Following on from the symphonies (2/19, 4/20), the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra continues its Lutosławski survey with three characteristic pieces that find the composer at different stages of his evolution into a key figure of Western music from the post-war era.

Lutosławski may have distanced himself from it in later years, but the Concerto for Orchestra (1954) is not merely the climax of his earlier phase but a compromise between individuality and accessibility such as few composers today could hope to equal. Nicholas Collon secures a cohesive reading – at its best in those lengthy build-ups of the Intrada and Passacaglia, but just a little desultory in the Capriccio or Toccata, where more incisiveness is needed, though the cumulative emergence of the Chorale into a resplendent apotheosis does not lack panache.

The highlight is Partita (1984), here without its continuation in Chain 2 or their connective Interlude, but fine as a stand-alone work whose outer movements secure playing of coursing virtuosity from Christian Tetzlaff and with the central Largo affecting in its sustained pathos. Collon accompanies ably and is no less inside Novelette (1979), its sequence of preparatory and main movements having served Lutosławski well the previous two decades, with tension and release in its ‘Conclusion’ anticipating the much grander process of the Third Symphony.

Excellent playing from the FRSO and unexceptionally fine sound make these latter performances the equal of any predecessor (a pity that Edward Gardner’s survey ended a couple of releases short of completion). Hopefully the series will continue under Collon, with a volume of the four mature vocal works an especially attractive proposition.