Of the composers of France’s “Golden Age” covering a seven-decade period of music beginning in the 1880s, among the most important and influential were five composers born during the 1860s and 1870s – in order of birth Claude Debussy, Paul Dukas, Albert Roussel, Florent Schmitt and Maurice Ravel.  Schmitt was the longest-lived of the five, maintaining a vibrant and productive life as a composer for decades beyond those of his compatriots.

Schmitt maintained cordial relationships with many of his fellow composers. He was particularly close with Roussel, Ravel and Dukas, while his relationship with Debussy, eight years his senior, could be described as more professional than personal.

Testament to the quality of these relationships was the fact that Schmitt was asked by Henry Prunières, publisher of the French periodical La Revue musicale, to contribute to special tribute magazine issues honoring the artistry of Claude Debussy (in 1920), Gabriel Fauré (in 1922, two years before that composer’s death), and Paul Dukas (in 1936).

Along with a number of other composers who were invited to participate, Schmitt contributed piano works to these Revue musicale special publications as a tribute to artists who had been influential in the development of Schmitt’s own personal musical style. (Interestingly, Schmitt was the only one of the 23 composers who was invited to contribute to all three tribute projects.)

Following their initial appearance in the special magazine issues, Schmitt would later incorporate his compositions into three piano sets that were published by Durand: the Debussy tribute as part of Mirages, Op. 70; the Fauré tribute as part of In Memoriam, Op. 72, and the Dukas tribute as the first piece in the piano set Chaîne brisée, Op. 87.

The six-minute Dukas tribute piece is a gem within Schmitt’s catalogue of compositions. As French musicologist Nicolas Southon tells us:

“Devoid of any pathos, the noble Stèle pour le tombeau de Paul Dukas pays tribute to a composer who was a friend of Schmitt. The two men — of vastly different temperaments — were separated by only five years in age and shared a lofty view of their art. 

Schmitt originally composed the piece for the May/June 1936 issue of La Revue musicale, which honored Dukas following his death the previous year. Alongside articles and personal tributes, the issue featured the piano ‘suite’ Tombeau de Paul Dukas; this collection opened with Schmitt’s Stèle and continued with pieces by Manuel de Falla, Gabriel Pierné, Guy Ropartz, Alexander Krein, Joaquín Rodrigo, Olivier Messiaen, Tony Aubin and Elsa Barraine (the latter four having studied under Dukas at the [Paris] Conservatoire).”

Moreover, Florent Schmitt orchestrated this tribute piece just as he did the ones he had created for Debussy and Fauré (and notably the only one of the 23 contributing composers to do so). While Schmitt’s orchestrated Debussy and Fauré tributes have achieved some traction in the concert hall and on recordings, the Dukas orchestration disappeared from sight following its premiere concert presentation in late 1938 — and unlike the other two, it was not published or otherwise made available for performing in its orchestral form.

The facts surrounding the music are these: Schmitt orchestrated Stèle in 1937, a year after the piano version of the piece had been published by Durand. The orchestral version was premiered by Charles Munch and the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra on December 18, 1938, which has turned out to be its only public performance up until now.

Composer and music critic Maurice Imbert was present at a public rehearsal of the music led by Maestro Munch on December 17, 1938 (the day before the actual concert), and reported on the music’s qualities in the December 30 1938 issue of L’Art musical magazine:

“At the Conservatoire, M. Charles Munch offered the premiere of the orchestral version of the Stèle pour le tombeau de Paul Dukas. Although we are reminded that the French master has somewhat enlarged the original version for piano … the piece remains small in proportions, yet it shows that a constricted framework can contain great and noble thoughts …

The crescendo of the second motif is conducted with self-confident art, and when the first theme reappears a dazzling glory illuminates the symphony. Shortly before the end of the piece, we noticed a very mysterious, pianissimo cymbal …

At the public rehearsal, the work was greeted with unanimous applause.”

Furthermore, Schmitt had also orchestrated the third and final number in the Chaîne brisée piano set (Branle de sortie); that piece was heard in concert for the first and only time on January 22, 1939, performed by the Paris Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Jean Morel.

We have no evidence of the second piece in the piano set (Ballade de la sept vierges) ever being orchestrated. Moreover, neither the orchestrated versions of Stèle and Branle de sortie were ever published by Durand. Beyond that, neither of the orchestrations are included in catalogue listings of Schmitt’s compositions that appeared in Yves Hucher’s two biographical volumes on the composer (1953 and 1960), nor in listings prepared by other scholars in subsequent years.

We can only conjecture as to why the composer didn’t publish the Chaîne brisée orchestrations. Considering the historical context, the orchestrated pieces had the misfortune of being premiered in Paris in December 1938 and January 1939, mere months before the outbreak of World War II. Because of this armed conflict that completely upended the arts in France (and nearly everywhere else in Europe for that matter), neither piece had an opportunity to be taken up by other orchestras in France or abroad following their premieres.

And then by the time the war ended in 1945, instead of being considered fresh and new, the orchestrations were more apt to be viewed as a throwback to a bygone era – particularly at a time when classical music was quickly becoming more radical not only in postwar Paris, but in the rest of Western Europe and the United States as well.

Moreover, because the orchestrations were never published, conductors and players had essentially no knowledge of their existence — much less the opportunity to perform them.

In the case of the Stèle pour le tombeau de Paul Dukas, the manuscript score remained in the personal possession of Charles Munch. Following the conductor’s death in 1968, Maestro Munch’s personal papers and scores, including Schmitt’s manuscript, found their way to the Fleisher Collection in Philadelphia, where they eventually became available for study by musicians and scholars.

[Unfortunately, the news hasn’t been so fortunate for Branle de sortie; no trace of that orchestrated score has been found, including among the archive of Jean Morel’s personal papers and scores that reside today at the New York Public Library.]

But now, the good news for music lovers is that French conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier has resurrected the Stèle score after nearly 90 years of silence. When he was looking to fill out his forthcoming recording of Schmitt’s Symphonie concertante by including additional compositions from the composer’s period of noteworthy creative fertility during the decade of the 1930s, Maestro Tortelier became aware of the existence of the Stèle music. Upon reviewing the score, he found it to be of significant musical value and well-worthy of being recorded.

Thus, after many decades of being hidden away, the world can now readily hear Schmitt’s Stèle pour le tombeau de Paul Dukas, presented by a world-class ensemble (the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra) under the direction of a consummate musical artist who is a noted specialist in French music.

Recently, Maestro Tortelier shared his observations about this score with me, writing:

”In Stèle pour le tombeau de Paul Dukas, Florent Schmitt pays a moving tribute to his friend and fellow-composer Paul Dukas, who had recently died (1935).  Dukas had been Schmitt’s elder by five years, being born in 1865. 

Stèle is beautiful, intimate music of a profound elegiac nature, moving quietly as a ‘chordal melody’ somewhat reminiscent of the Bocane movement from Schmitt’s Trois danses, written at about the same time. Both works share a typical ‘un peu lent’ pattern given to the horns, which is further developed into a choral section that builds alternatively and irreversibly between strings and winds to a poignant climax. Here the music is saying much about the pain felt at the loss of a beloved fellow composer. 

The music then succinctly subsides with the elegiac melody, which will be heard one final time by muted strings and brass along with a sinuous chromatic clarinet solo – all landing in the slightly unexpected but quite mystical key of C-sharp minor. 

Although I had the privilege to conduct this piece from the composer’s own autograph score used by Charles Munch for the premiere performance of the work with the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra in 1938, I was rather disappointed by the absence of any indications or markings from the famous conductor. So I followed some of my own!”

Musicologist Southon elaborates further on Maestro Tortelier’s characterization of the music, noting:

“Stèle pour le tombeau de Paul Dukas begins with the tolling of a funeral bell overlaid by a melody of chords. A new, more melodic theme emerges, intensifying to a poignant climax — an expression, no doubt, of the grief felt over the loss of Dukas. 

In its orchestral version, the piece serves as a true study in tone color, presenting a relatively homogeneous musical idea through shifting instrumental guises. After a lull, the death knell and the initial chord theme resurface and intensify further before the conclusion.”

I was privileged to be present at the recording session held at the Dock•10 recording venue in Media City/Salford (Manchester, UK) on October 31, 2025, when Maestro Tortelier and the BBC Philharmonic musicians laid down their masterful interpretation of the music.

The premiere recording is scheduled for release on the Chandos Records label on October 2, 2026, and pre-ordering is already available from various online sellers including Presto Music and NAXOS Direct.

The recording is also available for purchase at the Chandos Records website.

Not surprisingly, the “buzz” surrounding the news that Stèle pour le tombeau de Paul Dukas had been resurrected and would be receiving its first-ever recording has sparked interest among Florent Schmitt’s other conductor-advocates.

And now we have news that the first concert performances of this work since the December 1938 Paris premiere will be happening in April 2027, played by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra led by its music director, JoAnn Falletta.

Fittingly, the BPO concert will also include Paul Dukas’ most famous composition, L’Apprenti sorcier. It is likewise fitting that Maestra Falletta should be the first conductor to present this work in concert in nearly 90 years, as she’s been in the forefront of modern-day efforts to evangelize for the composer and his music.

Two Florent Schmitt recordings made by the Buffalo Philharmonic and released on the NAXOS label have been artistic and commercial successes. Moreover, the conductor continues to program Schmitt’s music with her own orchestra as well as in guest conducting engagements. In 2022 she presented Schmitt’s In Memoriam (Cippus feralis), the composer’s tribute to his teacher and mentor Gabriel Fauré, in concert in Buffalo, while in January 2027 she will direct the Florida Orchestra in the first suite from Schmitt’s incidental music to Antoine et Cléopâtre.

Developments such as those in Buffalo show the immediate positive ramifications of resurrecting the Stèle score; whether or not additional concert performances will materialize in the coming years, we can be grateful that Yan Pascal Tortelier has elected to share this worthy music with the world through the medium of recording.