“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 […]

Quatre pièces (1901): Florent Schmitt’s early suite for violin and piano.

Like many composers who came of age during the late 1800s, French composer Florent Schmitt’s formative years were influenced by the prevailing musical currents of the day. In the case of Schmitt, Schumann was an early influence, as was Wagner. But by the time Schmitt entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1888, other influences were making […]

French conductor Jean-Luc Tingaud, soprano Ewa Biegas and choral director Teresa Majka-Pacanek talk about the 2016 Polish premiere performances of Florent Schmitt’s choral masterpiece Psalm 47 (1904).

Florent Schmitt’s powerful choral work Psalm XLVII may have been composed in 1904, but it took more than a century for the piece to receive its premiere performances in Poland, in February 2016. That’s when French conductor Jean-Luc Tingaud and the Krakow Philharmonic Orchestra joined forces with the Krakow Philharmonic Choir, directed by Teresa Majka-Pacanek and soprano […]

Conductor Jean-Luc Tingaud talks about Florent Schmitt’s choral masterpiece Psalm 47 (1904) and introducing the music to concert audiences in Poland.

“It’s the sensuality — as well as the expressive power borne from Florent Schmitt’s exceptional mastery of massed musical forces and contrasts …”  — Jean-Luc Tingaud, French Orchestral and Operatic Conductor This month, French conductor Jean-Luc Tingaud will be leading the first-ever concert performances of Florent Schmitt’s blockbuster choral work Psaume XLVII in Poland, conducting the […]

Florent Schmitt’s Crépuscules (1898-1911): Richly evocative tone painting in the finest French pianistic tradition.

Composed between 1898 and 1911, Florent Schmitt’s Crépuscules, Op. 56 is a set of four pieces for solo piano that was published in 1913. It’s one of the most compelling French piano works of the period.  It also looks forward to Ombres which came along just a few years later — and which is probably the composer’s ultimate […]