“It is one of the most important recordings of my entire career.” — Yan Pascal Tortelier, French conductor In late October 2025, I had the privilege of being invited to Manchester, UK to observe the recording of a program of mid-career orchestral works by Florent Schmitt (composed between 1929 and 1938), featuring the BBC Philharmonic […]
Tag Archives: Trois danses
The town of Saint-Cloud honored its longtime resident Florent Schmitt on the occasion of his 80th birthday, presenting a gala concert featuring his recent compositions. When Florent Schmitt turned eighty years old on September 28, 1950, he was the most prominent French composer of his generation who was still active creatively. To be sure, there […]
The catalogue of Florent Schmitt’s compositions is extensive, consisting of some 138 opus-numbered items (actually, two numbers weren’t used by the composer — including Op. 111, omitted in deference to Beethoven’s 32nd Piano Sonata). But there’s more. Going beyond the “official” catalogue, we find a number of additional items. Chief among them are Schmitt’s first […]
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 […]
It isn’t uncommon for classical composers to create alternate versions of their musical creations. Many have prepared piano reductions of their orchestral works, or done the opposite by orchestrating pieces originally written for piano. We also have numerous examples of pieces that began life as chamber music that were later orchestrated by their creators; the […]
Florent Schmitt’s three instruments were the flute, the organ and the piano. Arguably the piano was the one he preferred most — at least based on the quantity of music he created — for within the catalogue of Schmitt’s compositions are vast swaths of music written for the piano solo, piano duet and duo. The […]
There’s no question that in the past two decades, the breadth and depth of French composer Florent Schmitt’s music that has made it to the microphones has increased dramatically. Nearly every year, we are treated to world premiere recordings of more Schmitt works. The most recent examples are the complete works for piano duo and duet as […]