Florent Schmitt
It’s 29 May 1913 and, in the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, the premiere of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring is producing one of those splendid scandales in which the city specialises. In the midst of the uproar, with the aristos in their boxes shouting, hooting and blowing on their hollow door keys, a stentorian voice breaks through: ‘Taisez-vous, garces du seizième!’ ‘Shut your gobs, you posh sluts!’
‘If I hadn’t hit the bull’s eye this year,’ said Schmitt, ‘I’d have had to jump in the lake’
It is the voice of the composer Florent Schmitt – and not the first or last time it will be heard sowing discord and aggravation. Of course, this sort of behaviour is not recommended if you want to make friends and influence people, and in Schmitt’s case it has undoubtedly gone some way to marginalising him in the field of French culture. So if his name is unknown to
