On France.tv, Florent Schmitt, great forgotten of French music

FRANCE.TV/CULTUREBOX – ON DEMAND – CONCERT

If we dared to use a telephone formula worthy of the parodic newscasts of Dummies on the Canal of yesteryear, we would write: “A very beautiful program as we would like to hear more of it. And it is indeed written, because seeing Psalm XLVII, op. 38 (1904), by Florent Schmitt (1870-1958) has become almost as rare as the production of two-place coffins, when the work was famous and admired in its time.

Add Dreams, op. 65 (1915), a short symphonic poem with heavily opiate harmony, is an additional luxury (provided by conductor Fabien Gabel, who conducted it around the world) that we do not sulk. Especially since the rest of the program is more familiar: Le Chant du Rossignol (1917), by Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971), and the very popular (and galloping) Concerto for two pianos (1932), by Francis Poulenc ( 1899-1963).

Schmitt’s Psalm is what is known as an “Envoy from Rome”, that is, one of the compositions that the winners of the Prix de Rome were required to deliver to the Institut, in Paris, during their stay in the Académie de France, housed in the sumptuous Villa Medici in the Eternal City. Schmitt had passed the famous competition in 1897, had only obtained a second Grand Prix before winning the first, in 1900.

Repertoire for two pianos

The piece (for soprano, choir, organ and orchestra) is opulent and contrasts naturally with some of what French music of the time was producing (if one thinks of Debussy and Ravel, in particular). But this tone is also explained by the academic style to which the candidates and winners of the Prix de Rome had to subscribe. The interpretation must, however, avoid a “peplum” side that does not serve the work. A pitfall that, alas!, the rather pachydermic Chœur de Radio France does not avoid.

In the first part, Katia and Marielle Labèque played one of their hobbyhorses, Poulenc’s Concerto. The two-piano concertante repertoire is not full of masterpieces, so they often perform it all over the world, alongside concertos by Mozart, Mendelssohn or Martinu (when they are not playing the recent double concertos by Nico Muhly or Bryce Dessner, which they commissioned).

For a long time they interpreted the slow movement of Poulenc’s Concerto, very audibly inspired by Mozart, with too much affectation, even fuss, while Poulenc himself insisted that it be played straight and without pathos – example given by his own interpretation on disc with the pianist Jacques February (1900-1979).

And here is that the Labèques have completely revised their conception: tempo going without untimely rubato; it’s easy as pie and fresh as the obvious! And extraordinary enough to be underlined by two very famous musicians who still continue, after more than fifty years of career but with an enviable youthfulness, to question themselves and to move forward in their search for interpretation and directory.