Schmitt, Florent (1870-1958)

[Serial_Apologist]

I thought I should draw attention to this rather wonderful site:

http://florentschmitt.com/florent-schmitt-french-composer/

There are numerous fascinating articles to be found by surfing the right hand side of the page: details on individual works (including the one discussed on the forum yesterday) and the composer's relationships with other contemporary composers, including Stravinsky.

Schmitt tends to get unjustly overlooked in many discussions and papers on French modern music. Here's one place to start a redress.

[Richard Barrett]

Schmitt tends to get unjustly overlooked in many discussions and papers on French modern music.

No doubt his having been a Nazi sympathiser and collaborator has something to do with this!

[ahinton]

No doubt his having been a Nazi sympathiser and collaborator has something to do with this!

No doubt indeed years ago but whether and to what extent this might still pertain is arguably open to question. It seems that, in addition, he could be pretty unpleasant to others in his profession, especially in his rôle as a critic but, despite all of that, I find it difficult to believe that he was other than one of the finest French composers who was born between Debussy and Ravel - Magnard, Roussel, Kœchlin et al notwithstanding...

[Tony Halstead]

No doubt indeed years ago but whether and to what extent this might still pertain is arguably open to question. It seems that, in addition, he could be pretty unpleasant to others in his profession, especially in his rôle as a critic but, despite all of that, I find it difficult to believe that he was other than one of the finest French composers who was born between Debussy and Ravel - Magnard, Roussel, Kœchlin et al notwithstanding...

His Symphony for Strings op 101 ('Janiana') is a masterpiece IMHO. I well remember first hearing it in about 1968 on the BBC 'Innocent Ear' programme (they used the then fairly recent 1966 Paillard recording) and marvelling at the phenomenon of a 'non-film-music' piece for strings that sustained my interest for about 20 minutes, encapsulating the influences of e.g. Ravel, Vaughan Williams, Hindemith, Walton, and even Delius ( not much).