Kaija Saariaho (b1952) has come a fair way since the works that established her reputation in the mid-1980s, where the presence of electronics facilitated an opening-up of instrumental texture that made her so distinctive a figure. The late 1990s brought changing priorities, and this disc illustrates those changes and her underlying consistency of idiom over two decades.

Graal Théâtre (1994) is the climax of her initial phase. Here the violin’s soloistic role ensures an oppositional momentum over its half-hour span: the first movement moves from recitative gestures to an expressive ‘quest’ that intensifies after withdrawing to near-silence, whereas its successor defines this conflict more graphically and its climactic cadenza brings a transition back to the mood of the opening. Medieval imagery is more explicit in Vers toi qui es si loin, a recent arrangement of the final aria from her opera L’amour de loin (2000) whose notion of a journey – whether spiritual or physical – finds fulfilment in music alive with timbral nuance.

Neiges (1998) recalls Saariaho’s earlier abstraction, the textural density and finesse of these five études abetted by the increase from eight to 12 cellos in this transcription. Yet it is Circle Map (2012) that leaves the greatest impression. Its six sections are inspired by the poet Rumi, whose ‘voice’ emerges dematerialised as an electronic component embedded in the orchestral fabric; a synthesis at its most visceral in the layered rhythmic activity of the third section or harmonic amplitude of the fifth, before a close whose remoteness borders on the intangible.

Performances could scarcely be bettered. Peter Herresthal finds greater expressive variety in Graal Théâtre than Gidon Kremer (the only other account with full orchestra), with Clément Mao-Takacs making more of those emotional contrasts in Circle Map than Susanna Mälkki. The Oslo Philharmonic evince all the clarity and fastidiousness this music requires, heard to advantage in an opulent yet well defined acoustic. Disc and booklet are presented in BIS’s current Ekopak format, which looks as stylish as the music contained within is compelling.