The saxophone repertoire has expanded considerably over recent decades, though the soprano instrument still tends to be overlooked owing to intonational concerns. Not that these are an issue in the present recital, which Sue McKenzie dispatches with faultless technical control.

Caliban (2014) has Sally Beamish pivoting her characterisation between the aggressive and ruminative, while James MacMillan’s After the Tryst (1988) sounds hardly less soulful than in its original violin guise; the pithy miniatures of Judith Weir’s Sketches from a Bagpiper’s Album (1984) find soprano sax deftly recreating the B flat clarinet timbre, whereas Michael Nyman’s Miserere Paraphrase (1989), again conceived for violin, draws upon the sax’s full compass in music of plangent immediacy. Alasdair Nicolson’s Slow Airs and March (1994) alternates between those two archetypes such that the slowly evolving airs and lively though expressively unchanging march ultimately merge into the sombre and fatalistic denouement.

Swapping soprano for alto sax, Joe Duddell’s Fracture (1999) intertwines contrasted melodic ideas in an engaging polyrhythmic workout, then Ian Wilson’s Drive (1992) is a modest yet resourceful statement by one who has now expanded the instrument’s repertoire considerably. More substantial is Mein blaues Klavier (2006), Cecilia McDowell taking the poem by Else Lasker-Schüler as inspiration for a forceful study with a plaintive lament as it core. Contrast is provided by Shaping the Curve (1990), Nyman’s streamlined brand of minimalism here to the fore; after which Graham Fitkin’s Bob (1996) provides a poised and poetic rounding-off.

A fine demonstration of the soprano sax’s potential, in which not the least pleasure is Ingrid Sawers’s astute and sensitive accompaniment. Vividly though never airlessly recorded, with detailed notes from Tim Rutherford-Johnson, this is an enjoyable and ear-opening showcase.