Frankfurt RSO (live stream), 21/01/2021
Dukas : La péri - Fanfare
Satie (orch. Debussy) : Gymnopédies Nos. 1 & 3
Schmitt : La tragédie de Salomé (Ambur Braid, soprano)
Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra
Alain Altinoglu
The main work in this concert - by quite some way - was the complete score of Florent Schmitt's La tragédie de Salomé. The Dukas and the Satie preceding it were by way of amuse-bouches, to put the listener into the right sound-world and the right ambience. La péri was also on the bill when the Tragédie... received the premiere of its 1912 incarnation, and its superb Fanfare makes a striking opening for any concert, here given a lustrous rendition by the Frankfurt brass section.
Satie and Debussy were friends, though they were not above exchanging some rather tart criticism regarding each other's music. Debussy apparently decided to orchestrate two of Satie's three Gymnopédies after hearing Satie play them, poorly, on the piano, as they are written. His orchestrations are exquisite, subtle and dreamy, particularly that of No. 3, and I've always wondered what was wrong with No. 2 that Debussy ignored it, because it would have been nice to have the complete set. Altinoglu took No. 1 a shade too slow for my liking, but the soft haze of sound was finely managed, and the mood delicate and restrained, with a fine solo from the orchestra's principal oboeist.
La tragédie de Salomé is undoubtedly Schmitt's best-known work, but not in its original form. Created in 1907 as a ballet, or more accurately a pantomime dansé, it starred the American-born dancer, actress and choreographer Loie Fuller, who took Paris by storm at the turn of the century with her ingenious free dance routines using huge, flowing silks and vivid lighting to create plays of light, shadow and movement unlike anything seen before. The ballet, set to a scenario by Robert d'Humières, was clearly strongly inspired by the Gustave Moreau paintings on the same subject, and Schmitt's music truly matches the intricate, sensual, fantastical atmosphere of those images.
The theatre in which this work was to be created being small, Schmitt was obliged to keep his orchestration down, to a 15-piece pit band, effectively, with single strings. Four years later, Schmitt revised the work very significantly, reducing the length by almost half, and increasing the orchestration substantially, adding an optional female chorus. In this form, it was first performed in concert, and then choreographed again, ending up in the repertoire of the Ballets Russes for a while. However, it's as a concert piece, usually labelled "Poème symphonique", that it has best survived to this day.
What we heard tonight seems to have been a kind of compromise version, because it was the full score, about an hour of music, but the orchestra certainly wasn't the tiny group originally required, although neither was it a full-scale symphony orchestra. Also, there was no female chorus, but a single soprano solo. There's no denying the interest in hearing large portions of a score that are rarely, if ever, heard. That said, Schmitt's condensation certainly extracts the best of his score, and intensifies the heady, exotic atmosphere of the work. While there are interesting passages, particularly just after Dance of Lightning, and going into the Dance of Fear, there's a certain amount of meandering, which is worth hearing for the scoring, but not so much for the progress of the piece overall. Nevertheless, this was a sumptuous reading, Altinoglu and the orchestra (of which he is the Principal Conductor-designate) luxuriating in the colours and textures of Schmitt's scoring, and the sinuous beauty of his melodies. They delivered a performance rich in sensuality and vibrancy, and an altogether absorbing experience.