This is a terrific disc. It is a little over 10 years since the death of Nicholas Maw (1935-2009), one of the most gifted post-war British composers. His posthumous reputation rests, probably, on his early masterpiece – and breakthrough work – Scenes and Arias (1962, rev 1966), and on Odyssey (1973 87), memorably recorded by Simon Rattle and claimed to be the longest unbroken span of orchestral music ever performed.

The three works, all recorded for the first time, are presented in chronological sequence and date from either side of Odyssey’s completion. Indeed, the exuberant concert-opener Spring Music (1982, rev 1983 84) sounds like its smaller cousin, sharing the mightier work’s manner of expression but not thematic material – or searchingly inward quality. As with Odyssey, the cellos are crucial in stating the key melodic material, and this section of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales open out the music to ravishing effect.

Voices of Memory (1995) is one of the hidden gems in Maw’s output, a variation set written to celebrate the tercentenary of Purcell’s death. The sheer brilliance of the compositional ingenuity (on a theme from his own Life Studies rather than Purcell) and acuity of orchestration should place it in every British orchestra’s repertoire, as this coruscating performance under William Boughton trumpets loud and clear. It is matched by a most unlikely successor, the Sonata for solo violin (1996 97), written for and premiered by Jorja Fleezanis in Minnesota. Harriet Mackenzie has the measure of the music, which nods towards Baroque models but is never pastiche, fleet and finger-perfect in the swift scherzo ‘March-Burlesque’ and final ‘Flight’, intense in the opening ‘Scena’ but most moving in the longest movement, ‘Tombeau’, dedicated to the memory of his friend, Jacob Druckman. Wonderful.