FLORENT SCHMITT (1870-1958): Complete Original Works for Piano Duet and Duo, Vol. 1 - 3 Rapsodies for 2 Pianos, Op. 53, 7 pièces for Piano Four-Hands, Op. 15, Rhapsodie parisienne for Piano Four-Hands.

Description: Schmitt was possibly second only to Schubert in the amount of duo and two-piano music he wrote. This volume contains the 7 pièces of 1899, a 32-minute suite of character pieces with French titles (Somnolence, Souvenir de Ribeaupierre, Scintillement etc.) in which influences from Grieg to Debussy are clothed in Schmitt's own original harmonies and bold timbral ideas, the unpublished Rhapsodie parisienne from 1900 whose score indicates it was intended to be orchestrated and which suggests the exuberant energy of Chabrier, and the three rapsodies of 1903-04, once recorded by Robert and Gaby Casadesus in 1956, with a bright and vigorous Française followed by a melancholy and Chopinesque Polonaise and a Viennoise full of the Viennese waltz. Invencia Piano Duo.