Autograph postcard signed.
Oblong 12mo. 1 p. With autograph address.
€ 240.00
To the singer Marie-Alice Garcet de Vauresmont, announcing a visit and mentioning the performance of one of his compositions: "Je viendrai si vous voulez au dimanche vers 5 h, le 5 ou le 12 Xbre, comme vous me direz. Tr[istesse] au jardin a été chanté jeudi chez Chevillard. Mais si [...] voulait le jouer j'en serais naturellement enchanté. Merci de votre aimable proposition [...]".
"Tristesse au jardin", op. 52 for voice and orchestra, formed part of Schmitt's cycle "Poèmes des lacs", composed between 1897 and 1901. It was based on a poem by the satirical poet and anarchist Laurent Tailhade. Schmitt's today little-known composition is on a par with comparable song cycles by Debussy, Duprac, or Ravel. Indeed, the first documented performance of parts of the "Poèmes des lacs", although without "Tristesse au jardin", was a joint concert of Florent Schmitt and Maurice Ravel in Le Havre in 1907, with both composers performing on piano with a soprano soloist. Schmitt was among the most frequently performed French composers during the first decades of the 20th century but his works soon fell into relative neglect. The 1990s saw a minor Schmitt revival, and several of his compositions have since been recorded.
On a picture postcard showing the Marble Arch near Hyde Park. A few millimetres of the right border have been torn off (no text loss).
