Jan Järvlepp (b1953 in Ottawa) is a Canadian composer of Finnish-Estonian parentage. The works here are direct in expression, colourfully – even gaudily – orchestrated and positively, at times relentlessly postmodernist. The title work, Concerto 2000, is a stylistically cosmopolitan flute concerto, written at the millennium for Pascale Margely, who performs it very nimbly here, alive to its frequent lyrical impulses. The three movements fall into the traditional fast-slow-fast pattern, the dynamic outer movements framing a large, highly evocative Nocturne, inspired (the composer tells us) by Arabic singing. The Hispanic-sounding opening toccata (‘Caliente!’) features prominent percussion mimicking flamenco rhythms while the uproarious concluding ‘Fire, Ice and Vodka’ fuses Finnish folk song, light music and drinking customs!

The five couplings are more mixed, all flirting variously with folk and pop music idioms – with occasional hints of Copland or Harris – and existing in alternate versions. The straight-faced Brass Dance (2018) and Street Music (2016) both derive from Järvlepp’s Symphony for brass and percussion (2011) – the second and final movements, respectively – and work effectively as independent pieces. The bright if overlong toccata Pierrot solaire (1998, slyly ‘opposite’ to Schoenberg’s seminal work), originated as a 1994 quintet for flute, violin, double bass, percussion and piano, while Camerata Music (1989) was at first an octet for keyboards, flute, guitar and cello, composed for some of Järvlepp’s teaching colleagues, recast into a convincing orchestral work that same year. The more impassioned In memoriam (2016) was written during the composer’s brother’s terminal illness and can be played by string orchestra (as here, movingly, by the Moravian Philharmonic) or quintet.

The performances by all three orchestras and conductors are thoroughly engaging and all sound well prepared. That of Concerto 2000 is the most vivid, unsurprisingly, the musicians responding enthusiastically to a work that sounds fun to play. Navona’s sound is clean and natural.