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.
The program booklet for Florent Schmitt’s 80th birthday concert held in Saint-Cloud, France (October 7, 1950).
Florent Schmitt, photographed at approximately 80 years of age.
When Florent Schmitt turned 80 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 remained a handful of French composers born in the 1860s and 1870s who were still alive at the time — most notably Gustave Charpentier, Guy Ropartz, Max d’Ollone and Louis Aubert. But none were as prominent as Schmitt, nor as fecund a creator.
French civil servant Jacques Jaujard (1895-1967) is best-remembered for organizing the removal and safe storage of the Louvre art collection at various chateau locations away from Paris during World War II.
To mark the milestone of Schmitt’s 80th birthday, a group of prominent inhabitants of Saint-Cloud, the Paris suburb where the composer had lived for the past four decades, decided to organize a gala event in honor of their illustrious fellow-resident.
Working with the support of Jacques Jaujard, Director of Arts and Letters at the Ministry of National Education, and Wladimir Porché, head of French Radio and Television, a committee was formed to plan a reception and chamber music concert to be held on October 7, 1950 at the Salle des fêtes in Saint-Cloud.
The planning committee for Florent Schmitt’s 80th birthday gala event.
Emceeing the event was Saint-Cloud mayor Francis Chaveton. In his introductory remarks before the assembled gathering, Chaveton recounted a recent conversation he’d had with Florent Schmitt, during which he asked the composer how he’d come to choose Saint-Cloud to be his long-term residence. Schmitt explained:
Saint-Cloud City Hall (2012 photo)
“My first contact with Saint-Cloud was years ago: years distant since they are from the end of the last century. Peaceful years, too — although they were those of my military service … in the pink building on the Place d’armes – but peaceful enough to make anyone nostalgic for that persistent disbelief in war. Perhaps this is why, despite a modest second-class situation not exactly stimulating to aesthetic joys, I was quickly won over by the charm of this ancient little town, simultaneously picturesque and elegant, and the sumptuousness of its park with its generous foliage.
Subsequently, it was always with great pleasure and emotion that I returned there. I frequently stayed at a pleasant villa from which one enjoyed an incomparable view.
Paris was underwater for two months during the 1910 flood. (Photo: Roger-Viollet)
Finally, drawn more and more to this privileged region, thanks also to the flood of 1910 (I was then living in a house near the Seine) which, destroying my furniture, my paintings, my books, my music, and everything I owned in the world, oriented me towards higher ground. I resolved to begin life anew, no longer by the water but instead on these pleasant hills which, besides possibly saving me from a second disaster, offered a pleasant transition between my adopted summer Pyrenees and the Parisian plain.
The house and gardens of Florent Schmitt in St-Cloud, France. (ca. 1950 photo)
So this is how I became a resident of Rue du Calvaire — so named, I presume, because of the original curve of its sidewalks, narrow enough to challenge André Gide’s doors, and whose cobblestones are akin to mountaineering. But in those days, without trucks and without blaring radios, only the song of the nightingales and owls in the Parc de Béarn disturbed the silence of this wild and verdant alley, which one would have thought was a hundred leagues from Paris.
This is how I was able to produce in the calm and contemplation essential to the completion of my work.”
And in fact, the musical program put together for the 1950 gala concert was filled with pieces that had been created by Florent Schmitt just a short distance away from the recital hall, as well as at his country retreat at Artiguemy in the Haute-Pyrénées.
The Pasquier Trio
The concert was an ambitious one that featured five Schmitt compositions – all of them created within the past fifteen years. Bookending the program were two works performed by the Pasquier brothers – Jean, Pierre and Étienne – presenting the 1944-46 String Trio to open the concert and concluding with Hasards (1939-43), in which the Pasquier Trio was joined by pianist Lucette Descaves.
In addition, Marcel Couraud directed his eponymous choral ensemble in two works – A contre-voix (1944) and Ode à Frédéric Chopin (Chant de la nuit) (1947-49). Rounding out the repertoire selections, Mme. Descaves performed Schmitt’s piano suite Trois danses (1935).
The musical program for the 80th birthday gala concert celebrating and honoring Florent Schmitt (October 7, 1950).
In addition to Saint-Cloud attendees, present at the concert was a veritable “who’s who” roster of Paris musical society. As such, the event was covered by nearly the entire Parisian press. Among the articles published were two penned by Marcel Schneider which appeared in two papers – Combat and Le Dernières nouvelles d’Alsace.
Marcel Schneider (1913-2009). Following the French writer’s death at the age of 95, journalist Gilles Brochard penned this memorable epitaph: “To cite his name was like a ‘sesame’ to access the marvelous, the fantastic, the inner worlds. Marcel Schneider, a man of taste, heir to the old regime, was an aristocrat of the word, a novelist of the soul. A knight without a kingdom — except that of literature and music.”
The long-lived Marcel Schneider was a noted author, arts critic and more – truly the personification of a “renaissance man.” Schneider authored books and monographs on Couperin, Schubert, Schumann, Wagner and Ravel as well as on French ballet history. He was also an expert in so-called “fantastic” literature — in particular the output of Charlies Nodier, Gérard de Nerval and Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann. His interests in this genre of literature come through clearly in an obituary that Schneider himself penned years before his death:
“Marcel Schneider did not pursue a career in academia or in literature. Any career requires sacrifices; he loved life too much to waste his time on what bored him.
He preferred dreams to reality, the invisible to the visible. He gave up the prey for the shadow. This obscurity meant that he wrote nothing that he hadn’t truly experienced deep within himself — that is to say, imagined. Imagination was absolute reality for him. Nothing realizes it better than the fantastic, which can be summed up in two words: fear and desire.”
In Marcel Schneider’s review of the Saint-Cloud concert in January 1950, his admiration for Florent Schmitt’s artistry is palpable. The article is reproduced in its entirety here (for non-French readers, an English translation follows immediately below the original):
Marcel Schneider’s review of the Florent Schmitt 80th birthday concert in St-Cloud, published in the October 9, 1950 issue of the newspaper Combat. (Click or tap on the image for a larger view.)
To celebrate the 80th Birthday of Florent Schmitt
By: Marcel Schneider, Combat (October 9, 1950)
The city of Saint-Cloud wished to celebrate the eightieth birthday of one of its most glorious inhabitants: Florent Schmitt. It was a concert of his recent works (from 1935 to 1949) that we heard on October 8 [sic] at Saint-Cloud. Homage paid not only to the composer, but to the man — his admirers, his students, all friends, among whom were two men with proven loyalty: Louis Aubert and Gustave Samazeuilh.
The old faithful and the young friends — these efficient and discreet devotions that the destinies of artists always arouse — encouraged this octogenarian who carries his age so cheerfully that one refuses to call him an old man. His music as well — that of the recent years — is that of a man in full control of himself.
The life and career of French pianist Lucette Descaves (1906-1993) is inextricably intertwined with French classical music. A goddaughter of Camille Saint-Saëns, Descaves studied piano with Marguerite Long, winning first prize for piano at the Paris Conservatoire in 1923, after which she became pianist Yves Nat‘s teaching assistant. As a concert soloist, Descaves appeared with most of the leading French conductors of the time, including premiering concertos by André Jolivet and Jean Rivier. She was married to conductors as well — first Georges Truc and later Louis Fourestier. She recorded the complete piano works of Roussel and Honegger. In 1941 Descaves joined the faculty of the Paris Conservatoire, where she taught for decades and where her students included Michel Legrand, Geneviève Joy, Pascal Rogé, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and the Lebeque sisters. Interviewed in 2021 about his experience of studying with Lucette Descaves, Jean-Yves Thibaudet commented, “She had performed Ravel’s [G Major] Concerto with him conducting, so I always felt as though I knew Ravel [through her]. She would talk about him in the present tense, as if he were going to come through the door in the next second. Lucette was very particular about her approach to his music. People think he’s impressionist — a blur of sound — but she couldn’t stand to hear this; every note had to be clear, like a pearl … Her scores of works like the G Major were marked with ideas from Ravel — incredible.”
Florent Schmitt was “the first” among Fauré’s students. At the beginning of his career Schmitt wrote brilliant, colorful music, which found in the Orient his principal inspiration and which engendered comparisons to be made with that of Richard Strauss. As he refined the fullness of his own means of expression and a more lucid knowledge of himself, he composed works that were more stripped down — more secret, richer in substance, more refined in development — and which presented those qualities of intelligence and sensitivity, of subtle charm and science that could be called “French” for lack of a more precise term.
The Pasquier Trio’s 1959 French Radio broadcast performance of Florent Schmitt’s Hasards is available from Forgotten Records. (Monique Mercier replaces pianist Lucette Descaves in this 1959 performance.)
Witness the Trio that the Pasquier brothers performed in Saint-Cloud and which, by the variety of its rhythms and melodies as much as the originality of the development, prove the abundance of invention, the ironic youth and the modest tenderness of Florent Schmitt.
The Pasquier brothers also made the first recording of Florent Schmitt’s String Trio (Pathé, 1946).
His latest great work only confirms this judgment: his String Quartet of 1947 [sic]. It is only in complete maturity that one could possibly write such a quartet. Florent Schmitt gives us the essence of his thoughts and his inspiration in the most difficult form that only certain musicians ever manage to master – that of the chamber quartet.”
Two weeks later, a subsequent article penned by Marcel Schneider appeared in the newspaper Les Dernières nouvelles d’Alsace — this one focusing on the arc of Florent Schmitt’s musical career. Here is that article (an English translation follows directly below the original):
Marcel Schneider’s article on the musical legacy of Florent Schmitt (Les Dernières nouvelles d’Alsace, October 22, 1950). (Click or tap on the image for a larger view.)
To celebrate the 80th Birthday of Florent Schmitt
By: Marcel Schneider, Les Dernières nouvelles d’Alsace (October 22, 1950)
At the beginning of this month, the city of Saint-Cloud celebrated one of its most glorious inhabitants: Florent Schmitt, whose La Tragédie de Salomé and Psaume XLVII have been applauded worldwide.
Marcel Just Théodore Marie Couraud (1912-1986) was one of the best-known French choral conductors of the 20th century. Following studies with André Marchal (organ), Nadia Boulanger (composition) and Charles Munch (conducting), Couraud founded his own vocal ensemble in 1944, which performed music from the Renaissance period as well as works by contemporary composers including Florent Schmitt and Olivier Messiaen. In 1967 Couraud became director of the ORTF choral groups, which he prepared for the celebrated 1973 EMI recording of Schmitt’s Psaume XLVII led by Jean Martinon. In 1976 Maestro Couraud formed the Groupe Vocal de France, which performed many works by 20th century French masters including Schmitt, Messiaen, Xenakis, Henry Barraud, Maurice Ohana, Gilbert Amy and Betsy Jolas. In 1991 this ensemble recorded Schmitt’s A contre-voix under the direction of John Alldis, released on the EMI label.
This great musician, born in Lorraine on September 28, 1870, is now in his eighties — but he is denied the title of ‘old man,’ such is his physical health and creative ardor. For he never ceases to compose, and his recent works, such as those performed at the Saint-Cloud concert by excellent performers — the Pasquier Trio, the Marcel Couraud Vocal Ensemble, and the brilliant pianist Lucette Descaves — bear witness to steady maturation, a mastery of the piano, and the kind of accomplished genius that demands that we embrace his entire oeuvre, a body of work that currently consists of 112 opus numbers.
Gabriel Fauré (l.) and Jules Massenet were Florent Schmitt’s composition teachers at the Paris Conservatoire.
Florent Schmitt studied at the Paris Conservatoire and although there were several masters there (Massenet and Fauré, and he was considered Fauré’s “prized student”), at the beginning of his career he appeared to be the link between French and German music — a French Richard Strauss. Indeed, his violence, the breadth of his orchestra, his colorful style, a certain exterior and glittering beauty, the same taste for subject matter and the inevitable connection between Strauss’ [opera] Salome (1905) and La Tragédie de Salomé (1907/10), justified the comparison. Both belonged to what could be called the neo-romantic group, but a group that did not forget the lessons of either impressionism or realism.
A sonic “experience”: Psaume XLVII by Florent Schmitt (1904).
Schmitt’s mastery of power in sound is evident in his Psaume XLVII for soprano solo, chorus, organ, and orchestra — a monumental and fervent work he wrote before reaching the age of 30 [sic] and which many consider to be his masterpiece. Irrespective of the richness of the instrumentation, the composer’s thoughts are always easily followed, and the grandeur of this Psalm is matched only by the clarity and solidity of the writing.
Preceding the Ballets Russes, but heralding their predilection for vivid colors in stage designs and a brilliant sound palette, Florent Schmitt was captivated by the Orient. It is enough to cite the names of his most famous works: Psaume XLVII, La Tragédie de Salomé, Antoine et Cléopâtre, Salammbô, and Oriane la sans-égale [Oriane et le Prince d’Amour]. What he loved about the Orient were the colors, no doubt, but also the deep religiosity and the mystery — almost the spell. He wanted to subjugate us all with the magic of the Orient.
L’Affaire Moulinié: Marcel Schneider may have possessed a vast and deep knowledge of French music, but that didn’t keep him from being taken in – along with many others — by a hoax perpetrated by the Roman Catholic priest Émile Martin. Fr. Martin claimed to have rediscovered a long-lost coronation mass written by the 17th century French composer Étienne Moulinié. Time Magazine took up the fascinating tale in its March 24, 1952 issue, reporting, “The musty old Basilica of St.-Denis, burial place of French kings, had seldom seen such polite excitement. As part of Paris’ celebration of its 2,000th birthday, diplomats, dignitaries and celebrities turned out to hear a performance of old French music which was also being broadcast across Europe and to the U.S. The highlight: a recently discovered coronation mass billed as the work of 17th century composer Étienne Moulinié. The distinguished audience sat entranced as trumpets sounded from the heights of the basilica and Fr. Émile Martin’s crack St.-Eustache choir gave full throat to the music. With the final rousing chorus of Vivat Rex in Aeternum, the critics were aglow with Gallic pride.
Marcel Schneider of Paris’ highbrow daily Combat, who had already heard the mass in Paris’ church of St.-Roch where Fr. Martin’s choir first performed it, found it ‘even more beautiful and imposing …’ All in all, France felt proud of a glorious relic of its past — until the bubble burst, two weeks later. The mass, musicologist Félix Raugel harrumphed to his astounded colleagues, was a fraud and a hoax. Grey mustache abristle, scholar Raugel hauled out his proof. Composer Moulinié, he declared, had never written a mass — much less one for a French king. Moulinié was court composer to Gaston-Jean-Baptiste d’Orléans, Louis XIll’s brother and enemy, and was persona non grata at Louis’ court. Moreover, trumpets were not used as musical instruments until the 18th century, and Vivat Rex was never sung at the end of a mass; it was shouted three times before the mass began.
Raugel had suspected Father Martin’s ‘discovery,’ but had not been stirred to investigate until the spectacle at St.-Denis. That, he said, ‘was too much. The whole world was listening. The honor of France was at stake.’
Last week, after a performance of the mass at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées which Paris’ red-faced critics conspired to ignore, chubby, red-cheeked Fr. Martin, 37, chewed on a cigar and told his story. Except for one 14th century theme, the mass was his own invention. He had composed it in his spare time, and, partly in playfulness and partly for fear he would never get it performed otherwise, had decided to give it at least a nominal touch of antiquity. He had come across a manuscript by Étienne Moulinié and liked the name — and after all, Moulinié’s initials were the same as his own. After the first performance in the fall of 1950, the critics had jumped for joy, and he was stuck. Said he: ‘What could I do? I was a prisoner of success.’
One critic lamented for all: ‘Our emotions, our patriotic feelings, our attachment to those who made France great, have been abused.’”
Standing outside the International Cultural Center at the City University of Paris (May 2022). (Photo: Bruno Belthoise)
One might think that the 1950 tribute concert celebrating Florent Schmitt’s 80th birthday would be the last of its kind organized during the composer’s lifetime. But eight years later a subsequent “Festival Florent Schmitt” event was planned – this one to take place at the International Cultural Center Auditorium of Cité Universitaire de Paris on January 15, 1958.
Musically speaking, the 1958 event was even more ambitious than the 1950 chamber music concert had been, in that six orchestral works of Schmitt were planned for the concert. The purely orchestral pieces were to be the early-career Reflets d’Allemagne plus the later Cippus feralis (from In Memoriam), Enfants, and the Janiana Symphony.
Coloratura soprano Christiane Eda-Pierre (1932-2020). The Martinique-born coloratura soprano made her debut at the Paris Opéra-Comique in 1958. She sang nearly all of the best-known lyric coloratura roles of the French and Italian repertoire during her career (including as Lakmé, pictured above), and later became a voice teacher at the Paris Conservatoire. Eda-Pierre was booked to sing Quatre poèmes de Ronsard at the Festival Florent Schmitt concert in January 1958 – a performance that never actually happened.
Also selected for the program were Légende (the version for viola and orchestra featuring soloist Robert Boulai) and Quatre poèmes de Ronsard (with soprano Christiane Eda-Pierre). The soloists would be joined by the the “Orchestre Symphonique International,” all under the direction of Pierre Chaillé.
The cancellation notice delivered to ticket-holders on the day of the Festival Florent Schmitt concert (January 15, 1958). (Click or tap on the image for a larger view.)
Except that … at the last minute the concert was called off. On the very day of the event, a letter was delivered to all invitees stating: “We regret to inform you that the Florent Schmitt Festival, scheduled for this evening, will not be able to take place, due to reasons beyond our control. We are therefore postponing this Festival to a later date …”
I have been unable to ascertain the reason why the concert was canceled with such little prior notice. Likely it wasn’t because one of the soloists had become unable to perform, as that would have resulted in a substitution — or at worst, a shortened program.
There’s the possibility that Florent Schmitt’s deteriorating health might have played a role – although in January 1958 the composer was still very much in full use of his capacities; indeed, the composer was still able to travel to the Strasbourg Festival the following June for the premiere of his Second Symphony.
Whereas French conductor Pierre Chaillé (1927-2010) was named the first prize recipient of the 4th Bensançon International Conductor’s Competition in 1954, it’s safe to conclude that his subsequent career didn’t live up to his early promise. A violinist playing in Left Bank Paris clubs before World War II, in the postwar period Chaillé organized an ensemble of fifty players known as the Grande Orchestre (which may have comprised the nucleus of the orchestra commissioned to play the Florent Schmitt concert in January 1958). Beginning in 1970, Chaillé also served as artistic director at Studios Barclay-Hoche Enregistrements in the 8th arr. of Paris, serving until Barclay’s 1979 acquisition by Philips resulted in the studio’s closing. Maestro Chaillé’s discography is scant; his best-known recording is Romance à la Mood, an album of twelve popular hits rendered in lush continental arrangements, recorded in 1959 by the Grande Orchestre and released in the United States on the ABC-Paramount label.
Perhaps the most likely reason is that the big program of six works for the orchestra – several of which are technically quite challenging to play – proved too difficult for the players to master. Florent Schmitt, who was always a stickler for precision performances of his music, may well have attended the final rehearsal prior to the concert and deemed the program unready to be presented, leading to the last-minute decision to postpone the concert.
We know from hindsight that postponing a January 1958 concert to later in the year was tantamount to an out-and-out cancellation – indeed, an event destined never to happen due to the decline in Florent Schmitt’s health that accelerated in the early months of 1958; by the end of August, he would be dead.
But either way, it is a testament to Florent Schmitt’s importance as the doyen of French composers that a concert program wholly dedicated to his orchestral music had been organized in his 88th year …
The invitation and program for the Festival Florent Schmitt concert (January 15, 1958).