Musicologist and conductor César Leal talks about the impresario Gabriel Astruc and his consequential role in Parisian musical and artistic life in the early 1900s.

October 8, 2019 · by Phillip Nones | in Ballet, French Composers, Opera | tagged Artur Rubinstein, Ballets Russes, Diana Hallman, Erik Satie, Florent Schmitt, Gabriel Astruc, Igor Stravinsky, Jerry Rife, L'Agence Radio, Le Chat noir, Le Sacre du Printemps, Mata Hari, Nouveau-Cirque, Pierre Monteux, Richard Strauss, Riot at the Rite, Serge Diaghilev, Sewanee Symphony Orchestra, Sunderman Conservatory of Music, Theatre des Champs-Elysees, Wanda Landowska | 1 Comment

Not long ago, I compiled a listing of published biographies, other books and dissertations that cover music and the arts in Paris during the time of Florent Schmitt’s career as a composer (roughly the 70-year period from 1890 to 1960). Among the many documents I discovered, one of the most interesting was one that focused […]

Florent Schmitt and Igor Stravinsky: A Consequential Musical Relationship

February 8, 2015 · by Phillip Nones | in Ballet, Choral Music, Classical Music, Composers, French Composers | tagged Andrew Porter, Ballet, Ballets Russes, Camille Mauclair, Classical Music, Composers, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Florent Schmitt, French Composers, Henri Busser, Hollywood Walk of Fame, Igor Stravinsky, Jerry Rife, L'Oiseau de Feu, La Tragedie de Salome, Le Sacre du Printemps, Marcel Samuel-Rousseau, Maurice Ravel, Mavra, Oriane et le Prince d'amour, Petrouchka, Pierre Lalo, Pierre Monteux, Rimsky-Korsakov, Russian Classical Music, Schmitt, Serge Diaghilev, Serge Sudekeine, Stephane Deneve, Stravinsky, The Firebird, The Rite of Spring, Vasily Nijinsky, Vera Stravinsky | 2 Comments

Throughout his long life and composing career, Florent Schmitt would forge many personal friendships with his counterparts. He was at the center of musical life in Paris, maintaining particularly close relationships with Maurice Ravel, Albert Roussel, Gabriel Pierné, Paul Dukas, Gabriel Fauré, Guillaume Lekeu and numerous other French composers. He also had decades-long friendships with composers from other […]

La Tragédie de Salomé (1907/10): Florent Schmitt’s sinuous temptress, seducing audiences for over 100 years.

September 14, 2012 · by Phillip Nones | in Ballet, Classical Music, Composers, French Composers | tagged Andre Cluytens, Ballet, Chandler Cudlipp, Classical Music, Composers, d'Indy, Deneve, Dukas, Emerson Buckley, Florent Schmitt, Francois Huybrechts, Georges Wague, Harold C. Schonberg, Harold Lawrence, Istar, JoAnn Falletta, Karl Muck, La Peri, Lionel Bringuier, Lionel Salter, Loie Fuller, Lycette Darsonval, Marc Soustrot, Mariinsky Ballet, Music, Natalia Trouhanova, Paul Charles Delaroche, Paul Paray, Pierre Monteux, Pierre-Octave Ferroud, Ravel, Rene Dumesnil, Richard Aldrich, Robert Layton, Rosella Hightower, Salome, Schmitt, Stephane Deneve, Stravinsky, Susan Youens, Theatre des Arts, Theatre Hebertot, Valses Nobles | 13 Comments

“[It] is like a half-hour visit to the pleasure dome in Xanadu, and if it doesn’t give you a few spiritual orgasms, then perhaps you need to insert Viagra® in each of your ears.” — Raymond Tuttle, Music Critic, Fanfare Magazine The ballet La Tragédie de Salomé, Op. 50 is Florent Schmitt’s most famous […]