Salome in Paris

Just caught the tail end of a digital radio broadcast of a favourite rarity of mine, the symphonic poem La tragedie de Salome by French composer Florent Schmitt.  This was a new recording by the Orchestra Metropolitain de Montreal, paired with Cesar Franck's well-known Symphonie, and conducted by Yannick Nezet-Seguin. It was released in February 2011.

This piece began life as an hour-long ballet score with chamber orchestra, and Schmitt later rewrote it for full orchestra with women's chorus and soprano solo offstage.  It's also acceptable to perform it with a solo oboe substituting for the voices -- which is how the Toronto Symphony did it last season -- but the version with voices is far preferable.  In rewriting, Schmitt also tightened the score up to a 2-part work that lasts about 25-28 minutes, give or take a second or three.

The first time I heard it, I was immediately captivated by the atmospheric prelude depicting night over the Dead Sea, with a solo oboe playing a plangent tune.  The  first part of the tone poem ends with Salome adorning herself with jewels, and dancing vigorously before the throne of Herod.

The second part begins with a fantastic vision of spectres from Sodom and Gomorrah appearing over the water.  Salome demands the head of John the Baptist and dances with it, then hurls it into the sea.  But the head reappears to her as a ghastly vision, and flee as she will she cannot escape.  Her Dance of Terror ends the piece in a cataclysmic uproar.

Schmitt in this score revealed a mastery of orchestral colour every bit the equal of his contemporaries Debussy and Ravel.  The light shimmering textures of the spectral music at the beginning of part 2 are a classic example of how to depict light in music.  Not only that, but there's a lot of rhythmic life in the score as well.  Salome's Dance with the Head hurtles headlong in a fast 7/8 tempo, and the Dance of Terror is in a heavy 5/4 with vicious stabbing cross-rhythms breaking up the already jagged metre.

Debussy expressed admiration for this music, a fact which (to me) makes its relative neglect all the more surprising.  Jean Martinon recorded a very good stereo LP for EMI in harness with Schmitt's setting of Psalm 47 (about which more in a minute).  Years later, Marek Janowski repeated the same coupling for Radio France on an Erato CD.  The digital sound copes splendidly with the huge climaxes of both pieces, but the CD was transferred at a disappointingly low level -- you do have to crank up the sound more than usual.  All things considered, Martinon's recording has the edge as a performance.

Now: about that version of Psalm 47.  It's a cantata in the grand tradition, again about 27 minutes long, with full chorus and soprano soloist.  The chorus gets the best of the work, and the full orchestra and organ make a great impact.  Much of the work again is in 5/4 tempo, clearly illustrating the words "frappez les mains" ("clap your hands"), and it is this 5/4 tempo that eventually leads the energetic conclusion after the final choral cry of "Gloire au Seigneur" (Glory to the Lord).  In between, the soprano has a long lyrical solo which sets one single line of the text in an extended gentle interlude that forms a central "slow movement".  After that, the composer illustrates "Dieu est monte" ("God is gone up") with a long slow crescendo that rises, section by section, from the second basses to the top sopranos of the chorus before the 5/4 jubilation erupts again.

These are both spectacular works.  Nezet-Seguin's recording will serve for Salome, but if you can possibly find one of the earlier ones where that piece is partnered with the Psalm, go for it!