A link with music history: French composer Pierrette Mari’s remembrances of Florent Schmitt during the 1950s.

In a September 2025 interview, the 96-year-old composer shares her recollections of Florent Schmitt and his distinctive personality. In this year of 2025, it is difficult to imagine that there are any musicians alive who’d have had personal interactions with French composer Florent Schmitt. After all, Schmitt passed away in 1958, and nearly seven decades […]

From clamorous outsider to consummate insider: Florent Schmitt’s consequential involvement with Parisian artistic organizations (Société des Apaches, Société musicale indépendante, Société nationale de musique, Association de musique contemporaine).

September 18, 2022 · by Phillip Nones | in Chamber Music, Classical Music, Instrumental Music | tagged Alexis de Castillon, AMC, Anton Webern, Arnold Shoenberg, Association de musique contemporaine, Danieli Longo Benedetti, Eugeniusz Morawski, Florent Schmitt, Gabriel Faure, Henri Martelli, Jean Roger-Ducasse, Jules Ecorcheville, Lazare Saminsky, Les Apaches, Louis Aubert, Nadia Boulanger, Paul Dukas, Pelleas et Melisande, Romain Bussine, Romain Rolland, Saint-Saens, Schmitt, SMI, Societe des Apaches, Societie Musicale Independante, Society nationale de musique, Stravinsky, Vincent d'Indy | 4 Comments

The music world owes a debt of gratitude to two rival organizations that were at the center of the Parisian arts scene during France’s “Golden Age” of music. Well into the latter part of the nineteenth century, the symphonic tradition continued to be regarded as the near-exclusive domain of the Austro-German school of music. There […]

Scènes de la vie moyenne (1950): Florent Schmitt’s late-career work for orchestra.

September 1, 2021 · by Phillip Nones | in Classical Music, Composers, Piano Music | tagged Alain Raes, Anne Queffelec, Anseatic Dance, Bernard Gavoty, Castles in Spain, Clement Canonne, Colonne Concerts Orchestra, Emile Naumoff, Enghien-les-Bains, Florent Schmitt, Guide to the Pianist's Repertoire, Henri Martelli, Jean-Marie van Bronkhorst, La marche au marche, Lelia Gousseau, Marcel Mihalovici, Maurice Hinson, Paul Paray, Rene Dumesnil, Richard Blareau, Saut perilleux du poulet, Scenes de la vie moyenne, Schmitt, Solange Schwarz, Steven Kruger, Suzanne Demarquez, Thomas Mann | Leave a comment

During the latter years of Florent Schmitt’s long and illustrious career, the composer turned his creative talents increasingly toward music for scored small instrumental forces. Among the notable achievements of this late creative period are the fascinating (and challenging) String Trio (1944) and String Quartet (1948), as well as a group of compositions that showcase […]