“This lovely release marks a major addition to the burgeoning Schmitt discography. The eclectic French composer’s reputation is in full renewal.”

— Steven Kruger, Fanfare magazine

This month, aficionados of Florent Schmitt’s orchestral music are in for a special treat with the release of a brand new recording from Chandos Records that features four works created by the composer between 1929 and 1938.

The new recording features the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of its conductor-emeritus Yan Pascal Tortelier, and is particularly notable in that three of the four pieces are recording premieres.

As for the marquee work on the program, it is the brilliant showpiece Symphonie concertante pour orchestre et piano, Op. 82, composed in 1931-32 for the 50^th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Dedicated to Serge Koussevitzky and the members of the BSO, the piece was premiered at a pair of concerts held in Boston in late November 1932. Florent Schmitt, himself a fine pianist, traveled from France to the United States to be the featured soloist at the premiere.

The Symphonie concertante was striking for its modernity – and its complexity — which certainly colored the reaction of the musical press at the premiere. As one example of the general bewilderment, arts critic Grace May Stutsman wrote the following commentary in the December 10, 1932 issue of Musical America magazine, appearing under the subtitle “Pursuit of the Unusual”:

“Mr. Schmitt both rides the whirlwind and floats upon the waters of a millpond. He wanders through pleasant glades (occasionally), and then without warning is suddenly up and off on a mad dash with Phaeton. Such abrupt transitions in mood are disconcerting even to the most patient listener…

That he does not always succeed, however, is revealed in the slow movement of the piece, which contains some beautiful measures, if we may be allowed to judge them by accepted musical standards. This movement evoked sincere applause from an audience which, for the most part, found its keenest pleasure in the extreme virtuosity of Dr. Koussevitzky and his men, who do not deny that in this work, dedicated to them, Mr. Schmitt has supplied the most difficult score they have yet undertaken.”

Like the critics, early audiences also found the music challenging, as arts journalist Maurice Imbert reported in the January 31, 1937 issue of L’Art musical magazine following a Paris performance of the piece:

“At one point, the Sunday concert at the Colonne series turned stormy. The reason for this tempest? Mr. Paray was presenting … [a] performance of the Symphonie concertante pour orchestre et piano by Florent Schmitt …

While one segment of the audience sought to show its approval through applause, the other — through hisses and persistent grumbling — made it clear that the work did not please them. In one section of the stalls, matters even escalated from verbal abuse to noisy gestures. Mr. Paray weathered the storm; unable to launch into the Finale, he addressed a brief, calming speech to the audience that achieved the desired effect.

We do not hesitate to label this uproar scandalous … It requires insane arrogance — even for the most knowledgeable listener — to presume that one can pass a valid judgment on such a complex work after only a single hearing …

Furthermore, the Symphonie itself stands in judgment against this outburst of ill temper. Indeed, this composition, in which Mr. Schmitt lays himself bare with the kind of candor a believer brings to the confessional, is titanic.

That it might overwhelm the listener: granted. That it might astonish: we readily concede that, too. Whether one is so irritated by the musical discourse that one loses one’s composure, or remains indifferent to the magic at work and the vital power animating it — such reactions betray either a childish narrow-mindedness or a profound inability to feel the impact of music …”

Today’s audiences are less likely to be baffled by the musical language of the Symphonie concertante.  And yet … even now the piece still seems remarkably fresh and new. Unfortunately, the dearth of concert performances (just one in the past half-century) and recordings (only one before now, released in 1994), have meant that most music-lovers aren’t even aware of the piece’s existence, much less familiar with the score.

This was the state of affairs that Maestro Tortelier set out to change. After becoming acquainted with the piece and immersing himself in the score, he was determined to find musicians willing to present the piece in concert – which is precisely what happened in February 2023.

As the conductor has reported:

“That this performance happened is a happy coincidence between [Japanese pianist] Tomoki Sakata’s strong desire to play the piece with the TMSO [Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra]  and my wish to conduct more of Florent Schmitt’s music in view of a future recording.

I must say that I prepared myself as never before, considering the challenge of the phenomenal Symphonie concertante, assimilating each note of this musical flurry slowly but surely over the previous 18 months. By hearing gradually all the incredible material of the score in my head, eventually I found my way in shaping this demanding music.

Two years later, Maestro Tortelier’s wish to make a Symphonie concertante recording came true. Teaming up with English pianist Peter Donohoe, on October 30, 2025 the two musicians recorded the work with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, supported by a production and audio engineering team from the BBC and Chandos Records.

Peter Donohoe shares Yan Pascal Tortelier’s enthusiasm for the Symphonie concertante, noting:

“Florent Schmitt’s music is very extravagant and complex, and he often wrote for immense forces — the Symphonie concertante being a prime example.

Overall, the piece possesses a very powerful originality … The piano part is exceptionally athletic and busy, and the orchestra is almost continuously so as well. In this regard, the situation in which the piano solo finds itself is very similar to that of Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie …

The technical factors of such a work revolve around being able to balance properly with the enormous orchestra, along with the ensemble challenges between the solo position and the woodwind, brass and percussion sections. These difficulties are present in any piano concerto of course, but in this case it’s in a texture that is so complex, the difficulties are magnified.”

The new Donohoe/Tortelier recording is the second one ever made of the piece, and judging from early critical reaction, it appears to have been enormously successful in bringing Florent Schmitt’s musical vision to glorious life. Critic Colin Anderson, editor of Classical Source, writes that Chandos’ third album devoted to the orchestral music of Florent Schmitt continues the cycle in an impressive way:

“Symphonie concertante … is a great piece of rhythmic vitality and lyrical loveliness. The central movement [is] a forest-legend gem; the outer ones (all three are around the twelve-minute mark) conjure with color and quick-change invention, ending energetically …

Peter Donohoe in splendid form … first-rate performances led by Yan Pascal Tortelier.”

In America, writing for Fanfare magazine, music critic Steven Kruger states:

“Boston Symphony audiences must have been stunned and flattened into their seats at the … premiere of Florent Schmitt’s massive three-movement Symphonie concertante … Listeners expecting the lush, moody nocturnal romanticism of Schmitt’s La Tragédie de Salomé or the exotic-tinged orientalism of his Antoine et Cléopâtre were in for a big surprise. Welcome to the apocalypse …

Although conductors such as Dmitri Mitropoulos, Paul Paray and Pierre Monteux championed the Symphonie concertante, the work always teetered on the edge of the repertory due to its complexity and virtuosic demands. Before this excellent Chandos release from Peter Donohoe, Yan Pascal Tortelier and the BBC Philharmonic, only one recorded version existed, from 1994 with soloist Hüseyin Sermet under David Robertson and the Monte Carlo Philharmonic. It captures the surface intensity of the piece but does not probe its dark side the way Donohoe and Tortelier do.

This new version is the one to have … Tortelier and the BBC musicians provide a richer, more powerful sonority than Robertson did, and the pacing allows every note to sink in with telling effect. Chandos’ excellent recorded sound is beyond reproach.”

As for the three other works on the new recording, all of them are premiere recordings. Trois danses, Op. 86 is an orchestration of a 1935 piano suite of the same title which was first performed in December 1938 by the Orchestre Colonne under the direction of Paul Paray. This gem of a composition consists of three contrasting movements as follows:

I.  Montferrine:  Subtitled Bourrée lombarde, this movement is based on a folk dance style from the Piedmont region of Northern Italy. Schmitt dedicated this first movement of the Trois danses to pianist Marguerite Long.

II.  Bocane:  This number is named after a social dance of the early Baroque period, similar in form to a courante. Interestingly, the inventor of the bocane was Jacques Cordier, a dancing master to Queen Anne of Austria and other European noblewomen. (Cordier is also credited with creating the pavane dance style.) Florent Schmitt dedicated this movement of the suite to pianist Lucette Descaves.

III.  Danse de corde:  The final movement of Trois danses has the feel of a passepied — a brisk minuet popular in the 17th and 18th centuries — but with considerably more “bite.” At times the music has a circus-like quality, suggesting that the performers may in fact be funambulists dancing on a tightrope. Schmitt dedicated this movement of the suite to pianist Hélène Pignari.

Trois danses continues in the vein of French composers orchestrating their own piano sets, including Chabrier (in his Suite pastorale) and Ravel (in Le Tombeau de Couperin). Schmitt himself was to do this with numerous of his piano compositions, and the results were never less than convincing. Indeed, Trois danses benefits greatly in its orchestration, and the impressive result makes it clear that this rarity deserves pride of place alongside Albert Roussel’s Suite in F — coincidentally, another Koussevitzky commission for the Boston Symphony Orchestra (1927).

In his Fanfare review, Steven Kruger writes of Trois danses as follows:

“The two outer dances are sparkling, impish takes on old forms expressed in tingling neoclassic harmonies. They jump about and turn on a dime from one moment to the next in Schmitt’s best mercurial manner. The central dance, ‘Bocane,’ is the warm heart of the suite, richly evocative of midnight allure in the hushed style of late Debussy.”

Another premiere on the new Chandos recording is Stèle pour le tombeau de Paul Dukas, from Chaine brisée, Op. 87, Florent Schmitt’s 1938 orchestration of a piano piece written in memory of Dukas that was first published in a 1936 commemorative issue of La Revue musicale magazine. The orchestrated version was premiered in December 1938 by Charles Munch leading the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra.

Never published, the score and parts to the orchestrated work were among Maestro Munch’s private papers that are housed today at the Edwin A. Fleisher Collection in Philadelphia, PA. Investigating the piece, Yan Pascal Tortelier found the music worthy of resurrection and recording.

Fanfare music critic Kruger finds much to love in this work and in the BBCPO’s performance of it, writing:

“This ‘grave marker for the tomb’ is hauntingly sad — featuring for a moment a ticking motif of life’s clock — but not morose. In that respect it reminds me of d’Indy’s Souvenirs, which offers consolation instead of misery. For all its drama, Schmitt’s music always reveals a glow. One could not easily imagine a better performance than here.”

Somewhat different from the rest of the program is the fourth and final work on the new Chandos recording (also a premiere): Çançunik, Op. 79. This two-movement suite was composed in 1927-29 in response to a competition sponsored by TSF Paris-Radio soliciting new classical scores written in a “popular style” expressly for radio broadcast.

Schmitt’s piece was awarded the top prize among the entries, and later it received its concert hall premiere in February 1930 at the Concerts Poulet in Paris under the direction of its founding conductor, Gaston Poulet.

Considering Çançunik the “dessert course” portion of the recording’s musical program, Maestro Tortelier explains how this thoroughly engaging piece represents something of a throwback to an earlier style of writing for the composer, noting:

“Florent Schmitt takes us totally by surprise with his Çançunik, a diptyque that is a complete antipode of the Symphonie concertante. Apparently there is no clear explanation as to the true meaning of this Çançunik, a play on words and orthography related to “sens unique” – one way – suggesting that the work can be played in one direction only. Another possible explanation, related to this composition being commissioned for broadcast over TSF, is the allusion to unidirectional airwaves.  

Through Çançunik’s simplicity, freshness and tenderness, the composer pays beautiful homage to his master, Gabriel Fauré. This is clearly evident in the marvelous “Lied-nocturne,” which possesses a never-ending melody along with lovely Fauréan harmonic turns. Another wonderful – and very typical – feature of Schmitt’s musical artistry then appears in the form of a mélopée … given first to the oboe solo, then passed on to the flute solo, and which will return briefly to conclude with pure nostalgia this first part of the diptyque.”

Of the “Scherzo-tarentelle” that follows, Tortelier observes:

“Although it exhibits a lighthearted and playful style reminiscent of Emmanuel Chabrier, Florent Schmitt makes sure to integrate some of his own individual and witty harmonic turns as well.”

The new Chandos recording is one that Yan Pascal Tortelier is particularly proud of making. As he remarked to me at the time of the recording sessions in October 2025, “If I may be so bold to say it, I think that Schmitt would be happy with the music that we have made here this week,” adding that he considers the Chandos release “one of the most important recordings of my entire career.”

Fortunately, the music recorded was brought to glorious life by a stellar Chandos/BBC production team that included recording producer and editor Jonathan Cooper, sound engineer Stephen Rinker, assistant engineer Jonathan Esp, and piano technician Dan Carney. Informative and erudite booklet notes penned by musicologist Nicolas Southon of the Paris Conservatoire provide important context to the music and the environment in which it was written.

The new recording is available as of early October 2026, with pre-ordering already available since late August. Among the numerous online outlets offering the recording in CD or download format are Import CDs, Presto Music, Amazon USA, Amazon UK, FNAC and NAXOS Direct. The recording can also be ordered directly from the Chandos Records website.