John Pickard’s hour long Fourth Symphony, composed in stages between 1991 and 2003, is scored for brass band. An hour-long symphony for brass band: how is that even performable? Its clever design punctuates the four principal movements, written and premiered separately, by three ‘Windows’ for six percussionists. The whole continuous structure therefore comprises seven movements, although the concluding ‘Men of Stone’ is itself a suite of four movements (inspired by British stone circles), so could be in 10.

‘Wildfire’ – which became the scherzo (placed second) – came first in 1991, followed by ‘Men of Stone’ (1995), the opening ‘Tsunami’ (2001) and slow movement ‘Aurora’ (2002); the linking ‘Windows’ were added in 2003. For all the technical resource evident in knitting these disparate elements so convincingly together – and this is a hugely convincing, gripping symphony – the expressive intent is grippingly achieved, comprising overlapping cycles of the seasons and four elements. Despite its long gestation, the musical style is consistent throughout, recognisably the Pickard of the orchestral symphonies and string quartets, although there are fleeting reminiscences of the brass-writing of Simpson and McCabe, even Bernstein at one stage in ‘Wildfire’.

Eden (2005) also has an ecological frame of reference, at least partly from the Eden project in Cornwall (though primarily from Paradise Lost), although its ‘message’ is less positivist than in the Gaia Symphony, and hard-won at that. Written as a test piece for the National Brass Band Championships, it is a brilliantly virtuoso three-in-one design, broadly slow-fast-slow. The Norwegian championship-winning Eikander-Bjørsvik Musikklag is simply stunning. Sensational sound from BIS.