Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)
Recently, audio documentation one of Florent Schmitt’s most interesting (and elusive) choral compositions has emerged – and it’s come from an unlikely source. It is a 1987 live performance of Schmitt’s Le Chant de la nuit, Op. 120, a work that carries the subtitle Ode à Frédéric Chopin.
The Chiba University Singers directed by Fumiaki Kuriyama at the 40th annual All-Japan National Choral Competition, held at Hitomi Memorial Hall on the campus of Showa Women’s University in Tokyo (1987).
The performance is by the Chiba University Singers as recorded at the 1987 All-Japan Choral Competition, an annual program held under the auspices of the Japan Choral Association. The 1987 event was the 40th anniversary for the national competition, which began in 1947.
Le Chant de la nuit is one of the most intriguing of Florent Schmitt’s choral compositions. The piece was commissioned by the Paris-based United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to commemorate the centenary of the death of the composer Frédéric Chopin, who was born in 1811 and died on August 17, 1847.
In creating the new composition, Florent Schmitt chose as his text the words of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, translated into French by the Swiss author Guy de Pourtalès as follows:
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
Il fait nuit – Voici que s’élève plus haut la voix des fontaines jaillissantes … Et mon âme, elle aussi, est une fontaine jaillissante.
Il fait nuit – Voici que s’éveillent tous les chants des amoureux … Et mon âme, elle aussi, est un chant d’amoureux.
Il y a en moi quelque chose d’inapaisé et d’inapaisable qui veut élever la voix … Il y a en moi un désir d’amour qui parle lui-même le langage de l’amour.
Je suis lumière – Ah – si j’étais nuit … Mais ceci est ma solitude d’être enveloppé de lumière.
… which translates to English roughly as follows:
Guy de Pourtalès (1881-1941)
It is night — Here is the voice of the gushing fountains rising higher … And my soul, too, gushes like a fountain.
It is night — Here are all the songs of lovers … And my soul, too, is a love song.
There is something in me that is uneasy, and that wants to raise its voice … There is in me a desire for love, which itself speaks the language of love.
I am light — Ah, if only I were night … But this is my loneliness, to be enveloped in light.
Characterized by Yves Hucher, Schmitt’s biographer, as a “moving tribute” to the older composer, Le Chant de la nuit is scored for solo voices or a mixed chorus and piano. One of the themes used by Schmitt in the piece comes from the thirteenth Nocturne (Op. 48, No. 1) of Chopin, and the way this motif is employed is sheer genius – simple yet highly effective. Beyond this direct quote, there are numerous phrases and textures that are remindful of other Chopin pieces, such as the Raindrop Prelude, Op. 28, No. 15.
André Cluytens (1905-1967)
The new work had its premiere at a UNESCO concert in Paris in October 1949, exactly 100 years after the death of Chopin, presented by the Chorale Marcel Couraud. In February 1951, André Cluytens and a chorus led by Jean Gitton presented Schmitt’s orchestral version of the piece at a Paris Conservatoire Orchestra concert, where it received glowing reviews from the musical press.
But then after that … silence for several decades. I have been unable to find evidence of the piece being presented again until the 1987 All-Japan Choral Competition done by the Chiba University Singers, performed at Hitomi Memorial Hall on the campus of Showa Women’s University in Tokyo.
Fumiaki Kuriyama
We can thank choral director Fumiaki Kuriyama, one of Japan’s best-known and highly regarded choral conductors, for resurrecting the piece. Famed for championing contemporary Japanese works, Maestro Kuriyama has also been an advocate for neglected choral compositions from other countries.
Kuriyama has led performances all over the world, including at the Oregon Bach Festival in the USA. A portion of his musical training was in Europe, where not only did he win top prizes at international choral competitions in Tolosa (Spain) and at Arezzo (Italy), Kuriyama also explored the choral output of numerous European composers – some of it quite rare. In addition to introducing Le Chant de la nuit to Japanese audiences, Kuriyama has directed other choral works by Florent Schmitt as well.
Listening to the well-prepared Chiba University choral ensemble, the singers do a very commendable job negotiating the sometimes-tricky challenges of Florent Schmitt’s score, and they’re joined by the able contribution of pianist Yoko Tanaka.
The musicians’ artistic achievements are even more clearly evident when following along with the score to the piece, which we can now do thanks to George ‘Nick’ Gianopoulos and his estimable music channel on YouTube. Click here to “see as well as hear” this music in all of its endlessly fascinating splendor; I think you will be impressed.
Florent Schmitt’s Le Chant de la nuit is included in Volume 6 of a series of ten CDs devoted to highlights from select All-Japan Choral Competition events. It is available on Japan’s Brain Music label.
With the welcome emergence of this 1987 live performance from Japan, the music world now has a renewed opportunity to become acquainted with this piece, with future performances hopefully to follow.
Moreover, it would be fortuitous if one of Florent Schmitt’s ardent champions in the conducting world would see fit to investigate the orchestral version of Le Chant de la nuit. If so, rich musical rewards would be in store for us all!