Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra - Schmitt - Orchestral Works (2020) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

Florent Schmitt was a student of Massenet and Fauré, and winner of the coveted Prix de Rome. His impressionistic style blends influences ranging from Debussy to Wagner, with references to Stravinsky and other contemporaries. Conceived as a ballet but revised as a symphonic poem, La Tragédie de Salomé depicts Salome’s dangerous seductiveness with subtle magnificence. Narrative symbolism also applies to the evocative word painting of the exquisite Musique sur l’eau. The perilous saga of Oriane et le Prince d’Amour contrasts with the poetic tapestry of orchestral colours in Légende, in a version that replaces the original solo saxophone with violin.

"The Buffalo Philharmonic musicians and I are delighted to be releasing a second album of works by the extraordinary French composer Florent Schmitt, just as the music world marks the 150th anniversary of his birth, in September 2020. Schmitt is an extremely important part of French compositional development in the 20th century, and his strong original voice illuminates the period between impressionism and modernism in France in a way that no other composer does.

Florent Schmitt seemed fascinated by strong women of questionable virtue, and his La Tragédie de Salomé is a masterful retelling of the exotic beauty who dances for Herod and demands the head of John the Baptist as her reward. Equally thrilling is the alternation of gorgeous love music and wild orgiastic dances in Oriane et le Prince d'Amour.

Mezzo-soprano Susan Platts features in one of the most beautiful orchestral songs every composed, Musique sur l’eau, while superstar violinist Nikki Chooi is the radiant soloist in Légende, a brooding and ecstatic rhapsody never before heard in Schmitt’s version for violin." (JoAnn Falletta)

TRACKLIST

1. Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra - Pt. 1
2. Susan Platts - Pt. 2
3. Susan Platts - Musique sur l'eau, Op. 33 (Version for Voice & Orchestra)
4. Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra - Oriane et le prince d'amour, Op. 83bis
5. Nikki Chooi - Légende, Op. 66 (Version for Violin & Orchestra)



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