Although he has achieved considerable success through his large-scale works, James MacMillan often seems more focused when writing on a smaller or more restricted scale. This disc gathers a number of such pieces from over a quarter-century: violin and piano combining in the eloquent Kiss on Wood (1994), followed by the quixotic interplay of After the Tryst (1988) and then the increasingly troubled ecstasy of A Different World (1995). Its centrepiece comes with Fourteen Little Pictures (1997) – inherently abstract evocations unfolding continuously, during which the piano trio formation is deployed in a number of imaginative and increasingly impassioned contexts. After which, the three pieces for solo piano might risk seeming anti-climactic, though the piquant ‘aria and reel’ that is Walfrid (2008) feels the more affecting for its brevity, while 25th May 1967 (2002) recalls Celtic’s European Cup win with uninhibited verve. The earlier of the two In angustiis pieces (both 2001) commemorates 9/11 in austerely speculative terms, on which the solo violin arrangement of its successor elaborates so that the underlying mood, while remaining subdued, takes on a more acute melancholy.

Most of these pieces have been recorded – notably the main work on a disc of the composer’s chamber music, and those for violin and piano on a wide-ranging recital by Madeleine Mitchell and Andrew Ball – but having them collated enhances their contrasts and similarities, as well as pointing up the diversity within their overall idiom. Committed performances and immediate sound reinforce that, for MacMillan, less really can be more.