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Florent Schmitt and the piano collection à l’Exposition: Musical vignettes of...
Florent Schmitt, photographed at his home in St-Cloud in 1937. (Photo: Lipnitzki-Roger Viollet) For students of history, the International Exposition of Art and Technology in Modern Life —...
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JoAnn Falletta’s Buffalo Philharmonic recording of Florent Schmitt’s...
The 2020 NAXOS recording, completed just days before the COVID pandemic shuttered classical music performances across the globe, includes two colorful ballet scores along with two world premieres....
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Musicians of the Jena Philharmonic Orchestra talk about discovering Florent...
Low brass musicians of the Jena Philharmonic Orchestra (l. to r. Bruno Osinski, Douglas Murdoch, Carl-Philipp Kaptain, Martin Zuckschwerdt). (Photo: ©Christoph Stämmler) Florent Schmitt, photographed...
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Albert Gleizes, Florent Schmitt, and Le Chant de guerre (1914-15).
The pioneering Cubist artist and the forward-looking composer — kindred spirits in their disdain for the “conventional” in the arts — are forever linked by an iconic painting. Albert Gleizes’ 1915...
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Members of the Prisma String Trio talk about preparing, performing and...
It was a dream come true for the three Prisma musicians, who prepared for nearly a decade before venturing into the recording hall to document their interpretation of Florent Schmitt’s String Trio....
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Simplicity meets virtuosity: Florent Schmitt’s a cappella vocal masterpiece...
Florent Schmitt, photographed in 1937 the study of his home in St-Cloud, one year before composing En bonnes voix. (Photo: Lipnitzki/Roger-Viollet) Throughout his extraordinarily long and productive...
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Seven important compositions of Florent Schmitt to be featured in the...
In a classical music world finally emerging from the COVID-19 crisis, orchestras are beginning again to program “large orchestra” works that had been embargoed due to social distancing requirements. It...
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Chaîne brisée (1936-37): Florent Schmitt’s posthumous tribute to his friend...
Florent Schmitt, photographed in his study in 1937. This was a particularly sorrowful time for Schmitt, as three of his closest composer friends — Paul Dukas, Albert Roussel and Maurice Ravel — had...
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French author Emmanuel Jourquin-Bourgeois talks about the life of his...
Florent Schmitt receives the first copy of the premiere recording of his Psaume XLVII from conductor Georges Tzipine and Pathé-Marconi chairman Pierre Bourgeois (standing at far right). On Schmitt’s...
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Black and white … or shades of grey?
Considering the actions and motivations of Florent Schmitt during the 1930s and World War II. Florent Schmitt, photographed in the early 1940s. Regular readers of the Florent Schmitt Website + Blog...
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Something borrowed, something new: Exploring the recurring musical themes and...
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) It isn’t uncommon for classical composers to create alternate versions of their musical creations. Many have prepared piano reductions of their orchestral works, or done...
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Scènes de la vie moyenne (1950): Florent Schmitt’s late-career work for...
Florent Schmitt, photographed at the time of the premiere performance of the piano version of Scènes de la vie moyenne. (1953 photo: ©Lipnitzki/Roger-Viollet) During the latter years of Florent...
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Pianist Biljana Urban talks about her new recording featuring world premiere...
Five premiere recordings are part of the new collection devoted to the solo piano music of the composer, scheduled for release in October 2021 on NAXOS’s Grand Piano label. Biljana Urban (Photo:...
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Håkan Hardenberger and Fabien Gabel talk about making their new orchestral...
Fabien Gabel and Håkan Hardenberger confer with a member of the production team at the recording session with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra (August 2021). In August 2021, the renowned...
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Chant du soir (1895): An early composition by Florent Schmitt comes into its...
A very dapper Florent Schmitt, photographed at about the time he composed Chant du soir. Up until recently, familiarity with the earliest compositions of Florent Schmitt was rather scant. The...
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Members of the Kebyart Ensemble talk about Florent Schmitt’s Quartet for...
The piece will serve as the centerpiece of Kebyart’s ECHO Rising Stars concert programs being presented in 13 European countries between September 2021 and May 2022. Kebyart Ensemble musicians: (l. to...
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Pianist and musicologist Frank Cooper talks about discovering Florent...
Frank Cooper Among the most impressive music channels on YouTube are two that are run by Helen Moritz, who has uploaded a wealth of rare piano performances from yesteryear. Ms. Moritz has painstakingly...
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Quatre pièces (1901): Florent Schmitt’s early suite for violin and piano.
A very dapper Florent Schmitt, photographed at about the time he composed his Quatre pièces, Op. 25. Like many composers who came of age during the late 1800s, French composer Florent Schmitt’s...
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Conductor Fabien Gabel talks about the strategy behind his October 2021...
Henri-Franck Beaupérin Recently, French conductor Fabien Gabel returned to the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse to lead a concert of music by composers from the 19th and early 20th centuries....
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Discovering the man behind the musician: The personal remembrances of French...
When the composer Florent Schmitt died in August 1958 at the age of nearly 88 years, many prominent musicians, scholars and journalists wrote words of tribute honoring the last of the “grand...
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