Atvars Lakstīgala and the Liepāja SO follow up their excellent account of Pēteris Vasks’s Second Symphony from 1998 99 (Odradek, A/15) with this no less convincing rendering of its successor. Completed in 2005 and commissioned by the Tampere Philharmonic (which went on to record it under John Storgårds), it’s an urgently communicative, judiciously scored and readily assimilable statement that plays without a break for just under 40 minutes. In my listening notes I jotted down fleeting stylistic parallels with (among others) Shostakovich, Górecki, Pärt, Sibelius, Martinů and Hovhaness. At the same time, I don’t want to give the impression that Vasks isn’t his own man; indeed, his inspiration exhibits an arresting emotional candour, consolatory beauty, pantheistic wonder and dramatic instinct that will enjoy strong appeal. Lakstīgala’s lucid conception strikes me as every bit the equal of Storgårds’s in terms of infectious enthusiasm and unrelenting grip, and he secures some absolutely first-rate orchestral playing, too.

It’s preceded here by the Concerto that Vasks wrote for Michael Faust, principal flute of the WDR Symphony Orchestra based in Cologne. Finished in 2008 and revised three years later, it’s another spacious, thoroughly approachable creation, whose sizeable middle movement (labelled Quasi una burlesca) opens with a jagged motif that also appears in the symphony (listen out, too, for the soloist’s ear-pricking vocal contribution during the the lengthy cadenza). If I marginally prefer Dita Krenberga’s account to the dedicatee’s premiere recording with the Sinfonia Finlandia Jyväskylä under Patrick Gallois, it’s largely due to the conspicuously fine support offered by Lakstīgala and his admirable band, to say nothing of the extra richness, depth and detail afforded by Normunds Slava’s expert engineering.

Make no mistake, all admirers of Vasks (who turned 70 last April) should waste no time in hearing this classy Wergo pairing for themselves.