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Florent Schmitt: Suites from 'Antoine et Cléopâtre' & Symphony No. 2
BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sakari Oramo
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 9th March 2018
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2018
The sultry, mysterious textures…are evocatively conjured by Oramo and the BBC Symphony players. Feverish, bacchanalian energies are unleashed in ‘Orgie et Danses’…[in the Symphony] Oramo does...
Florent Schmitt: Suites from 'Antoine et Cléopâtre' & Symphony No. 2
BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sakari Oramo
Purchase product
Awards:
-
Presto Recording of the Week, 9th March 2018
-
Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2018
The sultry, mysterious textures…are evocatively conjured by Oramo and the BBC Symphony players. Feverish, bacchanalian energies are unleashed in ‘Orgie et Danses’…[in the Symphony] Oramo does...
About
Making his debut on Chandos, Sakari Oramo, who with the BBC Symphony Orchestra this year has championed new and rarely performed works, presents in surround sound the extravagant musical world of Florent Schmitt. The recording follows two exceptional Barbican performances with the same forces, a ‘sensuous and exotic’ Antoine et Cléopâtre, according to the Financial Times (2016), and the first performance for nearly a dozen years of Symphony No. 2 (2017). The Second Symphony, the last major work by Schmitt, has nothing valedictory about it: as lavish and rhythmically sophisticated as his earlier music, emphatically bounding in fast passages and supple in slow, it also encompasses all the different musical expressions and styles that he had used over almost eight decades of composing. On the other hand, it is far from being an ‘old man’s piece’. ‘It is really exuberant — very, very inventive, and incredibly busy for everyone’, as Sakari Oramo explained in a BBC Radio 3 interview. The symphony is paired with the two orchestral suites from Antoine et Cléopâtre, music written for Shakespeare’s play, premiered in 1920 at the Paris Opéra, and very rarely recorded since then.
Contents and tracklist
- BBC Symphony Orchestra
- Sakari Oramo
- Recorded: 29 and 30 October 2017
- Recording Venue: Watford Colosseum
- BBC Symphony Orchestra
- Sakari Oramo
- Recorded: 29 and 30 October 2017
- Recording Venue: Watford Colosseum
- BBC Symphony Orchestra
- Sakari Oramo
- Recorded: 29 and 30 October 2017
- Recording Venue: Watford Colosseum
Spotlight on this release
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Music by Florent Schmitt conducted by Sakari Oramo
9th Mar 2018
James listens to a wonderful new recording of music by the neglected French composer Florent Schmitt, including his ballet suites, Antoine et Cléopâtre.
Awards and reviews
-
Presto Recording of the Week9th March 2018
-
Presto Recordings of the YearFinalist 2018
May 2018
The sultry, mysterious textures…are evocatively conjured by Oramo and the BBC Symphony players. Feverish, bacchanalian energies are unleashed in ‘Orgie et Danses’…[in the Symphony] Oramo does an especially fine job stitching a narrative thread together from the multiple shifts of mood and perspective…For the Symphony in particular, this splendidly recorded disc is worth investigating, especially if you know little or none of Schmitt’s music.
23rd February 2018
In this BBC Symphony Orchestra performance, conducted by Sakari Oramo and recorded with characteristic opulence by Chandos, the work comes across as an enjoyable indulgent orchestral showpiece- full of incident and variety. Schmitt’s ingratiating Gallic style is always appealing.
2nd March 2018
His music for Antoine et Cléopâtre is wonderfully evocative and sumptuous, like a cross between Debussy and Richard Strauss...Oramo is a most persuasive advocate of Schmitt’s music; it’s clear that he adores this music and revels in the lush harmonies on offer.
Classical Music April 2018
Beautifully recorded, this is a terrific introduction to the music of Florent Schmitt (1870-1958), presented in demonstration-standard SACD sound. The two suites from Antoine et Cléopâtre are astonishing – often Straussian, Ravelian, sensual and gestural. Scoring throughout is the work of a master, including some exquisite nocturnal sound-painting (‘Nuit au palais de la Reine’, Suite No 2). The BBC Symphony Orchestra sounds lush and decadent, the recording supporting its sound perfectly. [Symphony No. 2] The emotional core is the dark, deeply interior second movement, beautifully sculpted and balanced by Oramo; the finale is capricious yet complex. A superb release.
classicalsource.com February 2018
It is a fascinating and, indeed, compelling mixture, at all times securely handled by a composer who knows exactly what he is doing and why, and one who conveys that certainty to the listener. The result is late musical Impressionism of a very high order …Oramo proves himself yet again a master-conductor in obtaining such outstanding playing.
19th May 2018
Chandos's sound is impressive, and Oramo’s lustrous BBC Symphony Orchestra does Schmitt proud – let's hope that a follow-up is in the works.
Classical Ear June 2018
The Three-movement Symphony carries itself with an undemanding, if pleasing, blend of Gallic flair and finesse.
