Music Of Florent Schmitt – Andrè Clutytens And The Paris Conservatory Orchestra – 1950 – Past Daily Weekend Gramophone

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Schmitt: La Tragèdie de Salomè – Paris Conservatory Orchestra, Andrè Cluytens, cond. 1950 Besancon Festival – ORTF – Gordon Skene Sound Collection

The music of Florent Schmitt this weekend. A popular figure during the first four decades of the 20th Century, Florent Schmitt fell into obscurity shortly after his death in 1958. A composer of note during the time, but also a critic who made more than the usual number of enemies, his vocal indiscretions once prompted a publisher to refer to Schmitt as “an irresponsible lunatic”. And that may have had some bearing on his neglect in later years.

Schmitt wrote some 138 pieces during his lifetime, composing in most every style except for Opera. During the 1990s, his music started getting a revival of sorts, with a number of his unpublished works being discovered and played for the first time.

This weekend it’s a live performance of one of his  better known works, “La Tragèdie de Salomè as played by the Paris Conservatory Orchestra conducted by the legendary Andrè Cluytens during the 1950 Besançon Festival and recorded by the ORTF (Paris Radio).

Cluytens recorded this work commercially, but this performance hasn’t been issued.

Enjoy if you haven’t heard it yet. Enjoy again if you have heard it.

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