Review: Falletta and the Buffalo Phil take a journey into the orientalist world of Florent Schmitt

08 March 2020

Preceding Oriane on the program was another work by Schmitt, his Légende, Op. 66. It’s best-known as a saxophone composition, but Schmitt also prepared other arrangements for violin and viola. The piece, which featured BPO concertmaster Nikki Chooi, is moody and rhapsodic. Chooi’s interpretation took the generally dark colors of the music and gave them a special sheen. The most successful interpretations of Légende are all about sustaining the atmospherics, that that was certainly the case tonight.