Famed musician and educator Nadia Boulanger’s perceptive description of French composer Florent Schmitt’s artistry (1925).

Boulanger’s remarks were made as part of her Lectures on Modern Music presented at Rice University in Houston, Texas (January 1925). In the world of classical music composition, Nadia Boulanger is universally acknowledged as one of the most significant and influential teachers of the craft. In that capacity, Boulanger guided the education of several generations […]

American pianist Matthew Bengtson talks about discovering and performing Trois danses (1934-35), Florent Schmitt’s captivating exploration of the dancing spirit.

In September and October 2023, American pianist Matthew Bengtson performed three recitals in which he introduced a selection that was new to his repertoire: Florent Schmitt’s Trois danses, Op. 86. Composed in 1934-35, the piece is a relatively late work among the voluminous quantity of piano music that Schmitt created for piano solo, duet and […]

Spirituality with a pinch of pagan exuberance: Florent Schmitt’s Trois liturgies joyeuses (1947-51).

Among the final crop of compositions that Florent Schmitt brought forth during his long career are a group of sacred works written for chorus or mixed solo voices.  They are seven in number, penned or published during the final eight years of the composer’s life: Trois liturgies joyeuses, Op. 116 (1951) Psaume VIII (Domine, Dominus […]

A revealing Denise Margoni portrait sketch of Florent Schmitt sees the light of day, 65 years after its creation.

The artist’s daughter, stage, screen and TV actress Élisabeth Margoni-Beneyton, rediscovered the portrait and presented it to pianist Claudio Chaiquin in recognition of his commitment to recording the music of Florent Schmitt. One of the most fulfilling aspects of creating content for the Florent Schmitt Website + Blog is coming across historical artifacts that add […]

Florent Schmitt’s orchestral works are featured in the new 2023-24 season of concerts in Ascona-Locarno, Helsinki, Lausanne, Miami, Montréal, Shanghai, Vancouver and Vienna.

In addition to multiple presentations of Schmitt’s best-known composition La Tragédie de Salomé, music-lovers will be treated to three works from the composer’s early and late career. Four compositions spanning Florent Schmitt’s seven-decade career as a composer are part of the 2023-24 symphony season. (Portrait: Pierrette Lambert, 1992) For the upcoming 2023-24 concert season, the […]

Pianist Tomoki Sakata talks about performing Florent Schmitt’s brilliant orchestral showpiece Symphonie concertante (1932) with Yan-Pascal Tortelier in Tokyo.

This past Valentine’s Day (February 14, 2023), the young Japanese pianist Tomoki Sakata presented Florent Schmitt’s complex, über-brilliant Symphonie concertante, Op. 82 with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra under the direction of veteran French conductor Yan-Pascal Tortelier. The concert marked the first time this music had been performed anywhere in the world since the release […]

Florent Schmitt’s earliest keyboard music: Trois préludes for piano (1891-95).

Over the past decade or more, Florent Schmitt’s music written for solo and duo-pianists has appeared on commercial recordings with ever-increasing frequency. Among them are several premiere recordings of the composer’s scores for two piano players as offered up by the Invencia Piano Duo (released in 2012-13 on a series of four CDs on NAXOS’ […]

“The true face of Florent Schmitt”: Music scholar and author Émile Vuillermoz describes a composer he knew for more than 60 years.

When Florent Schmitt died in August 1958 at the age of nearly 88 years, his fellow composer Henri Dutilleux penned this memorable epitaph: “Florent Schmitt was the last of that great family to which Ravel, Dukas, and Roussel belonged. He remains one of them who, by a happy assimilation of German and Central European influences, […]

French conductor Julien Masmondet talks about performing and recording Florent Schmitt’s original 1907 version of the ballet La Tragédie de Salomé with the ensemble Les Apaches.

“At the crossroads of dance, poetry and music”:  Les Apaches’ December 2021 live presentation at the Théâtre de l’Athénée in Paris was commercially recorded and has now been released on the b●records label. La Tragédie de Salomé is French composer Florent Schmitt’s most famous work – and it has been so ever since it first […]

Dancer and choreographer Francesca Todesco talks about resurrecting Isadora Duncan’s vision of Florent Schmitt’s Reflets d’Allemagne (1902-5) and presenting the premiere version of the full ballet in 2022.

Florent Schmitt’s Reflets d’Allemagne, Op. 28, inspired by his travels throughout Central Europe during his Prix de Rome period (1900-04), is a suite of eight waltzes originally written for piano duet — and music that fairly cries out for ballet treatment. By turns the pieces are whimsical and elegant, but also shot through with notable […]

Organist and author Bernard Gavoty’s posthumous tribute to composer Florent Schmitt (1958).

“Florent Schmitt will not have left this earth without taking away, like a viaticum, the certainty of his genius.” — Bernard Gavoty At the time Florent Schmitt passed away on August 17, 1958 at the age of nearly 88 years, he was considered by many to be the doyen of French composers. One of the […]

Experiencing Florent Schmitt’s sonic spectacular Symphonie concertante (1932) in performance: An eyewitness report from Tokyo.

On Valentine’s Day 2023, Japanese pianist Tomoki Sakata presented Florent Schmitt’s stunning Symphonie concertante, Op. 82 in concert with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Yan-Pascal Tortelier. The Symphonie concertante was the centerpiece of an all-French program presented at Tokyo’s Suntory Hall that also included music by Gabriel Fauré (the Prélude from […]

“Courtly and polite, mixed with humor and sarcasm”: Florent Schmitt sits for an interview with Le Guide du concert magazine (1929).

Several months ago Sébastien Damarey, a faithful reader of the Florent Schmitt Website + Blog, sent me a very interesting historical artifact — an interview with Florent Schmitt that was published in the January 25, 1929 issue of the French arts magazine Le Guide du concert et des théâtres lyriques. What makes this article particularly […]

Capturing the persona of Florent Schmitt, as reflected in the reminiscences of the composer’s biographer, Madeleine Marceron.

A slender, petite man — and the giant legacy he left us — draw parallels with Maurice Ravel. Over the decades, a total of four biographies of the French composer Florent Schmitt have been published – all of them written in French. Three of these biographies were written during the composer’s lifetime, and with his […]

Inventive and influential pianism: Florent Schmitt’s Nuits romaines (1901)

For nearly every French composer coming of age during the period 1850-1950, competing for and winning the Prix de Rome first prize for composition was the indisputable gold standard. While the musical careers of some Prix de Rome recipients didn’t flourish as much as might be expected, no doubt the prestige of winning the honor […]