Performed often during the first 40 years of the 20th century. After that . . .
Andrè Clutytens And The Paris Conservatory Orchestra Play Music Of Florent Schmitt – 1950 – Past Daily Weekend Gramophone
Click on the link here for Audio Player – Schmitt: La Tragèdie de Salomè – Paris Conservatory Orchestra, Andrè Cluytens, cond. 1950 Besancon Festival – ORTF – Gordon Skene Sound Collection
The music of Florent Schmitt this weekend. A popular figure during the first four decades of the 20th Century, Florent Schmitt fell into obscurity shortly after his death in 1958. A composer of note during the time, but also a critic who made more than the usual number of enemies, his vocal indiscretions once prompted a publisher to refer to Schmitt as “an irresponsible lunatic”. And that may have had some bearing on his neglect in later years.
Schmitt wrote some 138 pieces during his lifetime, composing in most every style except for Opera. During the 1990s, his music started getting a revival of sorts, with a number of his unpublished works being discovered and played for the first time.
This weekend it’s a live performance of one of his better known works, “La Tragèdie de Salomè as played by the Paris Conservatory Orchestra conducted by the legendary Andrè Cluytens during the 1950 Besançon Festival and recorded by the ORTF (Paris Radio).
Cluytens recorded this work commercially, but this performance hasn’t been issued. This is a repost of one I did in June of last year of the same work, but a better transfer and a revised date of performance.
Enjoy if you haven’t heard it yet. Enjoy if you have heard it, but wanted it to sound better.
Cluytens is so elegant in this masterpiece ! Stravinsky also was a big fan of the Tragedie de Salomé !!!!
Thanks as always for your words. Yes, it’s a wonderful performance. I hope to post more Cluytens material from this period soon as well as Schmitt.
will be much welcome, for sure !!
Can you tell us more about the commercial recording that was made but never issued? When was it recorded, with which orchestra (Conservatoire?)and by which company (EMI?) If so, EMI released a recording with Pierre Dervaux and the Paris Opera Orchestra in 1957, so perhaps the Cluytens recording was considered redundant.
My mistake – I was thinking of the Dervaux recording and inadvertently said Cluytens. Apologies for the confusion.