Prize-winning harpist Lavinia Meijer has a fascinating background. Born in Korea, she was adopted by a Dutch family and now lives in the Netherlands. Her brilliance as a harpist is amply demonstrated in all of the pieces making up this recital. Britten’s Suite was commissioned by Welsh harpist Osian Ellis, which prompted Britten to make the last of the five movements a set of variations on a Welsh hymn tune, St Denio. That is the most substantial movement, for otherwise the writing shows the composer’s genius in exploiting the technical possibilities of the instrument, with spectacular glissandos and chordal effects, but has little of the originality that generally commands attention in any Britten work. Even the third movement Fugue hardly sounds like one, and generally the writing is markedly less lyrical than most Britten.

The two suites by Paul Patterson are more immediately striking, memorably inspired by poisonous spiders and bugs. The Spiders suite commands attention with its sharply rhythmic writing, leading to an atmospheric movement on the Black Widow and a brilliant finale on the Tarantula, prompting a piece that is nearly but not quite a tarantella with jazzy cross-rhythms.

Isang Yun’s In Balance is the most disappointing item on the disc, hardly sustaining its length of over 11 minutes. That is a pity when Yun’s life was so eventful, involving his being kidnapped by agents of the South Korean Security Services because of his political activities. Takemitsu’s Stanza II for harp and tape is an evocative fantasy typical of his music, though it is hard to identify from the recording what difference the tape makes. The recording is clear and immediate, though a whole disc of solo harp music is best heard in instalments rather than in one listening.