Astonishingly, the Belgian composer, organist and pianist Joseph Jongen (1873-1953) entered the Liège Conservatoire at the age of just eight. So one can imagine the gifts bestowed upon a musician who was at one time considered the greatest living Belgian composer and who is today chiefly remembered for his organ music.

This is Volume 85 in Phaedra’s In Flanders’ Fields series, which aims to give listeners some idea of the richness and beauty of Flemish and Belgian classical music, past and present, performed by Flemish musicians. According to Phaedra’s website, the enterprising Flemish label wants to shine “a light on music by composers from the Low Countries, especially from Flanders and Wallonia… to save them from indifference and oblivion.”

 Here the spotlight is on Jongen’s chamber music for winds, with and without piano. The earliest work is the Lied for horn and piano; the most mature, the Concerto, Op. 124 for woodwind quintet (1942). 5 Beaufort (the Brussels Woodwind Quintet), which comprises players from the National Orchestra of Belgium, and Belgian pianist Hans Ryckelynck, choose however to open with the uncharacteristically modernist Rhapsodie, Op. 70 for woodwind quintet and piano (1922).

The remaining works are an attractive blend of Saxon late-Romanticism and Gallic charm – think Franck at his most amiable, or maybe a mix of Richard Strauss and the French impressionists. One of the most persuasive examples of the latters’ influence is the ravishing Danse Lente, Op. 54 for flute and piano, while the Concerto and the Deux Pièces, Op. 98, both for woodwind quintet, find Jongen’s voice at its most distinctive: that of a master colourist with an instinctive feel for the fragrant weft of modal melody. Performances are impeccable, as is the detailed, sympathetic recording.