If Swedish music often seems to present a case of missed opportunities, there is no lack of worthy composers with such as Fredrik Hagstedt (b1975) hardly wanting in ambition. Both of these works are on a large scale – no doubt encouraged by the imposing precedent of Allan Pettersson’s Seven Sonatas for Two Violins, of which Duo Gelland has previously made a fine recording (BIS). Certainly the Sinfonia per due violini (2011) makes comparable demands on technique and stamina: playing for almost 45 minutes, the work approximates to the classical archetype to the extent that a developmental aspect runs throughout each of its four movements, abetted by an idiom that admits freely of chromatic and modal elements. The outcome is an absorbing if overly prolix conception where the whole proves less than the sum of its often impressive parts.

Depurazione (2002) sustains its 28-minute span more completely. It unfolds as three continuous sections whose initial incisiveness subsides into an inward threnody before this opens out into a finely wrought apotheosis that has been purged of all excess rhetoric. A commanding account from Duo Gelland is enhanced by a spacious church ambience, while the composer’s booklet-notes undeniably offer much on which to ponder. Those suitably intrigued can watch a short film about the premiere of the Sinfonia on Hagstedt’s website (www.medvetenhetsverkstad.se).