Schmitt: Orchestral Works

The French composer Florent Schmitt was educated at the Paris Conservatoire, where his teachers included Gabriel Fauré, Jules Massenet, Théodore Dubois, and Albert Lavignac. After winning the Prix de Rome in 1900, his late-Romantic style music was performed regularly in France until the Second World War. Thereafter, his work fell increasingly into oblivion and is rarely played today.

The focus of this album is the “Symphonie concertante” featuring pianist Peter Donohoe as soloist. This recording is only the second commercial release of the work. “Çançunik,” a two-part suite composed for a competition by the Compagnie française de radiophonie, won first prize and is released here on record for the first time. The program is rounded out by “Three Dances” and “Memorial,” orchestral versions of his own piano works created by the composer himself.