Schmitt The Haunted Palace & Antony and Cleopatra

[Alan Howe]

...from Naxos, with the Buffalo Philharmonic under JoAnn Falletta:
http://www.naxos.com/news/default.asp?op=1172&displayMenu=Naxos_News&type=2
See also:
http://florentschmitt.com/

[sdtom]

Will look forward to the CD release.
Tom

[Revilod]

Yes. that's exciting news. I'm a big fan of "Salome".

[mjkFendrich]

After my dissapointing experiences with Falletta's (highly praised) 'Ilya Murometz' I am not so excited about this announcement.
We already have a superb recording of 'The Haunted Palace' from Chandos (Sao Paulo SO / YP Tortelier).

A long time ago I had an LP with a French recording of this work coupled with other symphonic works inspired
by E.A.Poe (Caplet's 'la Mort rouge' and some Debussy).

[sdtom]

After my dissapointing experiences with Falletta's (highly praised) 'Ilya Murometz' I am not so excited about this announcement.
We already have a superb recording of 'The Haunted Palace' from Chandos (Sao Paulo SO / YP Tortelier).

A long time ago I had an LP with a French recording of this work coupled with other symphonic works inspired
by E.A.Poe (Caplet's 'la Mort rouge' and some Debussy).

Ilya Murometz is a tough one. I'd give her another chance.
Tom

[Phillip Nones]

I, for one, am very pleased when anyone performs the works of Florent Schmitt.  I agree that Yan-Pascal Tortelier's recording of Le Palais hante is very good.  And I'm pleased that Leon Botstein/American Symphony and Georges Pretre/Monte-Carlo have also recorded that piece.  As for the Antony & Cleopatra, the suites have been recorded twice before. 

But that's still very sparse representation in recordings, which is what makes these Buffalo recordings such a welcome development.

What kind of quality can we expect?  Well, having traveled to Buffalo and seen the A+C suites performed in concert on two separate dates earlier this month, I have every expectation that the recording will be top-notch.  Stylistically, I prefer JoAnn Falletta's interpretation to the two existing recordings (Segerstam/Southwest German Radio and Mercier/Lorraine Symphony) in a variety of ways.  Plus, the music was extremely well-rehearsed, with very tight ensemble and great solo passages -- the BPO sounding clearly better to my ears than either of the recordings, which have their share of "fudged" passages in particularly gnarly spots in the score.

Bottom line, music lovers shouldn't worry about the quality of the upcoming recording.  Again, let's focus on the positive and be grateful for the musicians who are paying attention to this challenging but wonderful music.

[adriano]

I fully agree with you,  mjkFendrich

[Alan Howe]

As do I.

[sdtom]

looking forward to it.
Tom