Florent SCHMITT (1870-1957)
Psalm 47 - Gloire au Seigneur for soprano, chorus and orchestra (1904) [27:21]
La Tragédie de Salome for orchestra with chorus (1907) [27:18]
Andrea Guiot (soprano); Gaston Litaize (organ)
French National Radio Orchestra and Chorus/Jean Martinon
rec. 14 October 1972, Salle Wagram, Paris; Source used for Transfer: EMI LP
HIGH DEFINITION TAPE TRANSFERS HDCD 191 [54:39]
Schmitt is undergoing something of a renaissance on record. Far too long delayed in my opinion. This disc from HDCD takes us back to its earliest stirrings and to the heyday of the LP era in the early 1970s. HDCD tell us that the transfer was made from an EMI LP rather than their usual commercial reels. I wondered if the results would be as good. Whether through TLC or the mint state of the LP the results are fine if rather different from the Decca revivals this company has been responsible for. The disc enshrines a rather special pair of performances in which an Old Testament fervour shakes the boughs. There’s no doubting the passion of all involved in these lavish scores and the committed singing in Psalm 47 is impressive indeed. The massed singing caught with fidelity to its huge spirit by recording producer, René Challan and engineer, Paul Vavasseur in Paris’s Salle Wagram is gloriously warm with an analogue halo. This is a very different effect from the intoxicating balance and sound image secured by the Decca engineers in another HDCD triumph – their miraculously fine revivification of reel-to-reel tapes of Jose Sivo’s Prokofiev Violin Concerto No. 1 on HDCD 173. It is just as satisfying to the musical soul. Do take time to appreciate the gentle curve into silence from Andrea Guiot about ten minutes in – why did we not hear more from her? The Psalm communicates in intimacy from time to time but more often there is a sort of roaring glory about it in which the choirs address the heavens and the organ, brass and orchestra rise to dazzlingly sunny heights worthy of a Turner canvas. It recalled for me the surging dense-packed exultation in Delius’s A Mass of Life. It is no wonder that this impressed the judges enough to win the Prix de Rome on Schmitt’s fifth attempt in 1904, aged 30. La Tragédie de Salome lisps in mystic oriental numbers. It’s as beguilingly exotic as Rimsky-Korsakov’s Antar with which it shares a sultry atmosphere. In fairness Schmitt does not stud his work with a profusion of melody in the same way as Rimsky in Antar. On the other hand there is a more intense charge of sensuality about the Schmitt. It was premiered in a reduced orchestral form on 9 November 1907 as a mute-drama. Emerging in full orchestral raiment on 8 January 1911 at the Concerts Colonnes in Paris, the real éclat came in a fully worked out ballet in Paris on 22 April 1912 with the ballerina Natasha Trouhanova. The extended score can be heard on Marco Polo 8.223448 with Patrick Davin conducting the Rheinland-Pfalz Philharmonic Orchestra and the soprano Marie-Paul Fayt. The present coupling began life as a Pathé-Marconi LP ASD 2892 which was then reissued as an early CD transfer on EMI Classics CDC 7 49748 2. As for comparisons: If you must have the most up to date digital sound then go for the Hyperion version from Thierry Fischer. Ffor economy and a further selection of Schmitt works try the excellent Erato Janowski double. Do also have a look at Leslie De’Ath’s fine Schmitt article. If you favour the hyper-ventilating ecstatic approach don’t miss this HDCD version.
Rob Barnett