The name of Florent Schmitt surfaces but infrequently on records issued in this country: when it has done so, it has nearly always been with one of his early works. (The only exceptions have been the string Janiana and the vivacious sextet for clarinets composed at the age of 82.) Ignorance of his output after his famous dance-drama La tragedie de Salome (1907) is widespread; so we should thank Pierre Stoll for his enterprise in recording—for the first time, unless I am mistaken—three works Schmitt wrote in his late fifties and middle sixties.
The earliest here, and perhaps the best, is the Ronde burlesque (1927), which may indeed be, by its title and the composer's own comment on it, a Satie-esque legpull, but sounds more like Vuillermoz's suggestion (quoted in the score) of the medieval Dance of Death. Grotesque rather than burlesque, in fact: its febrile gaiety, grimacing gestures and sardonic mockery are, to my ear, distinctly sinister. In memoriam is a somewhat unbalanced justaposition of a long, often beautiful, threnody (Cippus feralis), evoking an austere antique atmosphere, which rises to a powerful climax, and a short, noisy and dissonant scherzo on the 'musical letters' of his former teacher Faure's name, which is in fact a rather awkward orchestration of a piano piece composed 15 years earlier. The most substantial work here is the ''suite'' (can one movement constitute a suite?) from the 'choreographic tragedy' Oriane and the prince of love (originally Oriane the peerless), written in 1934 for Ida Rubinstein. The story, centring on a sixteenth-century insatiable and cruel beauty in Avignon and her eventual violent end, offered Schmitt plentiful opportunities to indulge his taste for mysterious atmosphere, voluptuous orchestral colour and barbaric splendour. Like much of his music, its texture is somewhat over-ripe, and the 20-minute movement does seem on the long side through lack of sufficiently memorable themes, but the workmanship and orchestral mastery are not to be denied. The Rhineland orchestra, if not of the first rank, puts up spirited and colourful performances, and the recording (originally made for the SWF radio) is very acceptable.'