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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.
Orchestral Suite No.1 from 'Antoine et Cléopâtre', Op.69 (1920) 23:29
1. IAntoine et Cléopâtre. Assez lent - Même mouvement 12:40
2. IILe Camp de Pompée. Large 4:20
3. IIIBataille d'Actium. Animé - Précipitez le mouvement 6:29
Orchestral Suite No.2 from 'Antoine et Cléopâtre', Op.69 (1920) 26:51
4. INuit au palais de la Reine. Très modéré - Un peu plus allant - Premier mouvement 7:52
5 .IIOrgie et Danses. Très animé - Moins vite - Premier mouvement - 11:01
6. IIILe Tombeau de Cléopâtre. Lent - Animez peu à peu - 7:58
Symphony No.2, Op.13727:35
7. IAssez animé - Moins vite, voire très calme - Mouvement initial (Animé) - Calme - 8:05
8. IILent sans excès 10:11
9. IIIAnimé - Lent - Animé - Calme - Mouvement animé 9:19
Total time: 77:57 |
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