{"id":34627,"date":"2016-02-27T11:59:03","date_gmt":"2016-02-27T16:59:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=34627"},"modified":"2016-03-05T08:59:53","modified_gmt":"2016-03-05T13:59:53","slug":"record-keeping-buffalo-philharmonic-orchestra-florent-schmitt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2016\/02\/27\/record-keeping-buffalo-philharmonic-orchestra-florent-schmitt\/","title":{"rendered":"RECORD KEEPING | Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra\/JoAnn Falletta: Florent Schmitt"},"content":{"rendered":"

The combination of a Buffalo Philharmonic in fine form and Falletta\u2019s imaginative programming makes for satisfying music-making.<\/h3>\n
\"Florent
Florent Schmitt: Anthony & Cleopatra, Suites No. 1 & 2 – The Haunted Palace, Op. 49<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Florent Schmitt: Antoine et Cl\u00e9op\u00e2tre \u2013 Six Symphonic Episodes in Two Suites After Shakespeare. Le Palais hant\u00e9 Op. 49 \u2013 Symphonic Study for \u201cThe Haunted Castle\u201d by Edgar Allan Poe. Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra\/JoAnn Falletta. Naxos. Total Time: 59.43.<\/h3>\n

The city of Buffalo is only 100 miles from Toronto, and as I mentioned in a previous article, it has an excellent orchestra with a distinguished history. Its conductors have included such luminaries as William Steinberg, Josef Krips, Lukas Foss, Michael Tilson Thomas, Semyon Bychkov, and the present music director, JoAnn Falletta.\u00a0 Steinberg and Krips brought authority in the German and Austrian classics, and Foss brought his compositional genius as well as a dedication to the newest developments in contemporary music. Tilson Thomas was a young conducting phenomenon when he went to Buffalo \u2013 a prot\u00e9g\u00e9e of Leonard Bernstein, no less \u2013 and reveled in exploring a wide repertoire. Semyon Bychov was exemplary in Russian music \u2013 I remember vividly a great performance of the Shostakovich Fifth \u2013 and Falletta has shown a great affinity for lesser-known music. It is also noteworthy that, along with Marin Alsop in Baltimore, Falletta is one of the few female conductors of a major orchestra in North America.<\/p>\n

Over the years, I have heard many concerts in Buffalo\u2019s Kleinhans Music Hall, and I have rarely been disappointed. I urge Toronto music-lovers to do the same. The combination of a Buffalo Philharmonic in fine form and Falletta\u2019s imaginative programming makes for satisfying music-making.<\/p>\n

Naxos\u2019 ongoing program with the Buffalo Philharmonic has new releases coming at the rate of one or two each year. Among the most important are two discs devoted to the music of Austrian composer Marcel Tyberg (1893-1944), who died in Auschwitz at the age of 51. Tyberg\u2019s music, which was championed by Rafael Kubelik, who performed it often, deserves to be better-known.<\/p>\n

This latest Naxos release features little-known music by French composer Florent Schmitt (1870-1958), who studied with Massenet and Faur\u00e9 and was one of his Maurice Ravel\u2019s closest friends.<\/p>\n

Schmitt\u2019s incidental music for Shakespeare\u2019s Antony and Cleopatra<\/em> dates from a 1920 production of the play at the Paris Op\u00e9ra. What a production that must have been. Can you imagine a production of the play with over one hundred musicians in the pit? Our own Stratford Festival mounts first-class Shakespeare productions year in and year out, but it rarely hires more than half a dozen musicians to play the incidental music. Schmitt\u2019s music is truly symphonic and seethes with emotion, but it surely must have overwhelmed the play. To my ears, the music is not particularly memorable in itself but would have been ideal for silent films of the period.<\/p>\n

Schmitt\u2019s Study for \u201cThe Haunted Palace\u201d<\/em>, composed in 1904, is more of the same. In this case, the music was inspired by a poem by Edgar Allan Poe and vividly conveys the fantastical elements of Poe\u2019s conception. Again Schmitt uses a very large orchestra, and his highly chromatic and impassioned music recalls Schoenberg\u2019s symphonic poem Pelleas und Melisande<\/em> Op. 5 from the same period. Falletta and her performers are totally into the music, and the sound quality is rich and full.<\/p>\n

Time to shuffle off to Buffalo? Check out the orchestra\u2019s website at www.bpo.org<\/a>. Still to come this season are several well-planned programs, including a pair of concerts combining Novak\u2019s In the Tatra Mountains<\/em> and Richard Strauss\u2019 Alpine Symphony<\/em> (June 4\/5). The recently announced 2016-17 season includes concerts honouring the friendship between Canada and the United States, featuring Quebec pianist Alain Lef\u00e8vre playing works from both countries. Elsewhere in the season, Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt appears playing Bach concertos, and JoAnn Falletta conducts two Scriabin symphonies.<\/p>\n

Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra: Florent Schmitt<\/strong> is available for purchase via\u00a0Amazon.com<\/a>\u00a0and iTunes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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The combination of a Buffalo Philharmonic in fine form and Falletta\u2019s imaginative programming makes for satisfying music-making.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":34628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5723,77,5739,51,52],"tags":[5935,5936,5937],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/02\/81B68aXfhbL._SL1429_.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-90v","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34627"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34627"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34857,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34627\/revisions\/34857"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34627"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=34627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}