The annual festival mounted jointly by Radio France and the Orchestre National de Montepellier Languedoc-Roussillon is admirable in its determination to leave the beaten track of standard repertoire as often as possible. However, in 2006 it fell flat on its face with this pair of little-known works by Ildebrando Pizzetti.

They date from 1929-30, when Pizzetti was approaching 50 and taking every opportunity to indulge in his own fervent brand of idealised and reactionary nationalism. Canti della stagione alta (not called “concerto” by the composer) actually begins rather attractively, in the vein of Rachmaninov’s Third Concerto, though the melody is more modal, more potentially folk-like, than in that mighty Russian work. However, what happens over the next 36 minutes is so much episodic bombast. A spirit of self-indulgent rhapsodising predominates and prevents what could have been an attempt to depict some kind of summery pastoral idyll (the “high season” of the title) from gaining more than a fleeting foothold on the listener’s attention.

If possible, the Rondò Veneziano is even worse, managing to be remorselessly dense, devoid of any expressive subtlety, and making nonsense of Pizzetti’s pretensions to have found inspiration in the pure melody of Gregorian chant. The audience in Montpellier seems to have enjoyed it all, but the radio recording can do little to provide palatable textures and balances when the composer has so determinedly resisted them.