“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 […]

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), 1902-1941.

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 […]

Conductor Fabien Gabel is interviewed by Crescendo Magazine about his new recording with Håkan Hardenberger, featuring French music for trumpet and orchestra including Florent Schmitt’s Suite en trois parties (1955).

In June 2022, the BIS label is releasing an important new recording that features French trumpet repertoire performed by the noted soloist Håkan Hardenberger along with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Fabien Gabel.  The recording is the realization of Mr. Hardenberger’s goal to record the trumpet concertante works of Henri Tomasi, André Jolivet, […]

Conductor Fabien Gabel talks about the strategy behind his October 2021 “Salome-centric” concert with the Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse.

Recently, French conductor Fabien Gabel returned to the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse to lead a concert of music by composers from the 19th and early 20th centuries.  The choice of repertoire was interesting in that it had a distinctly “Salome-centric” cast — featuring the music of Florent Schmitt and Richard Strauss.  But the […]

Members of the Kebyart Ensemble talk about Florent Schmitt’s Quartet for Saxophones (1941) and its preeminent position in the saxophone repertoire.

The piece will serve as the centerpiece of Kebyart’s ECHO Rising Stars concert programs being presented in 13 European countries between September 2021 and May 2022. Formed in 2014, the Kebyart Ensemble is one of Europe’s most promising saxophone quartets. The group is making a name for itself on concert stages throughout Europe, and also […]

Israeli pianist and pedagogue Tomer Lev talks about planning and producing the new NAXOS recording of the Tombeau de Claude Debussy (1920) complete anthology.

“What stands out in Schmitt’s work is the hypnotic-impressionist atmosphere, verging on the surreal. Both the atmospherics and the piano writing … hint very strongly at Debussy’s own aesthetic world.  It creates a kind of spiritual dialogue that Schmitt conducts with his late older colleague.” — Tomer Lev, pianist and pedagogue In late 2020, NAXOS […]

Musicologist Suddhaseel Sen talks about the artistry of Florent Schmitt and the importance of his “orientalist” compositions.

Musicologist, author and teacher Suddhaseel Sen comes to his appreciation of Western classical music from an interesting angle. A native of the Indian subcontinent, Dr. Sen made his first musical discoveries there, long before coming to the West for a range of music-related studies and research. Today, Dr. Sen is back in India as Assistant Professor of Humanities […]

A Rare Live Interview with French Composer Florent Schmitt at the Jeunesses Musicales de France (1957)

Cliquez ici pour écouter l’interview de Schmitt/Gavoty sur YouTube. For devotees of the Florent Schmitt Website + Blog, we are pleased to provide a link to a rare taped interview of the composer, done on February 20, 1957 when Schmitt was 86 years old. The interview was conducted at the Jeunesses Musicales de France by Bernard […]

Passionate advocate: French conductor Lionel Bringuier talks about the music of Florent Schmitt and La Tragédie de Salomé.

French conductor Lionel Bringuier’s meteoric rise in the classical music field has been noteworthy.  Not yet 30 years old, he has been conducting major orchestras in the United States and Europe since 2006. Currently, Maestro Bringuier is chief conductor of the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zürich, Switzerland.  Prior to that, he was an associate conductor of […]

Musicians of The Cleveland Orchestra talk about the music of Florent Schmitt and La Tragédie de Salomé.

On April 16 and 18, 2015, The Cleveland Orchestra performed Florent Schmitt’s 1907/10 ballet La Tragédie de Salomé for the first time in over 70 years.  Not only was it the first time the Cleveland musicians had played this work with the orchestra, for most, it was their first time ever performing any music of […]

Florent Schmitt and Igor Stravinsky: A Consequential Musical Relationship

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 […]

Florent Schmitt and Ralph Vaughan Williams: A Friendship Over Five Decades

The cover story in the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society Journal, published in October 2014, focuses on the half-century friendship between the French composer Florent Schmitt and his English counterpart. The two composers were near contemporaries of one another — Schmitt was older by two years — and they died within mere days of each other in […]

Hallucinatory Atmospherics: Florent Schmitt’s Rêves (1915)

Sprinkled throughout the catalogue of Florent Schmitt’s compositions are a goodly number of shorter orchestral pieces. They range in their moods from contemplative to joyous to stormy. One of these orchestral miniatures that I find particularly compelling is Rêves, Op. 65 (Dreams), a work that Schmitt began composing in 1913.  He prepared a piano version […]

Duo-pianists Kasparov and Lutsyshyn talk about their new Florent Schmitt Recording Project

One of the most exciting recent recording projects featuring the music of Florent Schmitt is the complete duo-piano music being released in 2012-13 by Naxos Grand Piano. The four-CD traversal is performed by the Invencia Piano Duo: Andrey Kasparov and Oksana Lutsyshyn. The first of the four volumes in the series was released in late […]

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

“[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 “Florent Schmitt has much to say; his Tragédie de Salomé is a great […]