I have a pet theory that certain composers do their finest work with their lightest touch – and if you’ve never quite warmed to Ethel Smyth’s orchestral or choral music, here’s a disc that might just win you to her cause. Fête galante, dating from 1923, is a 45-minute opera-ballet, scored for chamber-size forces and brimming over with melody, fantasy and – as the story, a cross between Petrushka and a Watteau pastoral, gradually unfolds – some surprisingly strong emotions.

Smyth conceived it as a miniature fusion of all the arts, with Ballets Russes production values. Musically, it’s a product of that post-Great War rediscovery of the Baroque; think Pulcinella or Ravel’s Tombeau de Couperin. But in Smyth’s scenario (the libretto is adapted from a story by the banking heir Maurice Baring) these princes and Pierrots form a pair of interlocking love-triangles whose elegant emotional gavotte gradually darkens. The music, initially buoyant and playful, gradually clouds and grows eerie. Smyth’s instinct is so sure, and her ear for colour so engaging (there’s even a tiny, jangly onstage band of concertina, piano and banjo) that you barely sense the emerging tragedy until it’s too late.

I’d love to see it staged, and hopefully this delightful premiere recording will make that a lot more likely. It’s an ensemble piece in every sense, and under Odaline de la Martinez the singing of the cast is as light, lively and expressive as Lontano’s playing – perfectly weighted to the material, though Carolyn Dobbin’s Queen (sensuous as well as graceful) and Felix Kemp’s plangent, doomed Pierrot make a particular impression. The choral singing is equally well focused.

The coupling is The Happy Prince, a melodrama based on Oscar Wilde’s poem by the London-born composer Liza Lehmann (1862-1918); and as with all melodramas, you’ll have to decide for yourself whether Lehmann’s poetic, Parry ish solo piano score justifies sitting through the full 20 minute story. Certainly, it’s hard to imagine it delivered with more love or finesse than it receives here from Felicity Lott and Valerie Langfield. A trio of historic Smyth recordings from Adrian Boult makes a delightful encore to a very rewarding disc.