There are quite a few versions of La tragédie de Salomé available, but none more refined and silky than this one. The Buffalo Philharmonic is a polished orchestra and has a wonderful satin feel for French music. The smooth acoustic of Kleinhans Hall and Naxos’s customary transparency do the rest.

There’s no shortage of recordings of [La tragédie de Salomé], including excellent versions by Jean Martinon and Yan Pascal Tortelier, but Falletta’s version communicates the atmosphere, luxuriousness and power of Schmitt's score as well as any..The solo part [of the Légende] is performed by the Buffalo Philharmonic’s concertmaster Nikki Chooi with total conviction and assurance. Altogether a most desirable release.

The Buffalo players sound terrific in Schmitt’s two large-scale ‘Orientalist’ ballet suites, with a fabulously glossy proto-Hollywood sheen to the strings and some especially characterful playing from the cor anglais and trumpets; Falletta is mindful of both works’ origins in dance, and achieves a lovely shimmering transparency in passages that could easily seem overblown.