Most of us, if we know the music of Florent Schmitt (1870–1958) at all, are familiar with La Tragédie de Salomé and perhaps his setting of Psalm 47. The more of his music that I encounter, the more I find him an extremely satisfying composer on the second rung from the top. Certainly Debussy and Ravel, and quite probably Fauré, occupy a higher rung, but that does not mean Schmitt should be easily dismissed. His music has character and a strong presence, and is brilliantly crafted. He wrote in a range of musical styles, as demonstrated by the wildly different works on this disc, but if that is a serious accusation against a composer, the first charges can be filed against Stravinsky.

Florent Schmitt (1870–1958) avoided labels of all sorts. His early music, like this piano quintet, reminds me of a Gallic Richard Strauss: the three movements in the 58-minute work bristle with thematic material and dense, sinewy polyphonic textures. A Tour d’Anches (1939–43)—for piano, oboe, clarinet, and bassoon—is more spare, less chromatic, and very witty. It’s hard to imagine two pieces from the same composer that differ as much as these.

The performances and sound engineering are first-rate, and Naxos’s price makes the disc a justifiable frivolous purchase for people looking slightly off the beaten path for early 20th Century French music.

A student of Fauré and Massenet, and contemporary and colleague of Debussy, Ravel, and Stravinsky, composer Florent Schmitt’s exceptional notoriety diminished rapidly after his death in 1958. Now, his name is little mentioned and his music infrequently heard. He composed actively for much of his 88-year lifespan, contributing literature to many different genres. This Naxos album focuses on two of his more noteworthy chamber music compositions, the Op. 51 Piano Quintet of 1908 and Á tour d’anches, Op. 97, of 1943. The piano quintet, clocking in at nearly an hour, is one of the lengthiest and most challenging in the repertoire. There are moments when Schmitt’s writing could easily be confused as Ravel’s, while at other times he treads his own path, encouraging virtuosic displays. Á tour d’anches, written for piano, oboe, clarinet, and bassoon is a much more modern-sounding composition in which Schmitt’s French roots are still quite noticeable. Giving its best attempts at reviving Schmitt’s works is the Soliste-Ensemble Berlin. The Piano Quintet is performed with laudable endurance, variety of colors and textures, and clear and exciting commitment to the score. What’s lacking from the string players, however, is consistently reliable intonation. Even with the frequent pitch problems, listeners will still enjoy the exposure to this titanic chamber work and wonder why Schmitt’s works are not performed for often. Á tour d’anches is treated to the same level of integrity and commitment, but without the intonation issues of the quintet, making it the stronger performance on the disc.