Biljana Urban speaks with Phillip Nones about her latest album of music by Florent Schmitt

French composer Florent Schmitt (1870–1958) wrote a substantial number of works for piano over a period of more than fifty years. A surprising number of them, however, still await their first commercial recordings, in some cases more than a century after they were created. Biljana Urban’s latest release on the Grand Piano label (GP850) includes the world premiere recordings of five of them.

Phillip Nones, an authority on the music of Florent Schmitt, recently spoke with Biljana about her strategy in arriving at the programme for the album, how she became aware of and attracted to Schmitt’s output, her Francophile attachments, and the background to the recording’s production. He also gained an insight into the title of her latest release – Solitude.

To read the full article, which is posted on Phillip Nones’ website devoted to the composition, background and performance of Schmitt’s music, follow this link.