orchestral concerts have nearly all been too long … Yesterday’s selections comprised two concertos, an overture, three symphonic poems (one of which was lengthily developed) besides four vocal numbers.
Special mention must be made of La Tragédie de Salomé by Florent Schmitt, which M. Pierné conducted splendidly. The Salome of this young composer is possessed of those elements which endure — a tense passion, significant ideas, expressive sentiment, the musical arguments rich and restrained in style.”
A vintage copy of Florent Schmitt’s score to La Tragédie de Salomé that was once in the personal music library of René-Emmanuel Baton (aka Rhené-Baton). Maestro Rhené-Baton’s notes are marked throughout. (Score: Courtesy of Léo Marillier)
Author Mathilde Daubresse (1863-1937) was one of the first female music critics — such a rarity in her day that she signed her reviews “M. Daubresse.” In addition to advocating for contemporary musicians, Daubresse was the founder and first president of the Union des femmes professeurs et compositeurs de musique, established in 1914. She was active in various left-leaning political causes as well.
The following year, when the Concerts Lamoureux performed the music for the first time with Camille Chevillard conducting, music correspondent Mathilde Daubresse filed this report in Guide musical magazine:
“The work reveals an impressive strength, vigor, fullness and solidity. The prelude has a grandeur bordering on majesty, and the final scene has fierce energy … Loud bravos greeted La Tragédie de Salomé, which ranks Florent Schmitt among the most remarkable creators of the young French school.”
The February 1914 Paris debut of coloratura soprano Magda Leymo happened several weeks prior to her premiere performances of Florent Schmitt’s Danse des Devadasis — and it was also in a composition by Schmitt: La Tragédie de Salomé. The Casino de Paris program, led by Pierre Monteux, also featured the first concert performance of Ravel’s newly orchestrated Valses nobles et sentimantales.
Four decades later the praise for the work had not dimmed. Writing in the pages of Le Monde after seeing Salomé performed by André Cluytens and the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra at the 1951 Besançon Festival, music critic René Dumesnil made these comments about the ballet:
René Dumesnil (1879-1967), a French physician, literary critic and musicologist who was the music critic for the Le Monde newspaper from the late 1940s to the early 1960s. (1921 photo)
“We can only repeat what we say whenever we hear it: We never tire of it — it is one of those works in which one discovers at each new hearing some reason to admire it more. It is one of those creations where the richness of the ideas, the accuracy of their expression and the sumptuousness of the coloring rank it among the leading compositions of all time.”
A miniature score to Florent Schmitt’s ballet La Tragédie de Salomé, inscribed by conductors Lionel Bringuier (The Cleveland Orchestra, 2015) and Fabien Gabel (Detroit Symphony Orchestra, 2022).
Robert d’Humières (1868-1915) was one of too many French creative artists who would not survive the First World War. This poignant letter, sent by Lieutenant-Colonel Eychène to Mme. Vicomtesse d’Humières in 1915, says it all: « D’Humières (Robert), lieutenant à la 9° compagnie, nouvellement arrivé au régiment, a pris le commandement de sa compagnie, dont le chef aimé venait de tomber mortellement blessé. A été superbe de bravoure et de sang-froid en entraînant sa compagnie à l’attaque du village de Lizerne, le 26 avril 1915, chargeant avec un élan magnifique. Est arrivé le premier sur les tranchées ennemies dont il a assuré l’occupation. Blessé mortellement, a continué de commander tant que ses forces l’ont permis. Est mort en héros. »
Of Schmitt’s score — and the fevered story line as dramatized by the French writer and stage director Robert d’Humières — author and composer Edward Burlingame Hill wrote these words in his classic 1924 book Modern French Music:
“Florent Schmitt has depicted this lurid scenario in music of unexampled vividness — of exotic imagination. His gifts for construction, contrapuntal mastery and appropriate harmonic luxuriance have fired his inventive powers to produce one of the most graphically dramatic works in the range of French music … [indeed] the French prototype of a new species of ballet in which all the resources of scenic production, orchestral splendor, and detailed and plastic accompaniment of action combine.”
Hill could have added that Schmitt introduced a number of novel instructions in the score — for instance, directing that the snare drum be played sur le bois (on the wood, i.e., on the rope-hoop) — to winsome effect.
A newspaper clipping from the 1912 Trouhanova production of Florent Schmitt’s La Tragédie de Salomé in the composer’s new version — half the music, triple the musicians.
The plot line at which Edward Burlingame Hill is intimating is the dramatic action conceived by Robert d’Humières and set down in the following narrative that prefaces Schmitt’s published score, as translated from the original French by the music producer and arts administrator Harold Lawrence:
Prelude — A terrace of Herod’s palace overlooking the Dead Sea. The pink and reddish Moab Mountains shut in the horizon. Dominating the scene is massive Mount Nebo, from which Moses, on the threshold of the Promised Land, greeted Canaan before his death. The sun is setting. John the Baptist crosses the terrace and disappears.
Danse des perles (Pearl Dance) — Torches illuminate the scene. Their light draws sparking reflections from the clothing and jewels that spill out of a precious coffer. Herodias [Salome’s mother], in a thoughtful mood, dips her hands into the coffer and removes necklaces and silken veils of gold. Salome appears and leans over the chest in fascination. She puts on the necklaces and veils, and begins to dance with childish glee.
Désiré Inghelbrecht conducted the orchestral forces at the 1907 premiere of Florent Schmitt’s La Tragédie de Salomé. Maestro Inghelbrecht would conduct this music often in subsequent years, including an ORTF memorial concert in honor of Schmitt presented in October 1958 following the composer’s death. This billboard announces a 1920 Inghelbrecht performance.
Georges Wague (1874-1965), the French actor and mime artist who portrayed Herod in Florent Schmitt’s La Tragédie de Salomé more than 75 times on the Paris Opéra stage. Considering the art of pantomime as capable of far greater emotional range than spoken words — particularly in communicating feelings — Wague once wrote, “With the blaze of a look, the cadence of a step, a torso rotation, a wrinkling of the features, a mime artist can characterize ulterior motives such as hatred, remorse, desire, enjoyment or disgust, which the most warmly described and dramatically well-stated phrases can only superficially provide.”
Les Enchantements sur la mer (The Magic of the Sea) — Salome has gone. Herod is lost in gloomy thoughts of lust and fear. Herodias spies on her husband. Mysterious lights gleam in the water’s depths. Beneath the waves, the outlines of the engulfed Pentapolis are dimly perceived. Distant sounds of an orgy emerge faintly through the shower of ash and bitumen over Sodom and Gomorrah: fragments of dance rhythms … sighs … demented laughter …
A voice is heard from the abyss; Herod listens fearfully. Vapors float upwards from the sea. As if created out of troubled dreams and the guilt of old sin, a living cloud takes shape. Out of this cloud, Salome suddenly leaps into view. As the sound of thunder is heard in the distance, Salome begins to dance. Herod stands …
Walther Straram’s 1923 Musique Moderne Internationale season in Paris reads like a veritable “Who’s Who” of the classical composer world. Florent Schmitt’s La Tragédie de Salomé was included in the first of the concert programs during the season.
The interior of the Théâtre des Arts (originally the Théâtre des Batignolles, today named Théâtre Hébertot), where Florent Schmitt’s ballet was first mounted in 1907.
Danse des éclairs (Dance of Lighting) — Darkness envelops the scene, and flashes of lightning provide the only source of illumination. In the wanton dance that follows, Herod pursues Salome, seizes her and tears off her veils. Salome is naked — but only for an instant. John the Baptist quickly appears and covers her body with his anchorite’s robe. Herod is furious and orders John to be delivered to the executioner, who takes the prophet offstage and returns later with his severed head on a brass charger.
A 1923 performance of Florent Schmitt’s La Tragédie de Salomé with the Walther Straram Orchestra. The concert also featured the pianist Magda Tagliaferro.
Salome triumphantly grasps the trophy and begins to dance. Then, imagining that the voice of the prophet is whispering in her ear, she runs to the terrace’s edge and hurls the charger over the battlements into the sea. The water immediately turns blood-red, terror grips everyone, and Salome collapses. Salome recovers, but the head appears, stares at Salome, and vanishes. From another position, the head reappears. Salome tries to escape, but the heads multiply, springing up from all sides. Salome covers her face in an attempt to blot out the grisly apparition.
Danse de l’effroi (Dance of Fright) — A storm breaks out. Raging winds envelop Salome as sulfurous clouds float out of the abyss. A tempest rocks the sea and agitates the lonely deserts, while lofty cypresses twist convulsively in the wind and crash to earth. Lightning bolts shake loose the stones of the citadel, Mount Nebo shoots forth flames, the entire Moab Mountain range takes fire — and Salome, swept away an infernal excitement, is crushed in the onslaught of the elements.
In her 1941 book Choreographic Music: Music for the Dance, American writer Verna Arvey draws attention to the second portion of La Tragédie de Salomé as containing some of the most novel elements rarely seen before in ballet:
Verna Arvey (1910-1987) was an American librettist, pianist and author who is best-known for her musical collaborations with her husband, the composer William Grant Still.
“Schmitt employs a folk song of Aica, found by Salvator Peitavi on the shores of the Dead Sea. It is distinctly oriental. A single famale voice backstage begins to sing wordlessly; then the melody is taken up by other female voices. It grows in intensity as it is amplified by the orchestra. Salomé’s dance of seduction is done to the lowest, slowest, most sensual luring melody that can be imagined. The frenzied accelerando leading to the end and the final destruction of Herod’s palace form a huge climax — a veritable tour de force. Since the music expresses so much, there is little left for a realistic stage action to accomplish.
La Tragédie de Salomé is said to be second only to Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé as a product of individual invention …”
Today, while Salomé is performed mainly in the concert hall as a symphonic suite in the manner of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, one of the most memorable events in the annals of dance occurred in Paris in 1912 when a quartet of ballets was staged in a single evening: Paul Dukas’ La Péri … Vincent d’Indy’s Istar … Maurice Ravel’s Valses Nobles et Sentimentales … and Florent Schmitt’s Salomé.
Florent Schmitt directing his own ballet La Tragédie de Salomé at the 1912 gala ballet evening starring Natalia Trouhanova. This drawing was created by Paul Charles Delaroche (1886-1914), a dessinateur who, like so many other creative artists, would not survive World War I.
Each composer conducted his own stage work, leading the Lamoureux Orchestra. Writing in the pages of the May 15, 1912 issue of Musical Courier, author and music critic Frank Patterson described the conducting styles of the four composers as follows:
“Vincent d’Indy, tall and muscular-looking, with the manner and poise of a skilled wielder of the baton; Paul Dukas, short and heavy-set, with a certain air of finical excitement; Florent Schmitt, with no manner of conducting at all — sweeping his whole body along with his arms and beating the six-fourths three strokes straight down and three straight up, which results in funny little wobbles that one soon forgot in the power and fascination of his music; and finally Maurice Ravel, small and agile, perfectly cool and commanding — not graceful, but exact and evidently enjoying his task.
It must be added that it was most unfortunate that both Ravel’s pleasing and quiet waltzes and Dukas’ symphonic poem [were] placed on the program after and not before Schmitt’s Salomé, which was by far, both musically dramatically, the strongest work of all and should have been put at the end.”
Commenting further on Schmitt’s music, Patterson wrote:
“[It is] a work of such unusual power of inspiration and construction that it places its composer at once side-by-side with the greatest creators of our times. It possesses that one quality — so essential yet so rare in works of the modern school — the quality of perfect homogeneity. It advances gradually but steadily toward the climax, and this climax itself is litle short of wonderful. Its power and originality simply lift you off your feet. It was greeted with the same bursts of applause that met this composer’s Psalm for chorus and orchestra at the Colonne Concerts some weeks ago.”
The cover of the 1912 dance programme featuring Natalia Trouhanova in four starring femme-fatale roles: Istar, Péri, Adelaïde (Valses nobles et sentimentales) … and Salomé.
The quartet of ballets presented at the famous 1912 Paris program featuring prima ballerina Natalia Trouhanova. Each of the four composers — Paul Dukas, Vincent d’Indy, Maurice Ravel and Florent Schmitt — conducted their own scores. Of the evening’s programme, the music critic Pierre Lalo wrote of “a spectacle that was the most tasteful, the most beautiful, the most harmonious and fulfilling that we have ever witnessed … Mlle. Trouhanova gave us a synthesis of the art of our time.”
A spread page from the April 1912 program of ballets presented in Paris by prima ballerina Nathalie Trouhanova (1885-1956) and members of the Lamoureux Orchestra, portraying the set design by Maxime Dethomas (1867-1929) for Florent Schmitt’s La Tragédie de Salomé. The page bears inscriptions to Maurice Ravel penned by Schmitt and Dethomas. The ballet programme, published by Maquet, was one of 100 copies signed by Mlle. Trouhanova and presented to dignitaries in music and the arts. The production, organized by theatre director Jacques Rouché, featured four ballets, each conducted by their respective composers (Paul Dukas in La Péri, Maurice Ravel in Adélaïde ou le langage des fleurs [Valses nobles et sentimentales, orchestrated by Ravel expressly for Trouhanova’s program], and Vincent d’Indy in Istar, in addition to Schmitt’s ballet).
Yvonne Daunt (1899-1962). Of her 1922 portrayal of Salome, arts critic Louis Laloy wrote in La Revue de Paris: “Mlle. Daunt shows, as one might expect, remarkable qualities of power and a tragic nobility … but we cannot doubt that here again the music, to which Florent Schmitt has put a desolate ardor, has by far the best part in the success of the work.” Surprisingly, the Paris-born Daunt is buried in San Francisco. (1919 photo)
After Trouhanova’s 1912 production, subsequent stagings of the ballet in Paris included a Ballets Russes production in 1913 (with Tamara Karsavina — also staged in London the same year), 1919 (Ida Rubinstein), 1922 (Yvonne Daunt), 1928 (Olga Spessivtseva) and 1944 (Suzanne Lorcia).
The 1913 Ballets Russes production featured stage and costume designer Serge Soudeikine’s décor, heavily influenced by Aubrey Beardsley’s illustrations in Oscar Wilde’s eponymous play — a staging that was considered over-elaborate by some observers. (Notably, Soudeikine personally painted a rose on Tamara Karsavina’s thigh before every performance.)
In addition to presenting the work in Paris and London, the Ballets Russes included La Tragédie de Salomé as part of the repertoire it took on its 1913 tour of South America, where the ballet was mounted in Montevideo, Uruguay and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Composer-conductor Rhené-Baton conducted those performances.
Serge Soudeikine’s conception of Tamara Karsavina as Salome in the Ballets Russes production of Florent Schmitt’s ballet in 1913 (Paris and London). Arts critic Richard Capell reviewed the London performance in the Daily Mail newspaper, noting, “Mme. Karsavina is by nature a fairy who condescends to be human at times, and at [other] times — as in the erotic torment of the Queen in Scheherazade — subhuman. But what is her Salomé? A witch, a Lilith, from an oriental poet’s inferno. Merely in the way of endurence, her atrocious dance is probably the most amzing feat in all the annals of ballet.”
Georges Jean Jules Morland (1859-1935) was a French music critic who wrote under the pseudonym Jean Marnold for several prominent Parisian periodicals including Courrier musical and Mercure de France. His fellow-critic and colleague Louis Laloy contended that Marnold possessed “rare erudition, tight logic, and a way of writing as pointed as it was picturesque.” Those pointed writings sometimes caused controversy, however, resulting in two sword duels fought 1910, both of which resulted in Marnold being injured (his duel with writer Georges Casella was captured on film — pictured above). A subsequent duel — this one with Paris Opéra director Jacques Rouché in 1926 — was narrowly averted due to the intercession of mutual friends. Marnold was also a close friend and defender of Maurice Ravel’s music.
“[Jacques Rouché retained] René Piot, who perpetrated a most pretentious and absurd setting for this work. There are garish colors, and it was in the middle of a sort of sea-bathed cabin crudely painted with a stupid green hue that the ill-fated mimodrama took place — transformed by Mr. Piot’s direction into an impenetrable enigma.
A few ballerinas wiggled and wriggled in accordance with the traditions of the place. A figure of disproportionate thinness and length … suddenly tumbled onto the palisades, dislocated in a spiral without anyone being able to guess the reason for her agitation until the moment when they brought her the head of John the Baptist which, reproduced in chromolithographs, suddently began to rain down by the dozens. It was heartbreakingly ridiculous.
Until now, I knew Mme. Ida Rubinstein only by reputation, [but] in this program embodying a boneless Salomé — my goodness, I simply cannot believe it!”
Rosella Hightower (1920-2008)
Since World War II, mountings of the ballet have been infrequent. The Marquis de Cuevas ballet company staged it at the Champs-Elysées theatre in Paris in 1950, with Rosella Hightower in the starring role. The last Parisian stage production of the ballet happened in 1954 at the Palais Garnier — a Paris Opéra production featuring choreography by Albert Aveline and sets by Yves Brayer. Lycette Darsonval starred in the title role and the orchestra was conducted by Robert Blot.
France may not have seen any recent revivals of the ballet, but in the past several years the Mariinsky Ballet has revived La Tragédie de Salomé as a theatre piece — to my knowledge, one of just four or five times the ballet has been presented on stage anywhere in more than half a century.
The 1954 Paris Opéra stage production, starring Lycette Darsonval in the title role of Salomé. French composer and critic Henri Büsser attended one of the stage performances and published a review that appeared in the February 15, 1955 issue of Revue des Deux Mondes. He wrote, in part: “This revival of La Tragédie de Salomé coincided with its fiftieth anniversary. Never has Florent Schmitt’s score appeared so beautiful, so rich in musical sap and orchestral interpretation. … evoking an Orient adorned with seductive but perfectly measured colors: such is the principal quality of Florent Schmitt’s work. Lycette Darsonval dances the role of Heriodiade’s daughter with her sure talent, full of grace and virtuosity. She is surrounded by Mlles. Dynalix, Amiel, Deleplanque, and Grimoin, all very seductive, and Messrs. Blanc, Parrès, and Jamet, forming an excellent performance that does credit to Albert Aveline, the experienced choreographer …” In his 1956 book Ballet: A Decade of Endeavor, Arthur Henry Franks wrote of Darsonval, “She is understood and loved by the French, for to them she represents La Danseuse … she has given an invaluable interpretation at l’Opéra of Salomé by Florent Schmitt, and her supposed nudity is charming and seductive without a vestige of vulgarity.” (Photo: ©Boris Lipnitzki/Roger-Viollet)
Despite the dearth of stage productions, Schmitt’s score has never lost its popularity in the concert hall in France, where it was taken up by nearly every conductor active on the national and international scene. Attending a November 1912 Concerts Lamoureux performance of the piece, music critic Frank Patterson filed this report that was published in the November 13, 1912 issue of Musical Courier magazine:
“Massenet had the honor of a great failure on Sunday at the Lamoureux concert where, among other things, his Piano Concerto was played by Louis Diemar and, at the same concert, Florent Schmitt won a great success with his Tragedy of Salome …
This Tragedy of Salome is a piece of tremendous force. It gradually works up to a climax in a manner that is worthy of the greatest of masters. This is no anti-climax, no flagging. The passion is intense from the beginning and steadily increases to the final burst of frenzy. And yet the means used are not the ordinary means. It is not Debussyism at all. Nor is there any suggestion of Wagner except, of course, along those broad lines without which it is impossible to imagine modern music at all. There are passages of augmented triads which might suggest Richard Strass were they not introduced in a very different manner, and particularly with a very different color.
Schmitt waited long for his success. Three or four years ago he was hardly ever heard of. The reason of this is principally, I think, that his pieces in smaller form are rather uninteresting … he seems unable to express himself except in the large forms, which, of course, renders success more difficult to obtain.”
Reviewing French arts periodicals during the interwar period, it’s clear how frequently La Tragédie de Salomé appeared on French concert programs; this listing of performances happening over just a five-year period in the 1930s is illustrative:
- Concerts Pasdeloup Orchestra / Jean Morel (December 1935)
- Concerts Colonne Orchestra / Paul Paray (February 1936)
- Concerts Colonne Orchestra / Paul Paray (November 1936)
- Lamoureux Concerts Orchestra / Eugène Bigot (November 1936)
- Federation Poulet-Siohan / Florent Schmitt (November 1937)
- Lamoureux Concerts Orchestra / Eugène Bigot (March 1938)
- Paris Symphony Orchestra / Jean Morel (October 1938)
- Orchestre National / Rhené-Baton (June 1939 – broadcast over French Radio)
… and to this list we can add an October 1936 performance at the Conservatoire de Nancy conducted by Florent Schmitt plus one in October 1937 presented by the Belgian National Radio Orchestra under the direction of Désiré Defauw.
Moreover, the Salomé score has been brought to the far corners of the world by a surprisingly diverse group of conductors. The Concertgebouw Orchestra played the score in 1913, the same year that the first performances in America were presented by Karl Muck with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in November of 1913.
Dr. Muck also brought the piece to New York City area with his Boston orchestra for concerts on December 5, 1913 (Brooklyn’s Academy of Music) and January 10, 1914 (Carnegie Hall). He also gave the work’s first Chicago-area performance in 1920, leading the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
A caricature of Karl Muck (1859-1940), drawn by Arthur George Witherby and published in Vanity Fair (July 27, 1899 issue). About Maestro Muck’s 1920 Chicago Symphony performance of La Tragédie de Salomé, critic W. L. Hubbard wrote in the February 7, 1920 issue of the Chicago Daily Tribune: “Especially effective and impressive was the Schmitt number. About all the modern orchestra can do technically has been called into service, but through it all and above it all there is strong, clearly defined dramatic intent espressed through tonal combinations that possess grandeur, awesomeness and beauty … It is modern music, but still beautiful music. And such is the work that is apt to last. Especially compelling and admirable are ‘The Enchantment of the Sea’ — with its somber coloring and its brief, skillful suggestions of hidden, long-ago happenings and premonitions of tragedy impending — and the close of ‘The Dance of Fear,’ which contains climaxes verily awesome and terrifying.” Upon hearing the work a second time with the same musical forces several weeks later, Hubbard wrote, “The Schmitt Suite impressed when first heard, and the impression deepened with repetition … It is music that is rich, colorful, and filled with mood and picture suggestion. The speedy repetition by Mr. Stock was fully justified and proved it a selection which deserves to be retained on the orchestra’s list.”
Of the 1914 Karl Muck performance, the New York Times reported:
“Florent Schmitt’s piece was played for the first time in New York, and it was the first of his music to be played here. He is … a winner of the Grand Prix [de Rome] and [is] now one of those considered most recent, most modern in France.
William James Henderson (1855-1937) was an American music critic who wrote about Schmitt and La Tragédie de Salomé in the January 1915 issue of Vanity Fair: “Sinuous melodic thoughts moving in apparently elusive chromatics, his themes are nevertheless firm and tangible, while his polyphony is heavy with tropical richness of exotic chords and modulations. Schmitt’s music has made a deep impression here.” (ca. 1910 photo)
Schmitt writes, naturally, in the idiom that has been developed by the school of modern Frenchmen — an idiom that is still difficult for many listeners.
And yet Schmitt is no follower of those who are regarded as the leaders of the French school; his voice is a voice of his alone. It appears, indeed, stronger in invention and in fibre than much that has recently come out of France. It depends less on mere color — instrumental and harmonic — although he makes the fullest use of such color …”
The program for the Boston Sympnony Orchestra’s presentation of Florent Schmitt’s La Tragédie de Salomé at the Academy of Music in Brooklyn, New York (December 1913). The program also featured the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with Fritz Kreisler as soloist. Karl Muck conducted. Arts administrator and critic Blanche Freeman wrote in the December 10, 1913 issue of The Musical Courier, “In this work, Schmitt has written music of true oriental atmosphere and color, which is never commonplace or banal. His themes have unmistakable originality and character, and his development of them is more than interesting — it is amazingly convincing.” The critic for Musical America was equally praiseworthy, writing in the December 13, 1913 issue of the magazine, “Prolonged, hearty applause greeted the playing of the ultra-modern La Tragédie de Salomé … Florent Schmitt’s much-heralded sensation proved all that had been expected. As an exhibition of remarkable technique the performance was stupendous, and the deeply interested audience appreciated the fact … The work ended in a pandemonium where discord reigned supreme …”
Considering the Boston Symphony Orchestra alone, the piece has been led by Karl Muck (in 1913 and also in Minneapolis in November of that year, plus Carnegie Hall in New York City in 1914), Pierre Monteux (in 1919 in Boston and also at Carnegie Hall in New York City, the Academy of Music in Brooklyn and the Lyric Theatre in Baltimore), Serge Koussevitzky (in 1931 and 1939) and Dmitri Mitropoulos (1936).
The first Baltimore performance of Florent Schmitt’s La Tragédie de Salomé (and the only one to date) was presented at the Lyric Theatre (Lyric Opera House) in December 1919. Pierre Monteux conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra in a concert that also included the Tchaikovsky Sixth Symphony (dubbed the “Pathetic” on the program above). In its December 20, 1019 report on the concert, Musical America magazine referred to Schmitt’s piece as “a startling musical setting” of the Salome story. “This amazing score was finely read by the orchestra,” the review added.
German-born Frederick Stock (1872-1942) was conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for 37 years. When he led the Chicago premiere of Schmitt’s La Tragédie de Salomé in 1920, Musical America magazine reported that the piece “proved one of the most important novelties we have had this year. It is a stupendous composition to which the orchestra gave a superlative performance.”
In the Midwestern United States, La Tragédie de Salomé was performed by Frederick Stock and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in February 1920. Interestingly, plans had been afoot to stage the ballet during the Chicago Civic Opera Association’s season the previous year — a production that was to have featured choreography by Andreas Pavley and Serge Oukrainsky. But according to the Christian Science Monitor, that staging had been shelved due to the demands of producing two other new ballet offerings in the 1919 season: Felix Borowski’s Boudour and John Alden Carpenter’s The Birthday of the Infanta.
Regarding the 1920 Chicago Symphony performance of Salomé, the Christian Science Monitor‘s critic wrote in the February 25, 1920 issue of the newspaper:
“There can be no doubt concerning the picturesqueness of the music … even without the miming and the scenic pictures of Herod’s palace and the Dead Sea, the piece made manifest remarkable excitements. The virtuosity of its interpretation was admirable indeed. Mr. Stock — as well as his listeners — had reason to feel great pride in the perfection of the playing.”
A few days before Chicago, Max Zach and the St. Louis Symphony Symphony Orchestra introduced the piece as well. About the St. Louis performance, which included the voice parts that are an option in the score but often not used, a review in the February 21, 1920 issue of Musical America magazine stated:
Born in Lemburg (Lviv) in Galicia province (Austria-Hungary), Max Wilhelm Zach (1864-1921) became the third music director of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in 1907. Leading the orchestra for the next 14 seasons, he was credited with building the stature of the ensemble during his tenure.
“Mr. Zach used a small chorus from the ranks of the Morning Choral Club to sing a difficult yet short choral addition to the score. Magnetic in every bar and rampant with radiant color and wonderful tonal combinations, it seemed as if every man was inspired to give it a perfect hearing. Climax upon climax was voiced by the different sections, and seldom has such a gripping thing been heard in these parts. Mr. Zach was loudly acclaimed …”
The Musical Courier was equally laudatory about the St. Louis Symphony presentation, with its February 16, 1920 review focusing in particular on the use of voices:
“Possibly the finest number on the program was the Florent Schmitt Tragedy of Salome, which was given at these concerts for the first time — and it is to be hoped that it will be repeated at frequent dates, for it is one of best things now in the repertory of the orchestra, and surely one of the most enjoyable …
Pierre Monteux (1875-1964) led the Boston Symphony Orchestra in performances of La Tragédie de Salomé at home and also in New York City and Baltimore. New York Times music critic Richard Aldrich attended the Carnegie Hall performance and noted in his review for the Times: “The music is strongly marked in mood and the dances, some of them tinged with an oriental color, have propulsive movement and picturesque expression … [Schmitt’s] ideas are strong and musically significant; they are submitted to a treatment at once plastic and vigorous: fecund, often harsh, but stimulating in harmonic devices, vividly colored in orchestration. There is in this music the suggestion of the vague inquietude, the mystery, the orgiastic revel, the wild abandon of the dancer, the final terror. There are new and strange orchestra effects, [such] as the deep gasps of the lowest woodwinds …”
The piece was presented by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra again in February 1932 — this time under the direction of Vladimir Golschmann, where Musical America‘s correspondent Susan Cost reported that the music was “well-played and warmly received.”
The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra first performed the piece in 1920 under its music director Eugène Ysayë — both in its home city and also at Orchestra Hall in Detroit.
Nikolai Grigoryevich Sokoloff (1886-1965) served as music director of The Cleveland Orchestra for 14 years, until 1932.
In Cleveland, the piece was performed for the first time by The Cleveland Orchestra in October 1928, under the direction of Nikolai Sokoloff — a performance that the Christian Science Monitor described as follows:
” … Music so modern in its idiom, so vividly imagined in its interpretation, that the absence of stage pageantry is scarcely noted — nor is there the need for the miming of the corps de ballet. Wonderful music this [is] … yet even in its wildest moments the music never lost what one might call a certain aristocratic distinction sadly lacking in many fearsome modernistic musical venturings.”
A decade later (April 1938), The Cleveland Orchestra presented the piece again — this time under the direction of TCO associate conductor Rudolph Ringwall as part of an all-French program that also included Ernest Chausson’s Symphony in B-Flat. Musical America magazine’s Cleveland critic Stewart Matter reported that “Mr. Ringawall gave a remarkable reading of the Schmitt music.”
Artur Rodzinski (1892-1958)
Furthermore, the piece was played on the West Coast as early as 1930 (by the University of California Symphony Orchestra in Berkeley), and then by Artur Rodzinski and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in two December 1932 concerts in which Florent Schmitt himself was in attendance. Choral director and arts critic Hal D. Crain reviewed the concert for the January 10, 1933 edition of Musical America magazine, noting:
“As if to plague those critics whose musical peace seemed to be threatened by a dearth of novelties, the last two pairs of concerts of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra included no fewer than four works heard here for the first time, and three more given their first hearing in this series.
The first pair, coming on December 15 and 16, was made interesting by the presence of Florent Schmitt for the performance of his suite The Tragedy of Salome. Dr. Artur Rodzinski’s reading brought salvos of applause and several stage bows from the composer …”
In Minneapolis, La Tragédie de Salomé was slated to be included in the 1939-40 concert season of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra led by Dimitri Mitropoulos, but I have been unable to ascertain whether the planned performances ever actually materialized. (The Boston Symphony had brought the piece to the Twin Cities as far back as 1913.)
American conductor James Sample (1910-1995) studied in Austria and France before directing WPA choral and orchestral ensembles in Hollywood and Los Angeles. He was later principal conductor of the Portland Symphony Orchestra (now Oregon Symphony).
Out west, La Tragédie de Salomé was even performed by the WPA (Works Progress Administration) Orchestra in Los Angeles — a government-funded ensemble formed to provide performance opportunities for unemployed musicians. Conductor James Sample led a performance of the work at the Embassy Auditorium on February 5, 1941 that that was described as “colorful” by Musical America magazine correspondent Isabel Morse Jones.
Albert Louis Wolff (1884-1970)
In Latin America, it appears that the earliest performances of La Tragédie de Salomé occurred in Brazil and Argentina — in the former country due to the advocacy of Florent Schmitt’s friend and fellow-composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. In Argentina, French conductor Gaston Poulet led the work at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires in 1928, and a decade later Albert Wolff presented the piece in concert with the Teatro Colón Orchestra in April 1939, coinciding with Maestro Wolff’s direction of a staging of Schmitt’s ballet Oriane et le Prince d’Amour — a work which had been premiered in Paris the previous year.
As a measure of the widespread reach of parformances of Salomé, a news item appearing in L’Art musical magazine listed four performances done outside of France just during winter season of 1938-39, including in Maastricht in the Netherlands, in Florence, Italy, in Oslo (directed by Albert Wolff) and in Budapest (directed by György Kaszas).
The first performance of La Tragédie de Salomé outside France was with the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam in 1913.
The 1913 concert performance of Florent Schmitt’s La Tragédie de Salomé with the Concertgebouw Orchestra shared billing with Ernest Chausson’s Symphony in B-Flat.
As this accounting of historic performances would suggest, fortunate audiences on six continents have had the opportunity to see and hear this “perilously seductive” score — as one music critic from BBC Music Magazine has described it recently. The partial listing below of post-World War II public performances attests to the piece’s widespread reach over the past 75 years.
[N.B. Special thanks to Chandler Cudlipp, former artistic advisor at the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, for his assistance in compiling the performance listing below. Additions and corrections to the information are welcomed.]
FLORENT SCHMITT: LA TRAGÉDIE DE SALOMÉ
Public Performances Since 1945 – Partial Listing
1945 – October 18, 19 – Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Désiré Defauw, conductor
1947 – April 1 – Orchestre des Concerts Pasdeloup; Albert Wolff, conductor
1947 – November 1 – Paris Conservatoire Orchestra; André Cluytens, conductor [BBC performance in London]
1949 – November – Paris Conservatoire Orchestra; André Cluytens, conductor [Besançon Festival]
1951 – January 7 – Orchestre des Concerts Pasdeloup; Pierre Dervaux, conductor
Florent Schmitt’s La Tragédie de Salomé shared billing with Paul Dukas’ La Péri and Edouard Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole in a concert by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra at the Salzburg Festival in August 1932. Jacques Thibaud was the featured violinist and Philippe Gaubert conducted.
1951 – March 7, 8, 10 – Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam; Jean Fournet, conductor
1951 – September 11 [Besançon Festival] – Paris Conservatoire Orchestra; André Cluytens, conductor
1951 – December 2 – Orchestre des Concerts Pasdeloup
1951 – December 2, 9 – Orchestre des Concerts Colonne; Gaston Poulet, conductor
1952 – January 25, 27 – Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra; Paul Paray, conductor
In good company: Paul Paray’s 1952 Pittsburgh Symphony performances of Salomé also featured the music of Beethoven, Berlioz and Chabrier.
1952 – December 11 – Detroit Symphony Orchestra; Paul Paray, conductor
1953 – July 26 – Orchestre National de l’O.R.T.F.; Eric Paul Stekel, conductor
1953 – September 21 – Orchestre National de l’O.R.T.F.; Eugène Bigot, conductor
1953 – October – Pasdeloup Concerts Orchestra; Jean Fournet, conductor
1954 – January 13 – Orchestre National de l’O.R.T.F.; Désiré-Emile Inghelbrecht, conductor
1954 – February 26 – The Juilliard Orchestra; Jean Morel, conductor
A listing of The Juilliard Orchestra’s February 26, 1954 concert led by Jean Morel, published in the Spring 1954 issue of Juilliard Review. Maestro Morel had also presented Florent Schmitt’s La Tragédie de Salomé back in November 1941, leading the New York City WPA Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.
1954 – February – Prinzregenten Theatre, Munich, Germany [stage production]
1954 – December 15 – Paris Opera Orchestra; Robert Blot, conductor [Théâtre National de l’Opéra stage production]
1955 – Sydney Symphony Orchestra; Joseph Post/Eugene Goossens, conductors
1955 – February 21 – Orchestre National de l’O.R.T.F.; Pedro de Freitas Branco, conductor
1955 – February 27 – New York Philharmonic Orchestra; Beatrice Krebs, soprano; Nektar de Flondor Studio Women’s Voices; Rémus Tzincoca, conductor
Florent Schmitt confers with Robert Blot, conductor of the musical forces in the Paris Opéra Ballet’s revival of La Tragédie de Salomé in December 1954.
1956 – March 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 – Paris Conservatoire Orchestra; André Cluytens, conductor
1956 – April (various dates, Switzerland tour) – Paris Conservatoire Orchestra; Pierre Dervaux, conductor
1956 – May 16 – Philharmonia Orchestra; Rémus Tzincoca, conductor
1957 – February 20 – Orchestre National de l’O.R.T.F.; Pierre-Michel Le Conte, conductor
Rémus Tzincoca (1915-2012) led performances of Schmitt’s Salomé during the 1950s. His February 27, 1955 New York Philharmonic performance was described by New York Times critic Harold C. Schonberg as follows: “He securely built up the cliamaxes, molded the phrases with authority, and in general showed complete acquaintance with the score … he and the players got on remarkably well.”
1957 – September 8 – Orchestre National de l’O.R.T.F.; Pierre-Michel Le Conte, conductor
1957 – November 2 – RAI Symphony Orchestra (Rome); Miriam Funari, Lidia Marimpietri, Lucia Quinto, sopranos; Jean Martinon, conductor
1958 – March 20 – Detroit Symphony Orchestra; Paul Paray, conductor
1958 – May 20 – Orchestre National de l’O.R.T.F.; Pierre Dervaux, conductor
1958 – July 24 – Orchestre de la Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française de Toulouse-Pyrénées; Jean Clergue, conductor
This July 24, 1958 program, part of a series of concerts featuring “music of Gabriel Fauré and his disciples,” was presented just a month before Florent Schmitt’s death.
1958 – October 9 – Orchestre National de l’O.R.T.F + Chorus.; Simone Condinas, soprano; Désiré-Emile Inghelbrecht, conductor (Memorial concert in honor of Florent Schmitt)
1959 – June 14 – CBC Symphony Orchestra (Toronto); Charles Houdret, conductor
1959 – October 12 – Orchestre National de l’O.R.T.F.; Mladen Bašić, conductor
1960 – October 25 – Orchestre National de l’O.R.T.F.; Manuel Rosenthal, conductor
1960 – November 6 – Colonne Concerts Orchestra; Pierre Dervaux, conductor
1960 – December 20 – Lamoureux Concerts Orchestra; François-Julien Brun, conductor
1961 – May 20 – Moscow
1961 – July 14 – National Symphony Orchestra of Portugal; Pedro de Freitas Branco, conductor
1961 – October 20 – Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra; Jean Fournet, conductor
1962 – February 10 – Orchestre Philharmonique de l’O.R.T.F.; Eugène Bigot, conductor
1962 – March 17, 18 – Paris Conservatoire Orchestra; François-Julien Brun, conductor
1962 – June 10 – L’Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal; Alexander Brott, conductor
1962 – August 17 – Orchestre Philharmonique de l’O.R.T.F.; Jean Clergue, conductor
1962 – September 5, 27 – Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg; Charles Bruck, conductor
1962 – October 28 – Orchestre des Concerts Lamoureux; Manuel Rosenthal, conductor
Florent Schmitt’s La Tragédie de Salomé was presented during the BBC Symphony’s 1928-29 season. Albert Wolff conducted the program, which also included the Frederick Delius Piano Concerto and César Franck’s Symphony in D Minor.
1963 – June 25 – Orchestre Philharmonique de l’O.R.T.F.; Manuel Rosenthal, conductor
1963 – November 9 – Lamoureux Concerts Orchestra; Jacques Bazire, conductor
1964 – July 6 – Orchestre Philharmonique de l’O.R.T.F.; Tony Aubin, conductor
1964 – December 27 – Orchestre National de l’O.R.T.F.; Eugène Bigot, conductor
1965 – January 11, 12, 13 – NHK Symphony Orchestra (Tokyo); Pierre Dervaux, conductor
1966 – February 14 – Orchestre National de l’Opéra de Monte-Carlo; Paul Paray, conductor (also performed on American tour, March/April 1966)
The concert program for a January 1936 performance of Florent Schmitt’s La Tragédie de Salomé, presented by the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Dimitri Mitropoulos.
1966 – June 10 – Orchestre Nationale de Strasbourg; Roger Albin, conductor
A postcard invitation announcing a concert featuring Florent Schmitt’s La Tragédie de Salomé, performed by the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec under the direction of its then-music director, Pierre Dervaux (1967).
1967 – April 3, 4 – Orchestre Symphonique de Québec; Pierre Dervaux, conductor
1968 – February – Orchestre Philharmonique de l’O.R.T.F.; Jean Fournet, conductor
1968 – January 24 – RAI Orchestra of Turin; Pierre Dervaux, conductor
1968 – April 2 – Orchestre Philharmonique de l’O.R.T.F.; Jean Fournet, conductor
1969 – March 17, 18, 20 – Orchestre Symphonique de Québec; Pierre Dervaux, conductor
1970 – April 8 – Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg; Roger Albin, conductor
1970 – September 12 – Orchestre Philharmonique de l’O.R.T.F.; Gérard Devos, conductor
1970 – October 25 – Pasdeloup Concerts Orchestra; Gérard Devos, conductor
1970 – December 2 – Orchestre de Paris; Serge Baudo, conductor
1971 – October 22 – Orchestre National de l’O.R.T.F.; Paul Paray, conductor
1972 – January 12 – Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg; Roger Albin, conductor
1972 – April – Detroit Symphony Orchestra; Sixten Ehrling, conductor
1972 – April 9, 11 – American Symphony Orchestra; Ainslee Cox, conductor
1972 – October 10, 11 – Orchestre Philharmonique des Pays de la Loire; Pierre Dervaux, conductor
1973 – January 7 – Orchestre National de l’Opéra de Monte-Carlo; Pierre Dervaux, conductor
1973 – January 7 – Orchestre National de l’O.R.T.F.; Jean Martinon, conductor
The November 1978 San Antonio Symphony Orchestra program, presented by music director François Huybrechts.
1972 – May 22 – Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg; Marius Briançon, conductor
1973 – June 19, 21, 22, 23 – Orchestra of the Florence Maggio Musicale; Edoardo Müller, conductor [Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Stage Production]
1974 – March 6, 7, 8, 9 – Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam; Jean Fournet, conductor
1974 – March 10 – Colonne Concerts Orchestra; Pierre Dervaux, conductor
This announcement of the March 1974 San Francisco Symphony performances, led by Kazuyoshi Akiyama, appeared in the San Francisco Bay Guardian.
1974 – March 13, 14, 15, 16 – San Francisco Symphony Orchestra; Kazuyoshi Akiyama, conductor
1974 – July 13 – St. Louis Symphony Orchestra; Leonard Slatkin
1975 – February 25 – Orchestre Symphonique de Québec; Pierre Dervaux, conductor
1978 – November 4, 6 – San Antonio Symphony Orchestra; François Huybrechts, conductor
1980 – January 25 – RAI Symphony Orchestra (Rome); Raynald Giovaninetti, conductor
Forty years of advocacy: Sylvain Cambreling (1980, 1983, 2007, 2016, 2022).
1980 – February 7, 9 – Orchestre National de l’ORTF.; Sylvain Cambreling, conductor
1980 – March 19 – Orchestre National de l’ORTF + Chorus; Pierre Dervaux, conductor
1981 – October 6 – Orchestre Philharmonique + Choeurs de Radio-France; Hubert Soudant, conductor
1981 – October 19, 20; November 3, 4, 8, 13 – L’Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal; Charles Dutoit, conductor (also performed on a nine-city North American tour, October/November 1981)
The program cover for the Coblenz Ballet’s staging of Florent Schmitt’s La Tragédie de Salomé in 1994/95.
1982 – January 17 – RAI Milan Orchestra + Chorus; Hubert Soudant, conductor
1982 – October 20, 21 [Chicago, Detroit, Louisville, New York City, USA; Toronto, Canada] – Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France; Marc Soustrot, conductor
1983 – March 13 – Frankfurt Opera House and Museum Orchestra; Sylvain Cambreling, conductor
1983 – October 2 – Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo; Lawrence Foster, conductor
1983 – October 25, 26 – Fort Lauderdale Symphony Orchestra; Emerson Buckley, conductor
The October 1983 performances of La Tragédie de Salomé by the Fort Lauderdale Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Emerson Buckley. Also on the program was another relative rarity — the overture to Phèdre by Florent Schmitt’s onetime teacher, Jules Massenet.
1984 – July 31 – Orquestra Sinfónica Brasileira (Rio de Janeiro); David Machado, conductor
1985 – August 1, 2 [Paris], 12 [Edinburgh Festival] – Orchestre National de France; Thomas Fulton, conductor
1987 – January 28, 29 – Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France; Marek Janowski, conductor
1987 – August 2 – Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France; Marek Janowski, conductor [BBC Proms premiere performance]
1987 – September 29 – Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France; Marek Janowski, conductor [Berlin, Germany]
1988 – January 1 – Orchestre National de France
1990 – October 22 – RAI Orchestra of Turin; Renata Colombatto, soprano; Charles Bruck, conductor
1990 – December 17 – New England Conservatory Symphony Orchestra; Pascal Verrot, conductor
1993 – March 15 – Orchestre National de France; Victor Puhl, conductor
1993 – October 19, 20 – Orchestre National de France; James Conlon, conductor
1994 – January 13, 15 – Orchestre National de Lyon; Serge Baudo, conductor
1994 – April 28 – Orchestre de Paris; James Conlon, conductor
1994/95 – October 28, November 2, 4, 11, 14, 19, 22, December 10, 19, January 8, 10, 22, 26, February 19, March 2, 11, 14, 15 – Coblenz Ballet Orchestra; Marioara Trifan and Christian Letschert, conductors [Theater der Stadt Koblenz Stage Production]
A poster promoting the May 1995 concerts by the Orchestre Symphonique de la Monnaie under the direction of Marc Soustrot.
1995 – May 21, 23, 24, 1995 – Orchestre Symphonique de la Monnaie; Marc Soustrot, conductor
1995 – June 10, 1995 – Texas Festival Orchestra; Pascal Verrot, conductor
1995 – November 4 – Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France; Marek Janowski, conductor
1996 – November 27 – Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra; Jean Fournet, conductor
1997 – April 23 – RTVE Symphony Orchestra (Madrid); Richard Fletcher, conductor
1997 – May 30 – Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France; Marek Janowski, conductor
1997 – October 30 – Berlin Symphony Orchestra; Diego Masson, conductor
1998 – January 18, 28, 29, 30 – Royal Flanders Philharmonic Orchestra (Antwerp); Muhai Tang, conductor
1998 – June 16 – Orquesta Sinfonica Portuguesa (Lisbon); Giuliano Carella, conductor
The personal score of conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos resides in the archives of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Researchers viewing the score will see Maestro Mitropoulos’ personal markings noted throughout.
2000 – January 9 – Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra; Heinz Rögner, conductor
2000 – February 17, 18, 21 – NDR Hannover Radio-Philharmonic Orchestra; Manfred Trojahn, conductor
2000 – April 12, 13 – Thuringia Philharmonic Orchestra; Heinz Rögner, conductor
2000 – May 9 – Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra; Jean Fournet, conductor
2000 – September 1 – Mitteldeutsche Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra; Heinz Rögner, conductor
2000 – December 7 – Orchestre National de l’O.R.T.F.; Yevgeny Svetlanov, conductor
2000 – December 8 – Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège; Serge Baudo, conductor
2002 – January 25 – Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra; Jean-Paul Penin, conductor
2002 – March 16 – Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France; Sandra Zeltzer, soprano; Pascal Rophé, conductor [original 1907 version]
2002 – July 14 – Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo; Marek Janowski, conductor
2002 – December 15, 16 – Kiel Philharmonic Orchestra; Golo Berg, conductor
2003 – April 17 – Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse; Michel Plasson, conductor
Passionate advocate of Florent Schmitt’s La Tragédie de Salomé: French conductor Stéphane Denève (2004, 2005, 2006, 2011, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2022, 2023, 2024).
2004 – May 11 – Orchestra del Teatro Massimo; Stéphane Denève, conductor
2004 – September 17 – Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino; James Conlon, conductor
2005 – April 14, 15 – Orchestre National de Lyon; Stéphane Denève, conductor
2005 – August 20 – Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse; Michel Plasson, conductor
2005 – October 14 – St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra; Dorian Wilson, conductor (Russian premiere performance)
2005 – November 4 – Irish National Radio & Television Orchestra (RTE); Rebecca Ryan, soprano; Jacques Mercier, conductor
2006 – January 22 – Paris Conservatoire Orchestra; Patrick Davin, conductor
2006 – March 21 – Ensemble Orchestral de Paris; Juraj Valcuha, conductor
2006 – November 10, 11, 12 – Royal Scottish National Orchestra; Stéphane Denève, conductor
2006 – November 17 – Estonian National Symphony Orchestra; Ronald Zollman, conductor
2007 – March 4 – Edmonton Youth Orchestra; Michael Massey, conductor
2007 – March 9, 10, 11 – Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana; Juraj Valcuha, conductor
2007 – March 11, July 4 – L’Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège; Pascal Rophé, conductor
2007 – May 11 – Spokane Symphony Orchestra; Eckart Preu, conductor
2007 – July 29 – National Orchestra of Italy; Massimiliano Caldi, conductor
2007 – December 15 – Southwest German Radio Symphony (Baden-Baden u. Freiburg); Sylvain Cambreling, conductor
2008 – March 12 – National Philharmonic of Russia (Moscow); Ion Marin, conductor
2008 – June 30 – Zurich Chamber Orchestra; Muhai Tang, conductor [original 1907 version]
2008 – December 4 – Orchestre National de France; Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor
Schmitt’s Salomé is a beloved repertoire staple for French conductor Lionel Bringuier (2009, 2015, 2017).
2009 – February 5 – Limburg Symphony Orchestra (Maastricht); Lionel Bringuier, conductor
2009 – February 20 – Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra; Lionel Bringuier, conductor
Ira Levin conducts Brasilia’s Claudio Santoro Orchestra in South American performances of Florent Schmitt’s La Tragédie de Salomé (2009).
2009 – February 27 – BBC Symphony Orchestra; Lionel Bringuier, conductor
2009 – March 4 – Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra; Lionel Bringuier, conductor
2009 – April 24, 26, 27 – Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra; Lionel Bringuier, conductor
2009 – May 15, 16 – Orchestre National de Montpellier; Alain Altinoglu, conductor
2009 – July – Ulster Orchestra; Pascal Rophé, conductor
2009 – November 22 – Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal; Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor
Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s 2009 performance with the Orchestre Métropolitain was also recorded and released on the ATMA label.
2010 – March 20-28 – Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra; Pascal Verrot, conductor
2010 – May 20, 21, 22 – Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, Yan-Pascal Tortelier, conductor
2011 – March 30, 31 – Toronto Symphony Orchestra; Stéphane Denève, conductor
French conductor Stéphane Denève brought La Tragédie de Salomé to Canadian audiences in March 2011 (Toronto Symphony Orchestra).
2011 – May 12, 13 – Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra; Alain Pâris, conductor
2012 – February 23, 24 – Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Alain Altinoglu, conductor
2012 – May 16 – Orchestre de Paris; Alain Altinoglu, conductor
2012 – June 1 – Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse; Alain Altinoglu, conductor
2013 – May 4 – Singapore Symphony Orchestra; Lan Shui, conductor
2013 – May 28, 29, 30, 31, June 1 – Teatro Verdi Orchestra (Trieste); Alexei Repnikov, conductor [Mariinsky Ballet stage production]
2013 – November 13 – Iceland Symphony Orchestra; Lan Shui, conductor
2014 – July 2, 4 – Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra (Stuttgart); Stéphane Denève, conductor
2014 – October 30 – Sibiu State Philharmonic Orchestra (Romania); Gottfried Rabl, conductor
2015 – January 31 – Sinfonietta Shizuoka (Tokyo); Tomoya Nakahara, conductor [original 1907 version]
2015 – April 16, 18 – The Cleveland Orchestra; Lionel Bringuier, conductor
The Cleveland Orchestra’s concert program, conducted by Lionel Bringuier (April 2015). Maestro Bringuier’s performances of Schmitt’s composition were the first ones presented by The Cleveland Orchestra in more than 70 years.
2015 – May 14, 15, 16 – Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra; Lionel Bringuier, conductor
Lionel Bringuier rehearsing Florent Schmitt’s La Tragedie de Salome with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (May 2015).
2015 – March 19 – Sinfonietta Shizuoka; Tomoya Nakahara, conductor [original 1907 version]
2015 – July 31, August 1 – National Youth Orchestra of Wales; Paul Daniel, conductor
2015 – October 1 – Real Filharmonica de Galicia; Paul Daniel, conductor
2015 – October 8, 9 – Orchestre de l’Opéra National de Bordeaux; Paul Daniel, conductor
2015 – October 17 – Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra; Miha Rogina, conductor
In 2015, the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Miha Rogina performed La Tragédie de Salomé in the Schlosstheater Schönbrunn in Vienna — reportedly the first time the piece had been presented in Austria in decades.
2016 – April 22 – Moldova Philharmonic Orchestra of Iasi; Gottfried Rabl, conductor
Austrian conductor Gottfried Rabl introduced Schmitt’s score to concert audiences in Romania — and kept right on going with follow-up performances in that country (2014, 2016, 2018).
2016 – March 7 – Paris Conservatoire Student/Graduate Orchestra; Alain Altinoglu, conductor
2016 – May 22, 23 – Stuttgart State Orchestra; Sylvain Cambreling, conductor
The Stuttgart State Orchestra’s performances of Florent Schmitt’s La Tragédie de Salomé were presented in April 2016. Sylvain Cambreling conducted.
2016 – September 15 – Orchestre National de France; Stéphane Denève, conductor
Conductor Stéphane Denève rehearses the Orchestre National de France in preparation for presenting Florent Schmitt’s La Tragédie de Salomé (September 2016).
2016 – October 22 – Asheville Symphony Orchestra; Daniel Meyer, conductor
2016 – November 12 – Fresno State Symphony Orchestra; Thomas Loewenheim, conductor
2017 – January 12, 13, 14 – Philadelphia Orchestra; Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor
Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra presented La Tragédie de Salomé as part of its Paris Festival series of concerts in January 2017. It was the first time the orchestra had performed Florent Schmitt’s score in nearly a century (1919). Speaking of the piece, Maestro Nézet-Séguin stated, “I’m happy to reintroduce it to Philadelphia audiences. I really love this work because it has the exotic feel that is closely associated with the Middle Eastern world of Salome, and yet it has all the components of ballet music in the best sense of the word. It’s very French, of course, with the writing — especially the woodwinds and the string colors and harmonies. But it’s also a very dramatic piece that has a certain energy and tension, which I think brings the best of what French music can give us.”
2017 – January 14 – Tokyo Symphony Orchestra; Kazuyoshi Akiyama, conductor
2017 – February 25, 26 – Spokane Symphony Orchestra; Eckart Preu, conductor
2017 – March 13 – Orchestre des Lauréats du Conservatoire; Romain Dumas, conductor [original 1907 version]
2017 – April 20, 21 – Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège; John Neschling, conductor
2017 – May 10, 11 – Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra; Stéphane Denève, conductor
2017 – September 29 – Guanajuato Symphony Orchestra; Daniel Myssyk, conductor
2017 – October 18, 19 – Orchestre de Paris; Jonathan Darlington, conductor
Jonathan Darlington and the Orchestre de Paris present La Tragédie de Salomé (October 2017). (Photo: Osmo Tapio Räihälä)
The program for the Jonathan Darlington performances at the Orchestre de Paris (October 2017).
2017 – November 16 – Orchestre National de Lyon; Lionel Bringuier, conductor
2018 – February 2 – Transylvanian State Philharmonic Orchestra of Cluj (Romania); Gottfried Rabl, conductor
2018 – September 27, 29 – Malmö Symphony Orchestra; Marc Soustrot, conductor
2018 – December 8, 9 – Orquesta Filarmónica de México (UNAM, Mexico City); Ronald Zollman, conductor
Ronald Zollman introduces La Tragédie de Salomé to concert-goers in Mexico City (December 2018).
2019 – March 2, 3 – Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra; Susan Platts, mezzo-soprano; Buffalo Girlchoir; JoAnn Falletta, conductor
Conductor JoAnn Falletta rehearses the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Buffalo Girlchoir in preparation for presenting Florent Schmitt’s La Tragédie de Salomé (March 2019).
The March 2019 Buffalo Philharmonic concert program, featuring two compositions by Florent Schmitt in addition to works by Germaine Tailleferre and Johannes Brahms.
2019 – March 8, 9 – Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra; Karen Vourc’h, soprano; Jacek Kaspszyk, conductor
2019 – May 4, 5 – Bern Symphony Orchestra; Mario Venzago, conductor
2019 – July 12 – Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra; Kazuyoshi Akiyama, conductor
Florent Schmitt’s La Tragédie de Salomé anchored an all-French program by the Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kazuyoshi Akiyama (July 2019).
2019 – June 27, 28, 29 – Het Zeeuws Orchestra; Anneke Luyten, soprano; Musica Cordis Chorale; Ivan Meylemans, conductor
2019 – November 8 – Augusta Symphony; Women of the Augusta Choral Society; Dirk Meyer, conductor
The Augusta Symphony’s presentation of Florent Schmitt’s Salomé under the direction of German-American conductor Dirk Meyer was a sold-out performance (November 2019).
2020 – March 14, 15 – Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal; Lionel Bringuier, conductor [canceled due to COVID-19 outbreak]
2020 – March 21 – Shanghai Symphony Orchestra; David Stern, conductor [canceled due to COVID-19 outbreak]
2020 – May 9, 17 – Theatro Municipal Orchestra + Chorus of Rio de Janeiro; Ira Levin, conductor [postponed]
2020 – November 4 – Sinfonietta Shizuoka; Tomoya Nakahara, conductor [original 1907 version]
The Sinfonietta Shizuoka under the direction of Tomoya Nakahara presented the original 1907 version of Florent Schmitt’s La Tragédie de Salomé to a COVID-era small, socially distanced audience (Tokyo, November 2020).
A billboard announcing the Sinfonietta Shizuoka’s performance of the 1907 original version of La Tragédie de Salomé, conducted by Tomoya Nakahara (Tokyo, November 2020).
2020 – November 13, 14 – St. Louis Symphony Orchestra; Stéphane Denève, conductor [postponed due to COVID-19 outbreak]
2020 – November 19, 20 – Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg; Fabien Gabel, conductor [canceled due to COVID-19 outbreak]
2020 – December 3 – Orchestre Française de Jeunes; Fabien Gabel, conductor [canceled due to COVID-19 outbreak]
2020 – December 9, 10 – Orchestre Symphonique de Québec; Fabien Gabel, conductor [canceled due to COVID-19 outbreak]
Music director-designate Alain Altinloglu leads the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra in the 1907 original version of Florent Schmitt’s ballet La Tragédie de Salomé (January 21, 2021). (Photo: ©Ben Knabe)
2021 – January 21 – Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra; Ambur Braid, soprano; Alain Altinoglu, conductor [original 1907 version]
2021 – February 5, 6, 7 – Houston Symphony; Fabien Gabel, conductor [postponed]
2021 – March 12, 13 – Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra; Fabien Gabel, conductor [postponed due to COVID-19 outbreak]
2021 – May 8 – Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra + Chorus; Dirk Meyer, conductor [canceled due to COVID-19 outbreak]
2021 – October 8 – Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse; Fabien Gabel, conductor
Conductor Fabien Gabel rehearses the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse in Florent Schmitt’s La Tragédie de Salomé (October 2021). (Photo: Romain Alcaraz)
2021 – October 12 – Orchestre OSE (Léman Lyriques Festival, Geneva); Daniel Kawka, conductor
The Orchestre OSE performs Schmitt’s La Tragédie de Salomé at the Léman Lyriques Festival in Switzerland (October 2021).
2021 – November 26, 30; December 3, 9, 10, 11, 16 – Ensemble Les Apaches; Marion Tassou, soprano; Julien Masmondet, conductor [original 1907 version]
Conductor Julien Masmondet and Ensemble Les Apaches present the original version of Florent Schmitt’s La Tragédie de Salomé in a mixed-media production (Rungis, Rochefort, Avignon, Paris, November-December 2021).
The Osnabrück Symphony Orchestra and Theater Osnabrück Damenchor perform Florent Schmitt’s La Tragédie de Salomé, conducted by Andreas Hotz. (Photo: Jörn Martens, December 13, 2021)
2021 – December 13 – Osnabrück Symphony Orchestra; Theater Osnabrück Damenchor; Andreas Hotz, conductor
2022 – January 21, 22 – Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia; Fabien Gabel, conductor
2022 – March 15 – Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra; Slovenian Philharmonic Women’s Choir; Sylvain Cambreling, conductor
2022 – April 22, 23 – Detroit Symphony Orchestra; Fabien Gabel, conductor
Conductor Fabien Gabel’s April 2022 program with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra was a “Salome-centric” affair.
2022 – May 19 – Hamburg Symphony Orchestra; Women’s Voices of Europa Chor Akademie Görlitz; Sylvain Cambreling, conductor
2022 – June 11, 12 – Japan-NHK Symphony Orchestra; Stéphane Denève, conductor
2022 – September 11, 12 – Lubeck Philharmonic Orchestra; Stefan Vladar, conductor
2022 – October 21, 22 – St. Louis Symphony Orchestra + Chorus; Jeanine De Bique, soprano; Stéphane Denève, conductor
Stéphane Denève’s October 2022 program with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra featured the music of Florent Schmitt and Francis Poulenc. (Courtesy of Aaron Merritt)
2022 – October 29 – Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra; Stéphane Denève, conductor
The Netherlands Radio Philharmonic concert program (October 29, 2022).
2023 – February 1, 2 – Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra; Ryan Bancroft, conductor
2023 – February 4 – Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música; Bastien Stil, conductor
French conductor Bastien Stil leads the Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música in Florent Schmitt’s La Tragédie de Salomé. (Photo: Artur Gonçalves, February 2023)
2023 – March 15 – Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra; Sylvain Cambreling, conductor
2023 – March 17, 18 – Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra; Fabien Gabel, conductor
The March 1923 performances of La Tragédie de Salomé were the first time the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra had presented this music.
2023 – April 2o – Borusan-Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra; Patrick Hahn, conductor
2023 – April 21, 22 – Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra; Jonathan Darlington, conductor
2023 – May 24 – Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin; Fabien Gabel, conductor
Curtain call for Fabien Gabel and the Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin following their performance of Florent Schmitt La Tragédie de Salomé (May 2023).
2023 – June 4, 5 – Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra; Patrick Hahn, conductor
2023 – December 1, 3 – Vancouver Symphony Orchestra; Susan Platts, mezzo-soprano; JoAnn Falletta, conductor
The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s all-French program, signed by conductor JoAnn Falletta and mezzo-soprano Susan Platts (December 2023).
2023 – December 15 – Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra; Stéphane Denève, conductor
2024 – January 20, 21 – New World Symphony Orchestra (Miami); Stéphane Denève, conductor
Stéphane Denève’s New World Symphony program featured two early 20th century ballets by Florent Schmitt and Albert Roussel (January 2024).
2024 – February 26 – Ensemble Kontrapunkte (Vienna); Gottfried Rabl, conductor [original 1907 version]
The February 2024 Ensemble Kontrapunkte performance of Florent Schmitt’s La Tragédie de Salomé was the Austrian premiere of the original 1907 version of the music. Conductor Gottfried Rabl reported afterwards, “As expected by me, the piece made a deep impression on the listeners. We had longer applause than usual and of course the inevitable question was asked: ‘Why is such beautiful music not played more often?’ Morever, the musicians loved playing the piece, which I performed with 4-3-2-2-2 strings, making for good orchestral balances. I am working on including more Florent Schmitt compositions in my programs, including next season when we will perform the Suite en rocaille.”
2024 – May 8, 9, 11 – Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal; Fabien Gabel, conductor
The Montreal Symphony Orchestra program, inscribed by conductor Fabien Gabel (May 2024).
2024 – September 28 – Orchestra Wellington; The Tudor Consort; Marc Taddei, conductor
Marc Taddei leads Orchestra Wellington in the New Zealand premiere concert performance of Florent Schmitt’s La Tragédie de Salomé (September 2024). In a pre-concert interview with Richard Betts, classical music columnist for NZ Listener magazine, Maestro Taddei remarked, “You can absolutely hear the inspiration Stravinsky derived from Schmitt. Both [Salomé and Sacre] share an off-kilter dance to finish, and there’s this percussive pounding ostinato that Stravinsky must have been inspired by.”
2025 – April 6, 7 – Haifa Symphony Orchestra; Julien Masmondet, conductor [cancelled due to Iran/Israel conflict]
2025 – November 13 – Jena Philharmonic Orchestra + Chorus; Simon Gaudenz, conductor [planned]
Recordings of La Tragédie de Salomé
The second commercial recording of Florent Schmitt’s La Tragédie de Salomé, made in 1930, featured the composer as conductor, too.
As Florent Schmitt’s most famous composition, it should come as no surprise that more than recordings have been released of this music — either studio recordings or taken from live concert performances. This article provides details on each of those recordings.
The first stereophonic recording of La Tragédie de Salomé, featuring the Detroit Symphony Orchestra led by Paul Paray, won the Grande Prix du Disque award. This is the (French) Philips release of the original (U.S.) Mercury Living Presence recording.
For those who wish to explore the music in greater detail, an upload of one of those commercial recordings — a 1970 performance by the New Philharmonia Orchestra under the direction of Antonio de Almeida — can be viewed here, courtesy of Jean-Marie van Bronkhorst’s worthy YouTube music channel:
It’s interesting to note that performances of the original version of La Tragédie de Salomé have become more frequent in recent times — and this was happening even before the advent of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 gave a boost to performing music scored for smaller orchestral forces.
The original version of the ballet (1907): Twice the music … half the musicians.
Conductors such as Alain Altinoglu and Julien Masmondet appear to agree with what musicologist and critic Robert Layton wrote in the pages of Gramophone magazine back in May 1994, when the first commercial recording of the original version of the score was released on the Marco Polo label:
Robert Layton (1930-2020)
“[The original version] lasts all but a few seconds short of an hour (twice as long as the more familiar score Schmitt made for concert purposes) and uses far smaller forces — but with such skill that one scarcely notices that. As Lionel Salter put it, ‘Schmitt’s virtuosity in drawing rich sonorities and a voluptuous, barbaric atmosphere from it is astonishing’ …
It quickly put me under its spell and is of exceptional interest to those who are carried away by French music or art nouveau … In this day and age when the catalogue is burgeoning with duplications, here is the sort of CD that makes collecting worthwhile.”
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