One of the most interesting works by Florent Schmitt is his Lied et Scherzo, Op. 54, which he composed in 1910.
Paul Dukas (1965-1935): Florent Schmitt’s “Lied et Scherzo” was dedicated to his fellow French composer.
The piece was first conceived as a work for double wind quintet, with one of the French horns acting as soloist throughout.
The work was dedicated to Schmitt’s fellow French composer Paul Dukas, who was famous for his own concertante work for French horn, the Villanelle (composed four years earlier in 1906).
Musicologist Pierre Barbier describes Lied et Scherzo as a “surprising diptych” that begins in a “dreamy, passionate” mood followed by a “fantastic, biting scherzo.”
To this, I’d add that the music sounds positively “orchestral” in its conception — notwithstanding the limited number of players.
Simply put, it’s a thrilling piece of music.
I have heard four recordings of Lied et Scherzo in its original all-winds form – one featuring members of the Lydian Chamber Players recorded in concert in November 1977 at the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City (released on the AmCam label) … another with the Sylvan Winds, from 1992 (on the Koch label) … a third one featuring the Czech Nonet, recorded in 2000 and released on the Praga label … … and a French recording from 2008 featuring members of L’Orchestre d’Harmonie de la Région Centre (on the Corelia label).
Precision and passion: The Czech Nonet’s impressive performance of Florent Schmitt’s “Lied et Scherzo.”
Of the four, my own favorite is the Czech Nonet performance, which to my mind possesses the perfect blend of precision and ardor – not least in the very challenging horn part.
But as with a number of other works by Florent Schmitt, the composer also created alternate versions of this music featuring different instrumentation.
One version features cello and piano, in which form the music was first performed in 1911 by the renowned cellist Paul Bazelaire.
About that performance, Schmitt biographer Yves Hucher wrote of the score’s “melodious daydreams, passionate development and fantastic rhythms,” and how the music “positively shimmers.”
To my knowledge, no recorded performance of the cello-and-piano version of the Lied et Scherzo exists … but we do have a very fine performance of another alternate version of this music: one featuring French horn and piano.
A personal favorite: the French horn and piano version of “Lied et Scherzo” with Pierre del Vescovo and Jean Hubeau.
In this case, it is a stellar realization by the very impressive French horn soloist Pierre del Vescovo, joined by pianist Jean Hubeau, in an Erato recording dating from 1980. That recording remains available today in a multi-disc set featuring five important Schmitt works for orchestra and chamber ensemble.
[Pierre del Vescovo is just one of a number of horn players who have been attracted to the "challenging charms" of this music. The Australian/American performer Barry Tuckwell is another accomplished soloist who has played this music in recital in the United States and Canada.]
The French horn/piano version happens to be my own personal favorite of all of the permutations of this music that Schmitt created.
But … we mustn’t give short shrift to the composer’s fourth and final version – this one created for piano four-hands. It had its premiere recording only in 2012 — more than a century after its composition — and was released in 2013 by NAXOS Grand Piano in a highly effective reading by the Invencia Piano Duo as part of this group’s 4-CD set of the entire catalogue of Florent Schmitt’s works for piano four-hands.
Writing about the all-piano version of the Lied et Scherzo, the South African/British music critic Dan Morgan stated:
“Lied et Scherzo … is remarkable for its ‘solo’ passages set against discreet utterances from the ‘orchestra,’ as it were. It makes for a perky little dialogue, a strong sense of argument and counter-argument, which is always genial. It’s certainly not loquacious – that’s not Schmitt’s way – and this 11-minute tête à tête seems to pass in a flash.”
Going further, the Invencia Piano Duo’s Andrey Kasparov has written that “the melodious Lied gradually segues into the driving and goal-oriented Scherzo, at times featuring intense polymetric layerings of contrasting materials that presage similar ideas by Ravel, Carter and others.”
As a measure of the importance of this score, the Lied et Scherzo was one of the works featured in the 1914 cross-American tour of the Barrère Ensemble of Wind Instruments, a performing group organized by the Franco-American principal flautist of the New York Philharmonic, Georges Barrère. Among the cities where the work was performed were Detroit, Cincinnati, New York City – and even Charleston, West Virginia.
Georges Barrere (1876-1944): The Franco-American flautist included Florent Schmitt’s “Lied et Scherzo” in the repertoire of the Barrere Ensemble’s cross-American tour in 1914.
As recounted in Nancy Toff’s biography Georges Barrère, Monarch of the Flute, a reviewer at one of the concerts (at the Cooper Union) wrote this of the Schmitt piece: “Only a portion of the audience seemed to take a fancy to this latter ultra-modern music.”
One could certainly quibble about whether the music was indeed “ultra-modern” in 1914 — and it certainly doesn’t seem that way today.
Either way, I find the Lied et Scherzo to be one of Schmitt’s most musically satisfying compositions – not least the incredible – and thrilling – Scherzo section of the work.
I recommend you investigate this highly interesting score. See if you don’t feel the same way.
