In addition to multiple presentations of Schmitt’s best-known composition La Tragédie de Salomé, music-lovers will be treated to two mid-career works — In Memoriam and the Symphonie concertante.
Florent Schmitt’s mid-career music gets marquee treatment in the 2022-23 concert season. (Portrait: Pierrette Lambert, 1992)
It comes as no surprise that in the upcoming 2022-23 concert season, various conductors and orchestras will be presenting Florent Schmitt’s ballet La Tragédie de Salomé. Not only is this the composer’s best-known orchestral work, it’s a piece that’s been on a distinctly upward trajectory in popularity in the past decade — and the beneficiary of more frequent performances.
Ryan Bancroft
In the coming season, not only will Salomé be conducted by a trio of its most ardent current champions — Sylvain Cambreling, Stéphane Denève and Fabien Gabel — the piece is also entering the repertoire of Ryan Bancroft, the up-and-coming American conductor who was recently named music director of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra.
But perhaps more significant than the trendline for Salomé is the news that several additional compositions by Florent Schmitt are on tap for the coming season — two pieces that haven’t appeared on concert programs anywhere in more than a quarter-century.
JoAnn Falletta
Both of the works come from the composer’s middle period — a particularly fecund time in Schmitt’s career that also found him at his most artistically daring. In November 2022, JoAnn Falletta will lead the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in the diptych In Memoriam — a piece composed by Schmitt in 1922/35 in tribute to Gabriel Fauré, his beloved teacher and mentor.
Yan-Pascal Tortelier
Then in February 2023, pianist Tomoki Sakata, conductor Yan-Pascal Tortelier and the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra will present Schmitt’s complex, über-brilliant Symphonie concertante — a can’t-miss performance that presages the preparation of a new commercial recording of the piece (the second one ever of this stunning composition).
Thus, the upcoming concert season contains much to whet the appetite and entice Schmittians around the world to mark their calendars and make plans to attend them. Listed below are details on the upcoming concerts, including web links to read additional information and to reserve tickets. (Note: More concerts are likely to be announced in the coming weeks, with this listing updated accordingly.)
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October 21-22, 2022
Schmitt: La Tragédie de Salomé, Op. 50 (1907/10)
Esmail: Vishwas: Testament
Poulenc: Stabat Mater
Poulenc: Dialogues des Carmélites: Final Scene
Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra & Chorus; Stéphane Denève, conductor
Jeanine De Bique, soprano
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October 29-30, 2022
Schmitt: La Tragédie de Salomé, Op. 50 (1907/10)
Bizet: L’Arlésienne Suites Nos. 1 & 2
Jolivet: Concerto No. 2 for Trumpet & Orchestra
Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra; Sylvain Cambreling, conductor
Selina Ott, trumpet
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November 12-13, 2022
Schmitt: In Memoriam, Op. 72 (1922/35)
Elgar: Concerto in E Minor for Cello & Orchestra
Kodály: Háry János Suite
Walton: Portsmouth Point Overture
Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra; JoAnn Falletta, conductor
Asier Polo, cello
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February 1, 2023
Schmitt: La Tragédie de Salomé, Op. 50 (1907/10)
Hilli: Miracle
Stravinsky: Concerto for Violin & Orchestra
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra; Ryan Bancroft, conductor
Frank Peter Zimmermann, violin
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February 14, 2023
Schmitt: Symphonie concertante, Op. 82 (1932)
Chausson: Symphony in B-Flat Major, Op. 20
Fauré: Penélope: Prélude
Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra; Yan-Pascal Tortelier, conductor
Tomoki Sakata, piano
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March 17-18, 2023
Schmitt: La Tragédie de Salomé, Op. 50 (1907/10)
Brahms: Tragic Overture, Op. 81
Stravinsky: L’Oiseau de feu: Suite
Tomasi: Trumpet Concerto
Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra; Fabien Gabel, conductor
Håkan Hardenberger, trumpet
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May 24, 2023
Schmitt: La Tragédie de Salomé, Op. 50 (1907/10)
Poulenc: Concerto in D Minor for Two Pianos & Orchestra
Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentales
Richard Strauss: Salome: Dance of the Seven Veils
Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin; Fabien Gabel, conductor
Lucas & Arthur Jussen, duo-pianos
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More information on these upcoming concerts can be found on the web pages of the various arts organizations (click or tap on the links above).