With his reputation irrevocably tarnished by his far right politics, Florent Schmitt is one of the more problematic figures of 20th-century French music. Pro-Nazi during the 1930s and early ’40s, he is most frequently remembered for a shameful episode at the Salle Pleyel in 1933, when he rose to his feet during a concert of Kurt Weill’s music shouting, ‘Heil Hitler! Enough music by German refugees!’ During the Second World War, he was, needless to say, pro-Vichy and an active collaborator.

Until the late 1920s, however, he was much respected, notably by Delius (whose vocal scores he edited), Stravinsky and Diaghilev, who revived his 1907 ballet La tragédie de Salomé, still his best-known score, as a vehicle for Karsavina in 1913. The two works recorded here are representative of his eclectic style, heavily indebted to Debussy and Ravel, though his extrovert orchestration looks back through early Stravinsky to Rimsky-Korsakov.

Antoine et Cléopâtre consists of two symphonic suites reworking incidental music for a 1920 Paris production of André Gide’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s play. Schmitt travelled widely in North Africa and his orientally inflected melodies have considerable claims to authenticity. A brassy evocation of Pompey’s encampment and a thumping, Sacre-ish depiction of the Battle of Actium keep it the right side of self-indulgence.

The earlier (1904) Le palais hanté – based on a poem by Edgar Allan Poe interpolated into The Fall of the House of Usher – is altogether darker, combining overtones of Fauré (Schmitt’s teacher) and Debussy’s Pelléas. Conducted by JoAnn Falletta, the performances are admirably stylish, while the Buffalo Philharmonic boast nicely dexterous strings and woodwind. The recording itself is a bit recessed, and not as immediate as Yan Pascal Tortelier’s Schmitt disc (Chandos, 9/11), which also includes Le palais hanté.