Cleopatra Schmitt

French composer Florent Schmitt, a part of Ravel's Les Apaches group around 1900, has received renewed attention from recording companies, and this release is part of a group of Schmitt discs from Chandos, which has the engineering chops to handle their bulk. The suites from Antoine et Cléopâtre here were part of the music written for a six-hour ballet commissioned by dancer Ida Rubinstein.

This CD presents three of the most well known and most performed concertos for oboe in the instrument’s repertoire. It is often said that the classical era is full of intrigue and mystery, and the history of music is no exception. However, time hides as much as it enlightens, and the ancient adage “Veritas filia Temporis” (Truth is the daughter of Time) often solves these riddles.

This world premiere recording documents one of the most exciting discoveries in classical music in recent times. Displaying Schmitt working in both the symphonic and chamber mediums, this disc presents a musical portrait of this multifaceted 18th century German Dutch master composer…

At the end of the 17th century, the violin is on the point of achieving artistic supremacy all over Europe. England remains the last stronghold of the viola, the quintessential aristocratic instrument, carrying the values of nobility and emotion which music is supposed to incarnate and taking at the time French style as a model. It was a musician hailing from Naples who was to introduce London to the delights of the violin and the spice of Italian music, for which the British would become passionate.