Composer: Florent Schmitt
Performer: Ambur Braid
Orchestra: Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Alain Altinoglu
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Alpha
Catalogue: ALPHA941
Release: 2024
Size: 689 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
La Tragédie de Salomé, Op. 50
01. I. Prélude
02. II. Deuxième tableau
03. III. Troisième Tableau
04. IV. Vif
05. V. Quatrième tableau
06. VI. Danse du paon. Introduction
07. VII. Danse du paon. Proprement dite
08. VIII. Cinquième tableau
09. IX. Danse des serpents. Introduction
10. X. Danse des serpents. Proprement dite
11. XI. Sixième tableau
12. XII. Les enchantements sur la mer
13. XIII. Animé
14. XIV. Danse de l’acier
15. XV. Animé
16. XVI. Lent mais chaleureux et soutenu
17. XVII. Animé
18. XVIII. Vif. Mouvement de la danse joyeuse
19. XIX. Chant d’Aiea
20. XX. Danse blanche
21. XXI. Très lent
22. XXII. Danse de l’effroi
23. Chant élégiaque, Op. 24
In 1907 Florent Schmitt composed music to accompany a ‘mimodrame’ danced by Loie Fuller, La Tragedie de Salome. His score is bursting with colour, energy and voluptuousness – and also with oriental influences stemming from his travels to Morocco and Constantinople, where he discovered the howling dervishes. The final scene features the heart-rending ‘Chant d’Aica’, an oriental melody sung by a soprano. This music, though bold and modern for the listeners of 1907, nonetheless aroused the admiration of another composer, Igor Stravinsky, to whom Schmitt dedicated the Symphonic Suite he subsequently derived from the work. However, Alain Altinoglu, at the helm of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra of which he has been Music Director since 2021, has chosen to record the original version of this landmark of early twentieth-century French music. The beautiful Chant elegiaque, in its 1911 version for cello and large orchestra, completes this programme.