A composer often underestimated, Piers Hellawell has amassed a substantial output which has been the focus of several discs, this latest taking in six works from almost two decades of creativity. Earliest is Jan Palač and the Flaming Skier (1990), its commemorating of those who fell at the collapse of the Iron Curtain expressed in obliquely blues-inflected terms. The piano pieces confirm an idiomatic and, moreover, unselfconscious approach to the medium – the inventive play on clusters and chorales of Airs, Waters and Floating Islands (1995) being complemented by the breezily engaging motivic variants of Basho (1997). Degrees of Separation (2004) is a lucid and luminous orchestral study in gradually decelerating momentum, while Etruscan Games (2007) is nominally a four-movement piano trio – the expressive essence of its initial three movements reconfigured and elaborated during the lengthy and cumulative finale. Most impressive, however, is Agricolas (2008), its two movements comprising six main sections connected by bridge passages analogous to the objects and supports found in sculpture, and whose Epilogue is a synthesis of affecting poise.

The performances do the music proud, not least the limpidly precise pianism of Mary Dullea and soulful clarinet-playing of Robert Plane, while the sound has a clarity and perspective equally evident in solo and chamber as in orchestral pieces. Hellawell himself contributes extensive booklet-notes in which his concern for the efficacy of work titles leads him to some thought-provoking conclusions – a quality that is seldom, if ever, absent from his compositions.