Without question, La Tragédie de Salomé, Op. 50 is Florent Schmitt’s most famous composition. Composed in 1907 and revised in 1910, this ballet is far more often performed as a symphonic suite these days (although the Mariinsky Ballet revived the stage version in 2013).
The European release of Florent Schmitt’s own recording (1930).
The composition became famous from the very start – recognized by music critics and audiences alike as one of the best examples of French tone painting.
It’s also the composer’s best-known “orientalist” work – a bright star in a constellation that also includes other femme-fatale heroines like Cléopâtre, Abisag, Salammbô and Oriane.
The H. Royer Smith Company in Center City Philadelphia was one of the leading record stores in America. Founded in 1919, it was owned by the same family until 1985. This architectural plan omits the top floor (added later). An upscale restaurant now occupies the building.
As famed Philadelphia record store owner H. Royer Smith, Sr. wrote in 1930 upon the release of the first recording of the ballet (Piero Coppola’s):
“Schmitt’s music, always impressive with its polyphonic exuberance, its impetuosity and dramatic fire, gives expression to a vivid depiction of this lurid scenario in terms not usually encountered in Gallic art.”
Smith went on to contend that “Daphnis et Chloé and Schmitt’s Salomé are the two great modern French ballets.”
In his review of the Coppola recording, Edward Moore, critic at the Chicago Tribune, contended that the music of Schmitt’s ballet supersedes that of Richard Strauss’ opera:
“It would seem that the Schmitt score as presented by Victor is quite as good music — and in places even better. The prelude sets the ‘atmosphere’ of the piece with great success … and the three dances — of the pearls, of lightning and of fear — are rather better than what Strauss evolved with his Dance of the Seven Veils.”
Florent Schmitt himself conducted the second recording of La Tragédie de Salomé in Paris in 1930, leading the Straram Concerts Orchestra. This is the album booklet from the American Columbia release (Set M-157) which sold for US$8 in 1931 — the equivalent of more than $100 in today’s dollars!
With such laudatory praise, it isn’t surprising that Salomé is the Schmitt composition that has enjoyed the most commercial recordings over the years. Beginning in 1929/30 – when the first two recordings were waxed within a few months of one another – and continuing up to the present day, there have been well no fewer than twenty commercial recordings made of this music.
As an interesting aside, a number of music critics took notice of the fact that portions of the Coppola recording were taken at substantially swifter tempos than those in Schmitt’s own recording. Writing in the July 5, 1931 edition of the New York Times, the British-American journalist T. Compton Packenham noted:
“In comparing these two versions it will be noticed that the composer has taken another record to cover the same ground. The result is greater clarity and stronger emphasis in a work which requires considerable accenting.”
Robert Donaldson Darrell (1903-1988), was one of the first American music critics to concentrate primarily on recordings. He studied at Harvard University and the New England Conservatory. In addition to writing for various periodicals including High Fidelity and Opus, he authored the first comprehensive discography published in the United States (The Gramophone Shop Encyclopedia of Recorded Music, 1936), plus several reference books on music appreciation.
Another music critic, R. D. Darrell, had a similar but slightly different reaction comparing the two recordings, writing these words in the January 1931 issue of Phonograph Monthly Review:
“While the Victor [Coppola] set has the advantage as far as price is concerned, the Columbia [Schmitt] has the greater advantage of a breadth of performance in the many slow sections … Schmitt gives us more of the concert form, whereas Coppola’s is essentially a ballet reading …
One has greater ease in following Schmitt’s tempos, especially the dance rhythms near the end … His finale is stark and terrifying — and the collapsing palace walls seem to be of quite solid material, whereas in Coppola’s they are apparently canvas stage flats.”
Piero Coppola (1888-1971)
We also have Piero Coppola’s own words about Schmitt’s reaction to his recording, which appeared in his book Seventeen Years of Music in Paris: 1922-1939:
“[Many] composers did me the honor of attending and collaborating on my recordings, and it was a joy for me to be able to contribute to the dissemination of their works …
Unfortunately, Florent Schmitt, of whom I was a sincere admirer, was absent when I recorded his Tragédie de Salomé … [for which I had] taken all my care to achieve the best result. Upon his return from the Pyrenees, Mr. Schmitt did not agree with the tempo at which I had directed the very last part of the work; but this slight cloud later dissipated, and I retain my feelings of admiration for the composer and gratitude to the music critic of Le Temps, who was always very courteous and complimentary about my orchestral works.”
One recording of the original (1907) version of the ballet has also appeared – a fascinating reading of a score for reduced orchestra that’s nearly twice as long as the one the world knows best.
The Théatre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, where Florent Schmitt directed his own recording of La Tragédie de Salomé with the Straram Concerts Orchestra in 1930.
We are very fortunate to have a variety of interpretive approaches to this music. I have listened to all but one of the recordings (the elusive 1942/43 Charles Munch reading). While a number of the recordings appeal to me more than others, to my ears each of them has its own merits.
Indeed, Florent Schmitt has been quite lucky in the quality of conductors and orchestras that have been inspired to bring this music in front of the microphones. Among all of them, one could perhaps be considered the “definitive” interpretation because the composer himself is leading the musical forces.
Florent Schmitt’s own recording of La Tragédie de Salomé (1930), in its American Columbia release.
Listed below are all of the commercially released recordings of La Tragédie de Salomé of which I’m aware. (Corrections or additions to the data are welcomed.)
Orchestre Symphonique du Gramophone; Piero Coppola, conductor. Recorded September 1929 … Original 78-rpm release: Gramophone W 1055-57 … CD reissue: Forgotten Records 2221 (with works by Fauré, Lalo, Reyer)
Orchestre des Concerts Straram; Florent Schmitt, conductor. Recorded April 18-19, 1930, Théatre des Champs-Elysées (Paris) … Original 78-rpm release: LFX 68-71 … CD reissue: EMI 54840-2 (with works by Roussel)
Pierre Dervaux’s recording was made in October 1957, in the presence of the composer.
Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire; Charles Munch, conductor. Recorded October 15, 1942 and June 3, 1943, Studio Albert (Paris) … Original 78-rpm release: Gramophone W 1559-61 (Never reissued)
L’Orchestre du Théatre National de l’Opéra de Paris; Pierre Dervaux, conductor. Recorded October 16, 1957 (in the presence of the composer), Maison de la Mutualité (Paris) … Original LP release: EMI/Voix de Son Maitre FALP 530 … CD reissue: Forgotten Records FR 410 (with works by Dukas)
Grand prix du disque winner: Paul Paray’s 1958 recording of Salomé — the first release of this music in stereophonic sound.
Detroit Symphony Orchestra; Paul Paray, conductor. Recorded March 23, 1958, Orchestra Hall (Detroit) (Winner, Grand Prix du Disque award, 1960) … Original LP release: Mercury SR 90177 Stereo … CD reissue: Mercury Living Presence 434336-2 (with works by Liszt, Saint-Saëns, Richard Strauss, von Weber)
Orquestra Sinfónica Nacional; Pedro de Freitas Branco, conductor. Recorded July 14, 1961, Studio A, Emissora Nacional de Radiodiffusão (Lisbon) (Live recording) … Original CD release: Strauss SP 4113 (with works by Debussy, deFalla)
Another Grand prix du disque winner: Antonio de Almeida’s RCA recording with the New Philharmonia Orchestra (1970).
New Philharmonia Orchestra; Antonio de Almeida, conductor; Gloria Jennings, mezzo-soprano; Ambrosian Singers. Recorded 1970, London (Winner, Grand Prix du Disque award, 1971)… Original LP release: RCA Victor LSC 3151 Stereo … CD reissue: ReDiscovery RD 082 (with works by Chausson, Dukas, Duparc)
L’Orchestre National de l’O.R.T.F., Jean Martinon, conductor; Andréa Guiot, soprano; Choeurs de l’O.R.T.F. Recorded October 6-7, 1972, Salle Wagram (Paris) (Winner, Grand Prix du Disque award, 1973) … Original LP release: EMI/Pathé Marconi C 069-12166 Stereo/Quadraphonic … CD reissue: EMI CDC 749748-2 (with works by Schmitt, Debussy)
… and yet another Grand prix du disque winner: Jean Martinon’s EMI recording.
L’Orchestre Philharmonique + Choeurs de Radio-France; Marek Janowski, conductor; Sharon Sweet, soprano. Recorded October 1988, Studio 103, Radio-France (Paris) … Original CD release: Erato 2292-45029-2 Stereo … CD reissue: Apex 2564-62764-2 (with other works by Schmitt)
Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz; Patrick Davin, conductor. Recorded December 18-19, 1991, Pfalzbau-Hall (Ludwigshafen) … Original CD release: Marco Polo 8.223448 Stereo (Original 1907 version)
The original 1907 version, recorded by Patrick Davin and Marco Polo in 1990.
BBC National Orchestra of Wales; Thierry Fischer, conductor; Christin Buffle, soprano; BBCNOW Chorus. Recorded October 24-25, 2006, Brangwyn Hall, Guildhall (Swansea) … Original CD release: Hyperion DCA 67599 Stereo (with other works by Schmitt)
SWR Symphony Orchestra (Baden-Baden u. Freiburg); Sylvain Cambreling, conductor. Recorded December 2007, Konzerthaus (Freiburg) … Original CD release: Hänssler Classic 93.223 Stereo (with works by Debussy, Stravinsky)
Sylvain Cambreling’s recording is part of Hanssler Classic’s multi-volume survey of Ballet Russes stage productions in Paris.
Borusan-Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra; Sascha Goetzel, conductor. Recorded May 24-29, 2009, Borusan Oto, Istinye (Istanbul) … Original CD release: Onyx 4048 Stereo (with works by Hindemith, Respighi)
Orchestre Métropolitain; Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor. Recorded July 2010, Église Saint-Ferdinand, Laval (Québec) (Winner: Félix Award, 2011; Opus Award, 2012) … Original CD release: ATMA ACD2 2647 Stereo (with works by Franck) (View a video clip of the recording session)
Transnational flair: The superlative 2010 Chandos recording features a French conductor and Brazilian musicians.
Orquesta Sinfónica do Estado de São Paulo; Yan-Pascal Tortelier, conductor; Susan Bullock, soprano; OSESP Women’s Chorus. Recorded July 5-9, 2010, Júlio Prestes Cultural Center (São Paulo) … Original CD release: Chandos CHSA 5090 Super Audio (with other works by Schmitt)
A measure of the importance of the Salomé score — and of the performers involved — is the fact that nearly all of these recordings remain available today in CD or download formats — even most of the ones from the 78-rpm and pre-stereophonic eras.
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Update (5/1/14): In the months since this blog post was published, there have been two additional recordings released of La Tragédie de Salomé — both of them taken from broadcast performances made by French National Radio in the 1950s. They have now been released for the first time by Forgotten Records:
Pierre Dervaux and the Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (radio broadcast performance from May 20, 1958). Forgotten Records FR 918 (with works by Chabrier, Debussy, Lalo and Ravel)
Pedro de Freitas Branco and l’Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (radio broadcast performance from February 21, 1955). Forgotten Records FR 928 (with works by Aubert and Ropartz)
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Update (11/13/20): The 18th commercial recording of La Tragédie de Salomé has now been released. Directed by JoAnn Falletta, this conductor has been an indefatigable champion of Schmitt’s music, and this new recording is her second all-Schmitt release on the NAXOS label.
Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra; JoAnn Falletta, conductor; Susan Platts, mezzo-soprano; Buffalo GirlChoir. Recorded March 4, 2019, Kleinhans Music Hall (Buffalo) … Original CD release: NAXOS 8.574138 Stereo (with other works by Schmitt)
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Update (12/11/21): The newest release of this music actually takes us back more than 60 years — and is particularly interesting in that the performance was part of an all-Schmitt concert presented as a memorial to the composer five weeks following his death in 1958.
Inghelbrecht’s memorial concert tribute (1958) …
The celebrated conductor Désiré-Emile Inghelbrecht, who had been a close friend of Schmitt for many decades, led the ORTF in the very piece that Maestro Inghelbrecht had premiered in Paris back in 1907.
Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française; Désiré-Emile Inghelbrecht, conductor (live performance, October 9, 1958), Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris … Forgotten Records FR 1984 (with other works by Schmitt and Debussy)
[Note: This same Inghelbrecht performance has also been released by St-Laurent Studio, on a CD which includes all of the music presented at the October 9, 1958 Schmitt memorial concert in Paris. That recording is available for purchase here.]
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Update (4/25/22): Yet another recording of broadcast performances of Florent Schmitt’s music from the archives of French National Radio has now been released by Forgotten Records (FR 2032). It features three of the composer’s famous “orientalist” compositions including La Tragédie de Salomé, Antoine et Cléopatre, Op. 69 (Suite No. 2), and excerpts from Salammbô, Op. 75.
Charles Bruck …
The performances are led by a trio of conductors who were prominent in France during the 1950s and 1960s, but who were commercially recorded only rarely (Charles Bruck, Rémus Tzincoca and Tony Aubin). As music critic Steven Kruger notes about Maestro Bruck’s performance: “I would single out Charles Bruck in Strasbourg for concluding La Tragédie de Salomé with an unusually slow, convulsive and dramatic hammering out of the coda, which can occasionally come across a bit ‘slam-bam-thank you-ma’am.’ The composer himself took the coda slowly in his own recorded version, and I expect Bruck was honoring his approach.”
Orchestre National de Strasbourg; Charles Bruck, conductor (live performance, September 5, 1962), Strasbourg Opera House … Forgotten Records FR 2032 (with other works by Schmitt)
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Second recording of the original score — Julien Masmondet.
Update (2/26/23): The newest recording of La Tragédie de Salomé is of the original score of the piece, composed in 1907. The recording features the ensemble Les Apaches, a chamber orchestra named after the eponymous renegade arts organization active in Paris before World War I (and of which Florent Schmitt was a founding member).
The new recording, released on the B•Records label, comes from two live performances led by conductor Julien Masmondet that were presented at the Théâtre de l’Athénée in Paris in December 2021. The new release has already garnered critical accolades.
Ensemble Les Apaches; Julien Masmondet, conductor; Sandrine Buendia, soprano (live performance, December 10-11, 2021), Théâtre de l’Athénée Louis-Jouvet, Paris … B•Records LBM 049 (with music by Fabien Touchard)
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Update (5/15/23): The 1950s saw regular ORTF concert broadcast performances of Florent Schmitt’s music, and another three of them have now been issued by Forgotten Records (FR 2149).
Michel Le Conte …
Included on the CD is a 1957 performance of La Tragédie de Salomé led by Pierre-Michel Le Conte, a conductor who had a very active career, but limited mainly to France. Also included on the recording is a 1953 performance of Psaume XLVII (directed by Igor Markevitch) plus a 1956 performance of the second of Schmitt’s Mirages (conducted by Pierre Dervaux).
Orchestre National de la Radio-Télévision Française; Pierre-Michel Le Conte, conductor (live performance, February 20, 1957) … Forgotten Records FR2149 (with other works by Schmitt)
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Newest recording of the original version of the score — Alain Altinoglu.
Update (3/28/24): A new recording of Florent Schmitt’s original version (1907) of La Tragédie de Salomé is slated for release in May 2024. The new recording, issued on the Alpha label, features Alain Altinoglu leading the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra along with soprano Ambur Braid.
This new release is only the third commercial recording made of the original version of the Salomé score. Also included is an additional second commercial recording — this one of Schmitt’s Chant élegiaque, penned a few years earlier in the composer’s career, featuring FRSO principal cellist Peter-Philipp Staemmler. The new recording is currently available for pre-order from Amazon and other online classical music websites.
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I wish someone would reissue the original 1907 version or, even better, release a new recording. I’ve only recently discovered Schmitt and would love to hear more Salome!
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Marvelous composition!
Indeed it is! And I’m pleased to report that a new commercial recording has been made and is planned for release in 2020, Schmitt’s 150th birthday anniversary year. It’s a NAXOS release featuring the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Canadian mezzo-soprano Susan Platts and the Buffalo GirlChoir, all conducted by JoAnn Falletta.
Here’s an interview with Falletta and Platts about preparing this music for performance and recording, which you may find interesting: https://florentschmitt.com/2019/03/09/conductor-joann-falletta-and-mezzo-soprano-susan-platts-talk-about-preparing-florent-schmitts-music-for-performance-and-recording-musique-sur-leau-1898-1913-and-la-tragedie-de-salome-1907-10/
May I ask where you found the details on the Munch war-time Salome discs? The only other citation I’ve been able to find is in Charles Munch, Un Chef d’Orchestre dans le Siecle, La Neuee Blue, Paris, 1992, page 145 and gives a date of Oct. 15 & 16, 1942. The catalog numbers (W 1559-62) correspond to the series of numbers of his other Disques Gramophone records from that period that are well documented.
It’s conceivable that numbers were assigned and that the discs were never issued. That’s been known to happen. But now that we have TWO independent indications of its existence, perhaps there may be hope that it will surface at some point.
Thank you for your question, Mr. Gennaro. I fear you may be correct in your speculation that the discs were never actually issued, because I have been unable to find any physical evidence of the release — and that includes enlisting a number of people in France to do some sleuthing “at the source.” However, I suppose it’s conceivable that the masters may be tucked away in the dark recesses of an audio archives somewhere, and which could surface someday. It would certainly be a welcome rediscovery, as there is no other audio documentation of Charles Munch’s no-doubt worthy interpretation of La Tragédie de Salomé.
At the moment, I cannot put my hands on the source where I found the details about the Munch recording but I’m quite sure I found it either in one of the reference books about Charles Munch, or referenced in an article or paper about classical music activities in wartime France. I will certainly publish any updates about the Munch recording if and when there are new developments to report. ~Phillip
I can shed a little light but, sadly, no good news about this elusive issue.
My initial data regarding this recording came to me via correspondence with René Trémine in Paris, some 20+years ago, who was preparing a Munch discography and seeking some information from me, mostly about U.S. issues. His entries differ in several (minor) respects from the information shown in your listing.
First, he shows the recording site as “Paris – Studio Albert,” rather than the Salle du Conservatoire.
Secondly, Trémine he gives the issue numbers as 1559-1561 (meaning three 2-sided discs), rather than 1559-62 (indicating four). This agrees with his listing of six matrix numbers.
Finally, Trémine shows the sessions of October 15th & 16th of 1942 as including the Salome and the Honegger 2nd Symphony, but both as only fragments of each work. As noted above, the Schmitt was shown as recorded on six sides, with the first four of the matrices shown as having come specifically from October 15, 1942; the final two shown as having been recorded on June 3, 1943 (rather than April 3). (Similarly, the Honegger 2nd, begun in these two October 1942 sessions, is shown as having been completed in a session on March 1, 1944.)
My second reference point is a Munch discography from 2015 by Benoit Duhoux. I don’t remember where it came from (online somewhere), but I have found no fault with it. His entry agrees entirely with Trémine’s. He notes that the Schmitt may have been unissued. “A catalog number seems to have been assigned to it, but it is impossible to find any commercial trace of it.”
My own experience has been the same. I had correspondence for decades with a well-known record dealer in Paris (name escaping me now). I visited him in 1985 and was ecstatic to go home with copies of Munch discs from this exact period – La Mer, La Valse, Pavane – impossible to find in the U.S. in those days at least. But despite many, many years of contact, he never found a copy of the Schmitt for me…
Re Genevieve Honegger’s 1992 book – it was not intended at all as a strict discography, and her mention of the October sessions was not really incorrect, just incomplete.
I am quite tickled to find that there are others out there who are as curious as I am about this very obscure recording from 80+ years ago! I wonder why Munch never programmed the work in Boston. I learned the work from the Paray, with its wonderful, dark trombones, but the wordless soprano in the Dervaux disc, and its French wind timbres, renders it the most haunting of those I’ve heard.
Thank you very much for your note with the corrected citations about the Charles Munch wartime recording of La Tragedie de Salome. Especially since you have consulted several sources that agree with one another, I have made the adjustments to the listing in the article to match with them. Personally, I am of the view that the Munch recording was never issued, but there’s always the hope that a master may exist in some archive someplace that might come to light someday. It would be wonderful to hear Maestro Munch’s interpretation of the score.
As for the Dervaux interpretation, the ones that I have heard done by him — both commercial and broadcast releases — do not include the wordless soprano. Perhaps you know of another Dervaux recording besides those — in which case I would love to know the details. Thank you.
As a result of thinking about the work last night, I could not resist listening to Dervaux’s 1957 EMI recording with the Paris Opera Orchestra on youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xH5USujmb3I). The unidentified soprano appears shortly before 21:00, but what is especially haunting is the sound about a minute later, where it sounds more like a small group of vocalists together rather than just one. Sends chills up my spine every time! I’m no expert on all the recordings of the work, but the timbres of this orchestra seem especially well suited to this exceptionally fragrant score.
It’s been quite a few years since I’ve listened to the 1957 Dervaux EMI recording, and it turns out I had a “senior moment” about the existence of the soprano vocalise. Incidentally, Florent Schmitt himself was present at the recording sessions, so that presumably gives Maestro Dervaux’s conception of the score additional authority.
Considering the year of the recording, it’s a shame that EMI produced it in mono sound only — alas.