“… An extravagant outburst of highly perfumed Franco-exoticism at its most virile, heroic and exalted … I can’t think of another piece that achieves — or even attempts — quite the impact made by this work.”

— Walter Simmons, author and music critic, Fanfare Magazine

“Had Florent Schmitt endowed the heritage with only this single Psalm, his name would remain forever inscribed in the highest splendors of the musical history of France.”

— Maurice Imbert, French pianist, composer and music critic

“Regarding the Psaume, what can we say that hasn’t already been said a hundred times? Each new hearing increases the reasons we have to admire it — and to love it. Years go by without depriving this musical monument of its nobility and power. On the contrary, it seems to shine with brighter radiance than when it was new.”

— René Dumesnil, music critic, Le Monde

“If you conduct just one French choral work in your career, it should be this Psalm.”

— Manuel Rosenthal, French conductor, composer and arranger

Of all the music Florent Schmitt composed, The Tragedy of Salome may be the most famous. But it’s the Psalm 47 that seems to amaze audiences most of all when it is performed.

The reaction is one of delight — and surprise:  “Why isn’t this piece better known?”

Composed in 1904 during Schmitt’s stay at the Villa Medici in Rome, the Psaume XLVII, Op. 38 is a comparatively early work, written when the composer was just 34 years old. When it burst on the Paris musical scene in its 1906 premiere, it left music critics and audience members alike gasping for breath.

Schmitt was hailed as “The New Berlioz” by the press. The poet and essayist Léon-Paul Fargue wrote, “A great crater of music is opening up in our midst.”  And in a letter to Schmitt following the premiere, his fellow-composer Maurice Ravel wrote:

“My dear Schmitt, your Psalm is so profound and so powerful, it nearly shattered the concert hall!”

Representative of the critical reaction to the premiere performance was a review by French musicologist and critic Joseph de Marliave, who wrote the following commentary in the French arts magazine La Nouvelle revue:

“It is in his Psaume LXVI [sic], performed at the Conservatoire, that Florent Schmitt reveals himself as the indisputable master of our young school — the one on whom French music can legitimately base its greatest hopes. This Psalm is a magnificent work of brilliance, vigor, strength and power. It irresistibly evokes the Michelangelo-style creations, in monumental style, which are the works of Berlioz …

Berlioz found nothing as formidable as the beginning of the Psalm with its layered arrangement of trumpets and trombones, whose wild clamors frantically exalt the glory of Jehovah. Like several of Berlioz’s works, this one owes its overwhelming grandeur not only to the enormity of the means employed, but to the breadth of the style and the formidable slowness of certain progressions whose final goal we cannot guess, and which gives the composition its strangely gigantic countenance. Escaping far from the petty research and subtleties of his school, the composer lets forth the elementary and brutal force of sound and pure rhythm … [which] lifts the crowd into delirium. A tumultuous joy is unleashed in torrents, but then everything calms down and the delicious phrase of the soprano solo: ‘He has chosen in his inheritance,’ rises ecstatically, full of grace and freshness. Then the sound storm resumes and grows louder with a superb and triumphant crash.

All the impressionist skill of Mr. Schmitt has been put at the service of a very lively and very suggestive realism. These orgies of sounds, its frenzied ringing, these cries, and this sudden breath of poetry quivering with languor plunge us into an exhilarating and mystical atmosphere which is that of a barbaric and very distant Orient — the warlike Orient of the Bible.

In truth, in this astonishing creation, which will count among the best productions of our time, there is something far more than mere talent.”

[As an interesting side-note, the 1906 premiere was conducted by Désiré Inghelbrecht, who would never tire of programming the Psaume.  Incredibly, his last public performance of the work happened in 1964, nearly 60 years later!  Students of music history will also be interested to learn that the esteemed pedagogue Nadia Boulanger was the organist at the 1906 premiere performance.]

The giant fresco painted by Schmitt in this psalm (“O clap your hands, all ye people”) is one that concert-goers in France hadn’t experienced in the realm of choral music since the days of Hector Berlioz’s Requiem and Te Deum a half-century before. To be sure, Parisian opera audiences had been treated to the massive operatic dramas of Meyerbeer and Massenet, but rarely if ever had they witnessed a similar spectacle in the concert hall.

Writing in Le Ménestrel magazine following a 1912 mounting of the Psaume by the Colonne Concerts Orchestra conducted by Gabriel Pierné, music critic Amédée Boutarel reviewed the piece and the performance as follows:

“To quickly characterize this large-scale composition, we could, with all reservations made, compare it both to Beethoven’s Mass in D and to the great religious works of Berlioz. Florent Schmitt has borrowed the dramatic accent from Beethoven, and from Berlioz the descriptive passion. The Psaume appears to us like a romantic fresco abounding in impresive contrasts. This is how, between two episodes of intense and warm coloring, the idea of the election of Jacob’s people inspired the composer with a delicious phrase that the solo violin, the flute, the soprano and the choir take up again with the most seductive effect …

Mr. Schmitt’s entire work overflows with an intense life. The compexities of writing and the search for orchestration, far from delaying the general movement, exalt and precipitate it — that is to say, they are well-brought about and justified by the subject itself, uniting in the end in a dazzling apotheosis …

The success was a triumph for the composer, the conductor, soprano Lucyle Panis and all the performers.”

Regarding the delirious reception of the piece at this concert, arts correspondent Frank Patterson related this amusing anecdote in the March 13, 1912 issue of Musical Courier magazine:

“A most remarkable composer is Florent Schmitt, whose 46th [sic] Psalm was heard on Sunday at the Concerts Colonne under the direction of Gabriel Pierné, now recovered from the results of his accident and back at his stand. This splendid work, by a composer who is French despite his German-sounding name, is undoubtedly one of the most remarkable compositions which have been given in Paris for many years.

For a full ten minutes the audience, which filled every corner of the huge Châtelet Theatre, stood up and cheered, calling loudly the name of the composer. Several times Pierné went on a futile search [for] the fortunate — or unfortunate — composer who was found after the tumult had subsided, safely hid away in a dark corner of a box. He said afterward that he was never so embarrassed in his life, that he would rather have gone to the block than have faced that howling crowd of admirers.”

A subsequent concert featuring the same musical forces was also reviewed for Le Ménestrel by a different critic, Jean Jemain — a review which placed more emphasis on the performance aspects:

“A second hearing of the Psalm of Florent Schmitt aroused the liveliest and most legitimate enthusiasm. This strange, tasty and sometimes-wildly vehement work is treated … with a rare mastery — a perfect sense of proportion — and reveals in its composer an incontestable originality. The orchestra was excellent, Mr. Cellier made the best possible use of a portable organ that was insufficient in sound, the choir, whose role was particularly thorny, showed itself to be full of valor despite some weaknesses, and Lucyle Panis sang in a cool and well-toned voice …”

Martin Cooper, musicologist and author of the book French Music: From the Death of Berlioz to the Death of Fauré, has noted that Florent Schmitt’s Psaume XLVII was a dramatic departure from what was then the predominant manifestation of “orientalism” in French music, writing:

“Harmonically there is a deliberate ruthlessness such as is seldom found in French music, and a savage pleasure in dissonance that was new and perhaps prophetic. The conception of a psalm as a poem of bloodthirsty rejoicing celebrating the victory of a savage oriental tribe was new in 1904, and after Saint-Saëns’ suave orientalism these clashing fanfares and passionate languors seemed an approach to genuine Eastern music, of which earlier imitations had been mere drawing-room essays.”

The French composer and critic Jacques Chailley went even further, writing these words about the Psalm in 1950:

“The banner of revolt seemed to be brandished by Prix de Rome [winner] Florent Schmitt who, without greatly modifying the prevailing musical vocabulary, completely changed its meaning and impact, drawing from it all the disconcerting possibilities of grandeur and power.”

In words of advice to young conductors, the famed director and composer Manuel Rosenthal once remarked:

“If you conduct just one French choral work in your career, it should be this Psalm.”

It isn’t difficult to figure out what Maestro Rosenthal meant by that statement, because the forces employed by Florent Schmitt in this 30-minute work – eight-part mixed chorus, soprano solo, violin solo, large orchestra and organ – are overwhelming in their impact.  And yet, unlike some of the bombastic scores of Wagner and Richard Strauss, the music stands up very well under repeated hearings.

The contemporary American composer Kenneth Fuchs has noted the special position that Psaume XLVII holds in the French repertoire, writing:

“The Psalm is unusual for French music because it has such a big profile. Even Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé, at its largest moments with chorus and orchestra at full throttle, doesn’t quite have the ‘hugeness’ of this piece.  The Psalm’s language is not Germanic — but the dimensions somehow are.”  

These sentiments are echoed by Walter Simmons, a musicologist, author and music critic for Fanfare magazine, who has written this about Psalm 47:

“… The piece begins and ends with tremendous vigor — an extravagant outburst of highly perfumed Franco-exoticism at its most virile, heroic and exalted … I can’t think of another piece that achieves — or even attempts — quite the impact made by this work.”

Despite the power of the music’s language, some listeners find that the middle section of the work, which features a soprano solo in an ecstatic recitation of the Song of Songs (“He hath chosen in his inheritance the beauty of Jacob, whom he loved …”) and accompanied by soft murmuring of the chorus and orchestra, is the emotional high-point of the piece.

Undoubtedly, it was this part of the Psaume that music critic Harold Schonberg was referring to when he wrote these words in the New York Times following a presentation of the piece by Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in New York City on October 12, 1976:

“The scoring has the light, diaphanous quality of French instrumentation at its best – and this despite the large size of the orchestra.” 

Indeed, the French music critic and composer Emile Vuillermoz described the middle section of Schmitt’s Psalm in poetic terms:

“With sensual chromaticism which has lithe and languorous movements, we penetrate the perfumed chamber of the Shulamite, who gives utterance to her soft, dove-like cooings … in a contemplative reverie through which pass all the perfumes of the East.”

The British composer, arranger and orchestrator Christopher Palmer considered this middle section to be particularly special, writing in The Musical Times in 1973:

“The most personal, least derivative music is to be found in the lyrical centerpiece which Schmitt builds around a single phrase … understandably, since this particular phrase (in the French) happens to be extremetly beautiful in itself — and the composer enhances it with a melting melody for the soprano solo, a finely-judged blend of soft orchestal and choral color, and many subtleties of enharmonic modulation.”

The ravishing beauty of this section of the Psaume is such that it was extracted for performance at the baptismal ceremony for Prince Albert II at the Cathedral of Monaco in 1958, with the chorus and orchestra of the Monte-Carlo Opera conducted by Louis Frémaux.

But not to leave it at that, Schmitt then takes us on an incredible journey in the final section of the Psaume, during which the chorus intones a paean to the Almighty (“God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of the trumpet …”), joined by the brass and organ, and culminating in a final explosion of sound as the orchestra whirls through the final pages of the score — the pounding rhythms and dancing of the exhilarated Jewish throngs at once savage and joyous.

When he conducted the Psaume XLVII at the National Cathedral with the Cathedral Choral Society in the piece’s 2001 Washington, DC premiere performance, music director J. Reilly Lewis remarked to the audience, “I don’t think you will ever hear a more exciting ending in all of choral music.”

He isn’t exaggerating.

Because of the massive forces required to undertake a proper mounting of Psaume XLVII, public performances have been rather rare. Indeed, one could say that this music is “more heard about than heard.”

That was the case even in the early days of the Psaume, as it was mounted just five times during the first 15 years of its existence. One of those early performances happened as part of the first orchestral concert offered by the newly founded Société musical indépendante (September 1910), an organization formed as an alternative to the “establishmentarian” Société national de musique. (The SMI, which was dedicated to performing forward-looking contemporary works, was certainly true to its mission in that first concert, presenting the Étude symphonique by Maurice Delage and Eugeniusz Morawski-Dabrowa’s Vae Victis Symphony alongside Schmitt’s Psalm — all under the direction of Désiré Inghelbrecht.)

The Psaume was also heard early on in the “provinces,” including a January 11, 1914 performance in Lyon by the Société des Grands Concerts (the precursor to the Orchestre National de Lyon) and its director, Georges Wikowski that was described in the January 18, 1914 issue of Le Guide musical as follows:

“This Psalm is of vast proportions; the choirs play an extremely important role to which the soprano solo, the orchestra and the organ provide powerful support. But its character is totally different from the religious style as we know it; it is wild music of a lively color, whose grand accents produce a prodigious effect and vehemently give voice to the eloquent words.

The performance of the work was successful in all respects and did the greatest honor to M. Witkowski, who directed it.”

Another memorable performance of the Psaume outside of Paris happened in 1934 at the Vichy Festival, with the musical forces directed by Paul Paray.

Another early advocate of Florent Schmitt’s score was the Belgian composer Joseph Jongen, who had studied with Vincent d’Indy in Paris from 1899 to 1902, during which time he became acquainted with Schmitt and other younger French composers. It was Jongen who would conduct the Belgian premiere of Psaume XLVII in his capacity as director of the Brussels-based Concerts spirituels in the early 1920s. But Belgium heard the Psalm as early as Lyon — in 1914, at a concert led by Désiré Defauw. — and further performances in the country would happen in subsequent years, including in Ostend in 1927 as part of a concert series organized by François Rasse, a conductor and director of the Liège Conservatoire.

In next-door Holland, Psaume XLVII was one of the pieces programmed by Pierre Monteux during his decade-long tenure at the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam. The Psaume was played at the Concertgebouw in a program that also included Bach’s Magnificat in D. According to a review published in the February 16, 1928 issue of Musical Courier magazine, the Toonkunst Society Chorus performed “in a style that was beyond reproach.” Reportedly, Florent Schmitt was present at the concert “and participated in the great success.”

The Psaume also made it to London early-on, but it was in a version that featured a two-piano reduction of the orchestral score. The performance happened in late June, 1915 at Aeolian Hall. A report on the concert was published in the July 3, 1915 issue of The Athenaeum magazine, as follows:

“The Psalm is set for chorus and orchestra; the latter, however, was represented by two pianofortes, a reduction prepared by the composer himself.

He is a modern, and we were prepared to find his work very different from the sacred music to which we are accustomed in this country. In this setting Mr. Schmitt, we are told, ‘seeks to express, with rough, almost violent fervor, the religious spirit of the Old Testament — power taking precedence over mysticism.’ The composer has succeeded in his aim: the fervor is indeed ‘rough and violent’ …

It is only fair to Mr. Schmitt to note that two pianofortes proved a poor substitute for a full orchestra; there was much noise and no color. It is not unlikely that, when he first planned to give the work here, an orchestra was to be engaged — but if that could not now be managed, it would surely have been better to wait for a more convenient season.”

[As it turned out, the first U.K. performance of the Psaume with orchestra wouldn’t happen until 1988, nearly three-quarters of a century later.]

The Psaume was heard in Central Europe for the first time in 1922 at concert in Orague. Eight years later the piece would be programmed in Warsaw, in a performance featuring the Society of Polish Singers of Poznań along with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra; that concert also featured the Psalmus Hungaricus of Zoltán Kodály.

While not known as a conductor, Florent Schmitt would occasionally step onto the podium to direct his own works. This was the case with Psaume XLVII on at least two occasions. The first was at an all-Schmitt program presented in Paris in January 1937 by the Fédération Poulet-Siohan. New York Times reporter E. C. Foster was on hand for that performance and noted in his news story for the paper that the composer-conductor was given an enthusiastic ovation at the conclusion of the performance.

The second occasion was in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in October 1949 (see the listing below) — also part of an all-Schmitt series of concerts, in this instance organized by Florent Schmitt’s friend and fellow-composer Heitor Villa-Lobos.

Interestingly, the Psaume made its way to the United States even earlier than it did to France’s neighbors Belgium and the U.K., first being performed by the Cecilia Society of Boston in December 1913 in two concerts led by Arthur Mees.

 

The Boston performances were not without their technical flaws, however (see the comments of critic Edwin Downes below for more insights). Underscoring the general consensus that the Cecilia Society Chorus had been seriously under-rehearsed, an article published in the December 19, 1913 issue of the Christian Science Monitor stated:

“The Florent Schmitt work, which the Cecilians in their haste put in their record as one of their first American productions, is not too much vocally for a modern chorus. The piece can be sung; it was sung in spots on Thursday evening. Voices can master it if the performers have the choral technique for keeping together and following the orchestral accompaniment.

Doubtless the members of the Cecilia Soeity have other concerns of more importance to them than singing in the three concerts of their annual schedule. They cannot give up their whole winter to practice, and they are in that respect like the instrumental musicians in the United States 50 years ago. But practice on a plan hitherto unimagined is what is necessary if the modern chorus is to stay with the modern composer.”

Perhaps wanting another chance to present the piece in a better light, Dr. Mees scheduled the Psaume for the Worcester Festival in Massachusetts in 1916. This time, the performance came off much better. Critic J. Albert Riker reviewed the event in the October 5, 1916 issue of Musical Courier, noting:

“There seemed to be a great deal of interest shown in this concert in advance, and much was expected of Marcella Craft as soloist and the chorus in Florent Schmitt’s Psalm XLVII, given here for the first time … On this occasion, Dr. Mees supported the chorus of 400 voices and [soloist] excellently. The performance, as controlled by this painstaking leader, was brilliant and effective. Miss Craft made a profound and lasting impression by her skilled singing and emotional portrayal of this part.”

A far less positive review of the music came from Herbert Peyser in Musical America magazine. He was dismissive of the composition, writing:

“Schmitt, like Enesco, is reputed hard to classify. His admirers find in him both modern and classic traits of musical nature. The classic element will probably be apparent enough to the close student of the present score, but they do not manifest themselves strongly in performance. For the rest, the texture of this music reminded me strongly of Dukas. It has much of the same toughness of fiber, though rather less amenability to delicate handling, and there is the same substratum of Wagnerian influence … 

The vocal writing is generally graceless and always vastly exacting. If the composer is really so observant of classic procedure he, nevertheless, exhibits a singular reluctance to deploy his choral masses polyphonically.

Dr. Mees brought his choristers through the work without actual mischance, and they responded with great spirit and a show of energy that served in a measure to atone for some false intonation and vacillating rhythms … The soprano solo (no less toublesome) was sung by Marcella Craft in a fashion so finished, and with an assurance and a command of effect so complete, as to make the idea that she had never before essayed the part seem almost extravagent. Nor did she avail herself of the score, singing the music from memory.”

[Clearly, Peyser’s verdict on the music has not held up well over time — and it should also be remembered that this is the same straitlaced critic who, in 1928, dismissively described Gershwin’s An American in Paris as being “nauseous claptrap — so dull, patchy, thin, vulgar, long-winded and inane that the average movie audience would be bored by it.”]

In between the two Mees performances in Massachusetts, in 1915 the Apollo Musical Club of Chicago (today named the Apollo Chorus) presented the piece. In his review of the Chicago performance as published in the March 6, 1915 issue of Musical America magazine, critic Maurice Rosenfeld erroneously stated that Chicago was the first performance of the Psalm in America. As for his comments on the piece, Rosenfeld wrote:

“Florent Schmitt has made a rather grandiose setting for the exuberant text. It is written in the modern French harmonic idiom, richly scored for the complex orchestra of today. A sustained section with solo violin obbligato, played by Harry Weisbach, is particularly fine. Miss [Leonora] Allen [a Chicago-based soprano] supplied the vocal solo for this work effectively. The one vulnerable point in the score is the fact that the part for the chorus is exceedingly high.”

Back east, the Psaume was taken up by Serge Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Cecilia Society Chorus in February 1928, and again a decade later by the same forces in April 1938.

The Psaume was presented again at the Worcester Festival in 1928 as part of the festival’s October 3rd opening concert, with musical forces under the direction of Albert Stoessel. The music critic Olin Downes, who had attended the Mees/Boston premiere back in 1913, was present for the Worcester concert as well. His comparative analysis of the two performances was published in an extensive article that appeared in the October 7, 1928 edition of the New York Times. In part, Downes wrote:

“When the 46th [sic] Psalm was composed, in Paris no one knew the name of Igor Stravinsky. Debussy was the great leading figure of French music. Strauss’ Salome, which, when it appeared, seemed to many the last word in dissonance and a certain kind of Orientalism, had yet to shock the world. The 46th Psalm was immensely original and, in intention, ahead of its time …

It must be admitted that the 46th Psalm today impresses the listener as a mixture of styles. Of its effect on the audience, however, there was no question — and there never will be [a] question — of the sincerity, the independence and the fiery dramatic spirit of the man who composed the music.

The first [U.S.] performance, given by the Cecilia Society of Boston on December 18, 1913, was conducted by the late Dr. [Arthur] Mees. Through fault of the conductor or chorus — whosoever the fault may have been — the orchestra was the only part of the ensemble which observed correct entrances and played its part from beginning to the end. Halfway through the piece the chorus hesitated — then desisted. From that moment they filled the part of spectators.

Today, of course, the Psalm is not the almost insuperable technical obstacle that it must have appeared in 1913. In a short 15 years the technical demands that composers make upon performers have increased considerably beyond the point marked by this composition. It has, however, taken that long to give a performance of the 46th Psalm in this country … which approached the composer’s intentions as nearly as that of last Wednesday night.

The score is one of special and vexing difficulty. The [Worcester] singers had evidently rehearsed music that must have been puzzling and ungrateful to the more conservative-minded among them until they knew, at least, exactly what they had to do and in their fashion did it … The result was more than creditable to them; it was exciting, impressive to the listeners. So that … the Psalm of Schmitt was heard in its completeness as it probably had not been heard before in America.”

As an aside, at the time of the 1913 U.S. premiere, an amusing anecdote appeared in the pages of the Boston Transcript newspaper, recounting an incident that occurred when Florent Schmitt had attempted to collect the royalties that were due him for concert performances of his Psalm:

“The Society of French Composers [SACEM] had undertaken to collect the royalties for M. Schmitt. One day the composer called at the office of the Society to receive those that had accrued since his last visit.

The treasurer, who had recently been installed in office, handed him but half the amount he expected.

‘Where is the rest of my money?’ Schmitt asked. ‘The rest? What rest?’ the treasurer replied. ‘That is your share.’

‘That is only half the amount of royalties.’

‘Ah, but how about your librettist? He gets his share, I suppose.’

‘The librettist?’ asked the composer blankly.

‘But certainly, my dear sir,’ the treasurer answered. ‘Your librettist — Monsieur David.'”

Today the situation regarding concert performances of Psalm 47 is much different, and the piece’s fortunes have changed for the simple fact that conductors and choral directors love this score, and whenever it is performed the audience response is electric. University of Iowa professor of music Richard Bloesch, the longtime reviewer of recordings for Choral Journal, the magazine of the American Choral Directors Association, contends that Schmitt’s Psaume XLVII along with Roussel’s Psaume LXXX “should be staples of the choral repertoire for American college/university, community and professional choral ensembles.” Furthermore, Dr. Bloesch considers Schmitt’s Psalm to be among the greatest large-scale works for chorus and orchestra that were created during the first decade of the 20th century — fully deserving of a place alongside the Gurre-Lieder of Schoenberg, The Dream of Gerontius by Elgar, and Mahler’s Eighth Symphony.

Taking a look at where public performances of this music have occurred in the postwar period, it’s evident that they are becoming more frequent as the years roll on — with increasingly more of them happening outside of France.  Shown below is a partial listing of performances since 1945 that I have been able to document.

[N.B. Special thanks to Chandler Cudlipp, former artistic advisor at the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, and to Jean Letarte, former artistic director at the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, for their assistance in compiling the performance listing below.  Additions and corrections to the information are welcomed.]

FLORENT SCHMITT:  PSAUME XLVII, Opus 38

Public Performances Since 1945 – Partial Listing

1947 – March 30
Paris Conservatoire Orchestra, André Cluytens, conductor
Odette Turba-Rabier, soprano; Paris Conservatoire Chorus

1948 – October 30, 31
Paris Conservatoire Orchestra; André Cluytens, conductor
Marcelle Bunlet, soprano; Maurice Duruflé, organ; Chorale Elisabeth Brasseur

1949 – October 31 (Florent Schmitt Festival in Brazil organized by Heitor Villa-Lobos)
Orquesta Sinfonica Brasileira (Rio de Janeiro); Florent Schmitt, conductor
Christina Maristany, soprano; Rio de Janeiro Municipal Chorus 

1951 – March 22
Orchestre National de l’ORTF; Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht, conductor
Denise Duval, soprano; Marcel Briclos Chorus

1951 – August 9  (Besançon Festival)
Orchestre National de l’ORTF; Jean Giardino, conductor; Marie-Thérèse Holley, soprano; Micheline Lagache, organist; Les Chanteurs Comtois; Félix Raugel, director

1951 – October 13, 14
Paris Conservatoire Orchestra; André Cluytens, conductor
Denise Duval, soprano; Marie-Louise Girod, organ; Chorale Elisabeth Brasseur

1951 – December 10 (International Human Rights Day concert, Palais de Chaillot, with Eleanor Roosevelt in attendance)
Orchestre National de la RTF; Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht, conductor
Geneviève Moizan, soprano; Jeanne Baudry-Godard, organ; ORTF Chorus

1952 – May 14, 15
Orchestre National de la RTF; Désiré Inghelbrecht, conductor
Denise Duval, soprano; Jeanne Baudry-Godard, organist; ORTF Chorus

1952 – October 20
Paris Conservatoire Orchestra; Georges Tzipine, conductor
Denise Duval, soprano; Maurice Duruflé, organ; Chorale Elisabeth Brasseur

1953 – February 20
Concerts Pasdeloup Orchestra; Ernest Bour, conductor
Berthe Montmart, soprano; Maurice Duruflé, organ; Paris Music Teachers Choir

1953 – March 18
Vienna Symphony; Herbert von Karajan, conductor
Teresa Stich-Randall, soprano; Anton Heiller, organist; Singverein des Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde

1953 – April 27
Orchestra & Chorus of l’O.R.T.F.; Igor Markevitch, conductor
Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, soprano

1954 – February 13
Turin Symphony Orchestra; Herbert von Karajan, conductor
Janine Micheau, soprano; Turin Choir of the Italian Radio-Television

1954 – June 5 (Festival de Musique de Strasbourg)
St-Guillaume Municipal Orchestra & Chorus; Fritz Munch, conductor
Geneviève Moizan, soprano

1956 – June 26 [Vichy, France]
Ensemble Instrumental du Grand Casino; Louis Frémaux, conductor
Jacqueline Brumaire, soprano; Chorale Elisabeth Brasseur

1957 – April 25
Orchestra & Chorus of the O.R.T.F.; Désiré Inghelbrecht, conductor
Geneviève Moizan, soprano

1957 – July 7 [Brussels Exhibition]
Paris Opéra Orchestra & Chorus

1957 – July 8 [Troisième congrès de musique sacrée]
Orchestra & Chorus of the ORTF; Louis Martin, conductor; Geneviève Moizan, soprano; Maurice Duruflé, organist

1957 – December 15
Lamoureux Concerts Orchestra; Igor Markevitch, conductor
Geneviève Moizan, soprano; University of Paris Chorus

1958 – May 9
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra; Josef Krips, conductor
Cincinnati May Festival Orchestra & Chorus

1958 – July 25
Orchestre Symphonique de Toulouse; Jean Clergue, conductor
Manécanterie des Petits-chanteurs de Tunis

1958 – October 5
Pasdeloup Orchestra; Albert Wolff, conductor
Régine Crespin, soprano; Chorale Elisabeth Brasseur

1958 – October 9
Orchestra & Chorus of l’O.R.T.F.; Désiré Inghelbrecht, conductor
Régine Crespin, soprano; Jeanne Baudry Godard, organist; O.R.T.F. Chorus  (Memorial concert in honor of Florent Schmitt)

1960 – August 3 [also performed on a multi-city European tour July 16-August 6, 1960]
Orchestre National de l’Opéra de Monte-Carlo; Louis Frémaux, conductor
Jacqueline Brumaire, soprano; Philippe Caillard Vocal Ensemble + Monte-Carlo Opera Chorus

1961 – March 14 & December 26
Orchestre National de l’ORTF; Pierre-Michel Le Conte, conductor
Geneviève Moizan, soprano; ORTF Chorus

1961 – June 6
Orchestre National de l’ORTF; Désiré Inghelbrecht, conductor
O.R.T.F. Chorus

1962 – December 8, 9
Paris Conservatoire Orchestra; Jean Gitton, conductor
Berthe Monmart, soprano; Chorale Elisabeth Brasseur & Paris University Chorus

1964 – March 3, 19
Orchestre National de l’ORTF; Désiré Inghelbrecht, conductor
Micheline Grancher, soprano; Jeanne Baudry Godard, organist; ORTF Chorus

1965 – March 29
Orchestre National de l’ORTF; Jean-Claude Hartmann, conductor
Berthe Montmart, soprano; Bernard Gavoty, organist; Choeurs de l’ORTF

1967 – September 23
Orchestra del Maggio fiorentino (Perugia); Georges Prêtre, conductor
Ghislaine Victorius, soprano; Renzo Marchionne, violinist; Prague Philharmonic Chorus

1972
Temple Le Havre; Piero Desseigné, conductor

1973 – October 31
Orchestre National de l’ORTF; Jean Martinon, conductor
Andréa Guiot, soprano; ORTF Chorus

1974 – June 27, 28
Academia di Santa Cecilia Orchestra; Igor Markevitch, conductor
Andréa Guiot, soprano; Academia di Santa Cecilia Chorus

1975
New World Symphony; Leon Thompson, conductor
Morgan State University Choir

1975 – July 9
Tokyo Symphony Orchestra; Takashi Yamaguchi, conductor
Katsura Nakazawa, soprano; Reiko Shimada, organist; Philharmonic Chorus

1976 – January 29
Hallé Orchestra; John Pritchard, conductor
Margaret Curphey, soprano; Hallé Chorus

1976 – December 7
SBTS Instrumental Ensemble; Richard Lin, conductor;
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Oratorio Chorus (Louisville, Kentucky)

1976/7 – October 7, 8, 9, October 12 (Carnegie Hall, NYC), March 20
Philadelphia Orchestra; Eugene Ormandy, conductor
Kathryn Bouleyn Day, soprano; Keith Chapman, organist; Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia

1977 – March 4, 5
San Diego Youth Symphony; John Alexander, conductor; Carole Vaness, soprano; Marvel Jensen, oganist; Irvine Master Chorale

1978 – November 24, 25
The Cleveland Orchestra; Robert Page, conductor
Sally Taubenheim, soprano; Joela Jones, organist; The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus

1981 – December 18
Radio-Canada Orchestra; Raymond Daveluy, conductor
Louise Lebrun, soprano; Choir of SS Andrews’s & Paul’s Church

1982 – February 25, 27
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra; Robert Shaw, conductor
Sylvia McNair, soprano; Atlanta Symphony Chorus

1982 – December 7
Orchestre Symphonique de Québec; Pierre Hétu, conductor
Marie-Danielle Parent, soprano; Choeur de l’Orchestre Symphonique de Québec

1983 – April 24
Los Angeles Sinfonia; Roger Wagner, conductor
Delcina Stevenson, soprano; Marvel Jensen, organ; Los Angeles Master Chorale

1983 – May 31
Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi Orchestra (Trieste); Andrea Giorgi, conductor
Marion Vernette Moore, soprano; Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi Chorus

1984 – April 5
Orchestre National de l’ORTF; Marek Janowski, conductor
Térésa Zylis Gara, soprrano; Choeurs de Radio-France

1986 – May 22, 23, 24 (also planned for performance on a June 1986 Paris/European tour that was cancelled due to international terrorism concerns)
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra; Robert Shaw, conductor
Judith Blegen, soprano; Atlanta Symphony Chorus

1988 – March (first UK performance)
Bristol Choral Society Orchestra; Clifford Harker, conductor
Pamela Myers, soprano; Bristol Choral Society Choir

1989 – August 30 [Festival d’Angers]
Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire; Marc Soustrot, conductor
Françoise Pollet, soprano; Jean Guillou, organ; Choeurs de Radio-France

1991 – July
European Cantata Festival Orchestra (Vittoria, Spain); Erwin List, conductor
Antifonia Choir of Cluj-Napoca (Romania)

1992 – December 8
Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra; Jean Fournet, conductor
Shinobu Sato, soprano; Naomi Matsui, organist; Shinyu-kai Chorus

1994 – February 25, 27
Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra; Jean Fournet, conductor
Françoise Pollet, soprano; Netherlands Radio Chorus

1994 – April 23
Pacific Symphony Orchestra; John Alexander, conductor
Benita Valente, soprano; Pacific Chorale

1996 – October 3, 24
Orchestre National de France; Jeffrey Tate, conductor
Inva Mula, soprano; Choeurs de Radio-France

1997 – March 5, 6
Vienna Symphony Orchestra; Vladimir Fedoseyev, conductor
Joanna Borowska, soprano; Vienna Singakademie

1997 – March 19, 20, 21, April 1, 3
Orchestre Inter-Lycées (Besançon); Jean Mislin, conductor
Catherine Maerten, soprano; Inter-Lycées Chorus

1997 – April 13
American Symphony Orchestra; Leon Botstein, conductor
Korliss Uecker, soprano; Canticum Novum Festival Singers

1999 – July 11
Nord-Deutsches Symphony Orchestra;
Florence Quivar, soprano; Danish Radio Choir & NDR Chorus

1999 – September 23
Tokyo Symphony Orchestra; Naoto Otomo, conductor
Maki Mori, soprano; Ritsuyu-kai Chorus

2000 – June 24
Orchestre des Concerts Nivernais; François-Robert Girolami, conductor
Nevers Academy Chorus

2001 – April 3
Cardiff University Symphony Orchestra; Timothy Taylor, conductor
Jill Padfield, soprano; Cardiff University Choral Society

2001 – May 20
Cathedral Choral Society Orchestra [Members of the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, DC]; J. Reilly Lewis, conductor
Audrey Stottler, soprano; Cathedral Choral Society (Washington, DC)

2005 – June 29, July 1
Brno-Bratislava Conservatory Orchestras; Xavier Ricour, conductor
Urzsula Cuvellier, soprano; Choeur Symphonique de Paris

2005 – September 27, 28 (Paris)
Brno-Bratislava Conservatory Orchestras; Xavier Ricour, conductor
Urzsula Cuvellier, soprano; Choeur Symphonique de Paris

2005 – December 2
Het Gelders Orchestra; Joop Schets, conductor
Ellen Schuring, soprano; Dirk Luijmes, organ; Tonkunst Arnhem Chorus

2006 – April 5, 8
Orchestre National de France; Yan-Pascal Tortelier, conductor
Ingrid Perruche, soprano; Choeur de Radio-France

2006 – October 7, 11
BBC National Orchestra of Wales; Thierry Fischer, conductor
Christine Buffle, soprano; BBC National Chorus of Wales

2006 – October 13
Gotham City Orchestra (New York); George Steel, conductor
Tiffany Jackson, soprano; Kent Tritle, organist; Vox Vocal Ensemble

2010 – March 4, 5, 6
Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo; Yan-Pascal Tortelier, conductor
Susan Bullock, soprano; OSESP and Paulistano Choirs

2010 – November 7
Pacific Symphony; John Alexander, conductor
Erin Wood, soprano; Jung-A Lee, organist; Pacific Chorale

2011 – (Besançon Festival)
Orchestre Inter-Lycées; Jean Mislin, conductor
Schütz Choir

2012 – August 18
American Symphony Orchestra; Leon Botstein, conductor
Lori Guilbeau, soprano; Bard Festival Chorale

2014 – February 3
Berlin Collegium Musicum Orchestra; Donka Miteva, conductor
Uta Krause, soprano; Collegium Musicum Chorus

2015 – March 1
Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra; Marek Janowski, conductor
Jacquelyn Wagner, soprano; Berlin Radio Chorus

2015 – November 14
Jena Philharmonic Orchestra; Franz-Peter Huber, conductor
Heidrun Kordes, soprano; Fulda Cathedral Choir

2016 – February 19, 20
Krakow Philharmonic Orchestra; Jean-Luc Tingaud, conductor
Ewa Biegas, soprano; Krakow Philharmonic Choir

2016 – July 24 (Saarbrücken)
Orchestre National de Lorraine; Jacques Mercier, conductor
Sooyeon Kim, soprano; Suncheon City Chorale + Goyang Civic Choir

2016 – August 27 (Chaise Dieu Festival)
Orchestre National de Lorraine; Jacques Mercier, conductor
Sooyeon Kim, soprano; Denis Comtet, organist; Suncheon City Chorale + Goyang Civic Choir

2016 – October 20 (Seoul, Korea)
Orchestre National de Lorraine; Jacques Mercier, conductor
Sooyeon Kim, soprano; Suncheon City Chorale + Goyang Civic Choir

2019 – May 19
Washington Choral Arts Society Orchestra; Scott Tucker, conductor
Alexandria Shiner, soprano; Choral Arts Chorus

2019 – May 29
Orchestre Symphonique de Québec; Fabien Gabel, conductor
Karina Gauvin, soprano; Choeur de l’Orchestre Symphonique de Québec

2020 – February 7
Transylvanian State Philharmonic Orchestra of Cluj-Napoca; Gottfried Rabl, conductor
Aida Pavăl-Olaru, soprano; Transylvanian State Philharmonic Chorus

2020 – August 17 [canceled due to COVID-19]
BBC Symphony Orchestra; Alain Altinoglu, conductor
Sally Matthews, soprano; BBC Symphony Chorus

2022 – May 12
Orchestre National de France; Fabien Gabel, conductor (video available here)
Marie Perbost, soprano; Karol Mossakowski, organ; Chœur de Radio France

Commercial Recordings of Psaume XLVII

Fortunately, Psaume XLVII is well-represented on recordings today. It was first waxed by EMI in 1952 (in the presence of the composer) in a production featuring conductor Georges Tzipine, soprano Denise Duval, along with the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra and Chorale Elisabeth Brasseur plus the famed Maurice Duruflé at the organ.  This recording has been uploaded to YouTube and can be accessed here.

Twenty years would go by until the next commercial recording was released (also by EMI), with Jean Martinon conducting the O.R.T.F. Orchestra and Chorus, Andréa Guiot singing the ravishing soprano solo, with the legendary Gaston Litaize on the massive pipe organ.

That 1972 recording is still the preferred one for many music-lovers, although there have been five other versions released in more recent years (featuring conductors Jean Fournet, Marek Janowski, Thierry Fischer, Yan-Pascal Tortelier and Leon Botstein).

Speaking personally, I find the 2011 Tortelier recording (on Chandos) to be the most satisfying all-around performance, although each one of them certainly has its merits.

A measure of the musical importance of the Psaume XLVII is the undeniable influence it had on other “Francophone” composers of the period. Prior to its premiere, the “epic” aspects of French symphonic and choral music were – to put it mildly — nearly nonexistent.

But afterwards, other composers would come out with their own striking psalms compositions (Aymé Kunc, Joseph Jongen, Lili Boulanger, Albert Roussel, Jean Rivier), and other musicians composed other major choral compositions based on sacred texts (Francis Poulenc, Arthur Honegger, Frank Martin).

For those who aren’t familiar with this impressive composition, here are links to sample the music (Jean Martinon’s exemplary recording), courtesy of the excellent Jean-Christian Bonnet music channel on YouTube:

• First Section, including the thunderous opening featuring the brass, organ and chorus

• Middle Section, featuring the rapturous soprano solo

• Third Section, including the exhilarating ending

… And for those who would like to follow along with the score to this incredible work, you can do so thanks to another YouTube upload which features the 1989 Marek Janowski commercial recording with the Orchestra National de France and ONF Chorus.

One final observation about this stunning piece of music: When one thinks of French music from this period that is based on sacred texts, the Fauré or Duruflé requiem settings may be the first works that come to mind. But stylistically, the Psaume XLVII is miles apart from these more intimate, pious works. Writing the pages of The Musical Quarterly in 1927, French musicologist and author André Coeuroy (the nom de plume of Jean Belime) claimed that Florent Schmitt’s inmost feelings were revealed in the ancient Biblical texts of the Psaume, “whose energy and warmth have vivified this strong work which, truth to tell, is less religious than … oriental.”

Channeling those same thoughts, some 85 years later British music critic Terry Blain wrote these words about Psaume XLVII in his September 2011 review of the Tortelier/Chandos recording, in the pages of BBC Music Magazine:

“Going from the lurid sex and violence of Salomé to Schmitt’s setting of Psalm 47 should be a major wrench stylistically — but isn’t. The orgiastic volleys of brass and percussion in its opening paragraph have a distinctly pagan feel about them, and are a long way from conventional religiosity.”

You can say that again!